Humboldt's Gift
What is the author's style in Humboldt's Gift by Saul Bellow?
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Saul Bellow is not simply a master of the English language; he is also a magician. In a single paragraph he can weave a tear-inducing image of a boy on the verge of death in a Chicago Tuberculosis sanatorium, surround the child with tenderness and love even in this cruelest of settings, and conclude the scene with irony and Jewish wit as the lad contemplates his mortality. All words, it seems, have many meanings to Saul Bellow and he sprinkles his work with subtle puns and double entrendre. His humorous use of the language ranges from slapstick to obscure, and he often buries his most profound nuggets in the napve observations of common and seemingly insignificant characters.