Seize the Day by Saul Bellow is a very interesting novel. As you read more and more into the book, Bellow brings you closer and closer to Tommy Wilhelm. Wilhelm is isolated from everybody and everything, giving this book almost a "day in the life of" sort of feel to it. This book reminds me a lot of Spike Lee's movie The 25th Hour, starring Edward Norton. In the movie, you spend a day in the life of Monty Brogan, played by Norton. Through out the entire movie, Norton, just like Wilhelm, is trying to find himself and to set his life straight, all taking place in one day. Seize the Day by Saul Bellow, and The 25th Hour written by David Benioff and Directed by Spike Lee are very similar to one another not only in context, but also have similar themes and symbolism, as well as a very strong message of finding oneself.
Saul Bellow, Miami Book Fair International, 19
Saul Bellow and Keith Botsford in 1990's, at Bosto...
Me and My family with Tommy JamesSaul Bellow's Seize the Day is all about the failure of a man's life. We are introduced at the beginning of the book to Tommy Wilhelm. He is a man who is in his forties, and has made all of the wrong decisions in his life. We are brought to him on his "day of reckoning", or as I see it, they day when Wilhelm really starts to look for Wilhelm. As we read more into the book, we see how miserable of a life Wilhelm is living. First of all, he is currently living in a hotel, Hotel Gloriana, in the upper west side of New York City. The hotel, as we learn, is primarily made up of elderly people, who for the most part are all retired, and trying to enjoy there last few days, weeks, months and years that they...