Seize the Day (Penguin Classics)

I have struggled with procrastination and self-defeating behaviors. Joyce's words have given me the strength, courage, confidence, restoration of my identity as a daughter of Christ...to go out and take hold of the amazing Life God has planned for me...and seize this day. This book is sure to be a blessing to all who purchase this.

Saul Bellow is one of my favorite authors. His characters are usually middle-aged men who are full of angst and uncertainty and possibly self-loathing. Most readers will be able to relate to the characters in the novel in some way. The main character's life consists of one bad mistake after another, culminating in the events that transpire in this novel. It is a novel about relationships and life's decisions (good and bad), and is based in NYC. It is a great read! If you like this novel, try The Victim, also by Saul Bellow. It is equally as good!

Celebrate Every Day With Joy

When the day has worn your down, it seems like there is nothing but darkness in the tunnel, and your heart hurts from the pain you must never give up because God never gives up on you. He has a divine vision for your life and Joyce Meyer helps you see the hope that each day brings one page at a time.

Through her thoughts, highlighted text, and bible passages you are guided to accept that you are perfect even though you error or make less than perfect decisions. Each chapter is written in a concise format that wraps up with a summary to help you review what was discussed but also to give the reader pause and make sure you fully understood what was discussed. In our rush to absorb the material you may have missed an important statement or reference that a summary reminds you a reread is never a bad idea.

Each chapter filled me with hope and inspired me to remember that the plans I have made are not the one God may have for me and while mine are good, His are perfect. What drew me in the most is the chapter about showing patience, kindness, and love to others but also to yourself. We are our own worst critic and now is the time to be your own best friend and cheerleader simply by listening to the words God speaks to you every day.

Each book written by Joyce Meyer provides enlightenment, hope, and joy for which I am very appreciative.

I received a free copy of this book through Goodreads First Reads in exchange for a fair review.
An impressive speaker and a remarkable person who supports so many worthwhile charities, Joyce Meyer does a good job of coming up with lessons applicable to everyday life such as forgiveness, time-management, prioritizing, fulfilling one’s life purpose, and more, but the book tells you what to do without describing how to it. (The author says at the beginning of the book that if you want to learn how, there are books for that but this is not one of them.) Since the tone of the book is advice-giving and lecturing, reading a couple of chapters a day seems to be the best way to read it instead of in one sitting. Because she is not a Bible scholar, her reporting of what is in or not in Bible and her interpretation can be open to discussion, but her lessons and suggestions are practical and applicable to day to day living. If you take Bible literally, you will enjoy this book, and if you don’t, some parts of the book like the end where the word “secular” and “reasoning” are considered being less than desirable, and the scientific knowledge and believing in God exclude each other.

I highly recommend Seize the Day by Joyce Meyer. The book would be great for anyone however I think it's even more impactful to those of us that are starting to realize our days may be numbered and anyone who just wants to make the most out of their life and anyone who has woken up and wondered where did the last month go or where did the last year go. If you want to live intentional and on purpose then this is a great book to not only talk about it in theory but give you practical steps. At the end of each chapter she summarizes the chapter which I think is an excellent way to go back and review it to start making good daily habits. As with most Joyce Meyer books, this one is packed full of scripture that supports her message. I'm reading the book on my iPad and I've highlighted a ton of passages. I also think having it in paperback could be very helpful so you could write in it.
Joyce makes a great point at the beginning of the book because she is suggesting a lot of things that we can ‘do’ so she clarifies that Christianity is not works based. She has a great summary in the last chapter: " live your life on purpose for a purpose, and with Gods help, use the free will God has given you to choose His will. As you do so it will honor Him greatly and you will enjoy a satisfying reward." I have written a more indepth blog post to share my highlights and take aways from each chapter.

This guide follows the book so well - which is somewhat rare. A lot of the Study Guides somewhat goes off on there own tangents. The book is amazing, as you would expect , from this author. The subject is just what is needed in this world right now. We are reminded that GOD, from the beginning of the fall, that as people we have "free will" She uses Ecclesiastes to bring about her point in each chapter. This book is communicating to the Christians new and those who have been Christians for a while, which is rare - usually books like these are geared to one or the other. She examines our right to make choices in our lives, and how these choices effect our lives. Ms. Meyers has a hit on her hand, but she usually does. I received a copy of this book to read in exchange for an honest review.

"You can spend the entire second half of your life recovering from the mistakes of the first half." So laments Tommy Wilhelm in this tightly-focused character study of a New York City Jew longing for a fresh start but unable to find his way there. Tommy's 'mistakes' are the result of bad luck and poor circumstances as much as his own shortcomings, and his anguished struggle for a life of dignity is as sharply relevant in the Great Recession as it was 60 years ago. Anyone who has felt the panic of a career evaporating under them or the sting of having to ask a loved one for a loan will recognize this day in the life of the unfortunate Mr. Wilhelm, and author Saul Bellow pulls no punches in painting his character's despair. But it's the hint of grace he provides that truly makes this novel shine.

Before purchasing any book I read the reviews. Usually I look at the worst reviews first which I did in the case for this book. I couldn't make sense of the negative 1 star comments until finally I discovered that people were actually leaving the reviews for a book written by Saul Bellows under this title written by Joyce Meyer! Most of the one star reviews in fact fall into this scenario and several of the other reviews left throughout the varies "star" categories also are for a different book by a different author. I have read parts of the hardback edition of this book and the only reason I did not buy it was the price. I was at a bookstore and it was priced at $9.99. I had my tablet with me and the electronic version at the store and Barnes and Noble is priced at $5.99. Just wanted to leave this comment for others that are contemplating buying Joyce Meyer's Seize The Day and are reviewing the comment section to be aware that the majority of the poor ratings are not for this book.

A deeply-drawn, disturbing portrait of a loser, a person who could be, or could have been, you or anyone else. Making the wrong choice, listening to the wrong person---do it a few times and you wind up broke and alone, your heart bleeding for you know it could have been different. A disappointing wind blows round your door---do you even have a door you can call your own? Bellow shows his mastery in this short novel, which might be called a long short story. It takes place on a single day, a few characters interact in a hotel and brokerage office in New York City, but the portrait of Tommy Wilhelm is one of genius. He has let everybody down---his father, his wife, and himself. He repeatedly finds himself suckered, cheated. Wilhelm has changed with the times, rejected all difficult paths, but found that "easy paths" lead nowhere. He has failed at everything, but he isn't stupid, he is not criminal. Bellow describes his every movement, each thought, each regret so perfectly that at the end you feel that you've read a great tragedy, but kings and princes, there are none. There ARE some great characters that pass across the stage of Bellow's imagination. Mournful at the same time as banal, dealing with great issues and trivia---if you ever thought you were a writer, read this short masterpiece and despair! But read it.

This book is amazing, as you would expect from this author. The subject is just what is needed in this world right now. We are reminded that GOD, from the beginning of the fall, that as people we have "free will" She uses Ecclesiastes to bring about her point in each chapter. This book is communicating to the Christians new and those who have been Christians for a while, which is rare - usually books like these are geared to one or the other. She examines our right to make choices in our lives, and how these choices effect our lives. Ms. Meyers has a hit on her hand, but she usually does. I received a copy of this book to read in exchange for an honest review.

As a novelist whose work certainly mirrors his personal life, Saul Bellow's 1956 novella Seize the Day certainly depicts what apparently was the worst time in the author's early life.

In 1956, Bellow waited 8 months in Reno while his divorce was finalizing. During that time this work was finished. This book focuses upon one bad day for a washed-up actor, washed-out salesman protagonist named Tommy Wilhelm whose ignorance or bad luck make for one really bad day.

Unlike the overly worked and extremely detailed depressing events of other famous one-day novels - Ulysses or the sop melodrama ending of life day in Under the Volcano - the details are crisply portrayed in this piece. Like Ulysses or Under the Volcano, this fictional account of a man's day in a man's life can be deemed depressing by the vast majority of its readers - maybe even a unanimous crowd of readers would agree to the depressing aspects of this and the other two novels.

Although the Beatles told us "Money can't buy me love", Tommy would like a little of it. Pay some to the ex-spouse so as to make her less belligerent in hounding him for more money for she and "her boys." If he had made a little more, he may have earned a little more respect from the person most people want to receive praise or respect from: their parent(s). At one time, realizing his affluent and very successful father's objectionable impression of his failed son is about money, he blurts to his father, ". .. You hate me. And if I had money you wouldn't. By God, you have to admit it. The money makes the difference. Then we would be a fine father and son.. . " To which his father replies, "I can't give you any money. There would be no end to it if I started . . . I want nobody on my back. Get off!"

That may have been one of the less painful discussions between the two as they were at least direct and honest with one another. Something which many other passages lack.

This author, I believe, delivers novels from the heart. When times are better, happier pieces like The Adventures of Augie March emerge. When they are sadder, you receive works like this or Herzog (. March is styled more like fellow Chicagoan - Theodore Dreiser. This work and Herzog are more like John O'Hara, John Updike or Richard Ford. Choose to your liking

Tommy Wilhelm, the protagonist of SEIZE THE DAY, has many problems. He is a mid-career salesman who is out of a job and desperate for money. The demands of his estranged and icy wife, in combination with his own guilt, are close to crushing him. And, the people he can turn to in his time of need have their own agendas. These are Dr. Adler, his aloof and elderly father who wants no part of his son's confusion; and Dr. Tamkin, a money-short beguiler whose crazy presence and conversation occasionally pops with insight.

In most of SEIZE THE DAY, Bellow illuminates Tommy's difficult situation with playful philosophical humor ("Maybe the making of mistakes expressed the very purpose of his life and the essence of his being.") and great characters. Here, for example, is Tommy considering Dr. Tamkin, who presents himself as a psychologist, deep-thinker, and commodities expert: "So many questions impossible to answer could not be asked about an honest man. Nor perhaps about a sane man. Was Tamkin a lunatic, then? That sick Mr. Perls at breakfast had said that there was no easy way to tell the sane from the mad..."

Then, in the final few pages, Tommy's impression of Tamkin clarifies and he has confrontations with his father and wife. And, the pain held at bay with the humor ("You can spend the entire second half of you life recovering from the mistakes of the first half.") emerges. The novella ends with a great scene, profound and affecting, that exposes the needy Tommy.

Bellow has amazing touch in SEIZE THE DAY and is able to examine serious issues and real characters with humor and warmth. At the same time, Bellow has a wonderful break-all-the-rules style. Many paragraphs, for example, begin with omniscient narration, jump to first-person, and then back to third, whatever suits him. And, Bellow writes to capture energy, insight, and humor, which sometimes exist only because he writes in fragments or his sentences don't parse perfectly. His style demonstrates that grammar, and a fear of mistakes, can be the enemies of expression.

Highly recommended.

I really enjoyed this audiobook--the narrator was excellent and the audio recording was the perfect length to keep me company on a cross country flight. The storyline, about a middle-aged sad sack type of guy whose life is imploding, is timeless. For some reason, this book reminded me of The Moviegoer by Walter Percy: a story where nothing of great note happens, but a lot of soul searching and angst is on tap.

I had never read (or listened to) a work by Saul Bellow before and I was really captivated by how well his words made the characters in this book come to life. He didn't rely on the device of creating likeable characters in order to get the reader interested in them, but I was rooting for them anyhow.

The American Dream is such an awesome, vast, teeming notion that promises so much and forgets those who are broken on its huge wheel. Tommy Wilhelm is one such man, a salesman in mid life who has lost his job, left his family and now festers in limbo, worrying, fretting with his burden in a hotel room. Everywhere he turns, he is scorned. By the mysterious Tamkin, a wild and shifty charismatic character who insists a fortune can be made easily be made by closely watching certain patterns: 'You think the Wall Street guys are so smart - geniuses? That's because most of us are psychologically afraid to think about the details.' He is, of course, a conman, who deceives Wilhelm out of the last of his money, but Wilhelm is too gullible to see this.

Then there is his father, Dr Adler - a proud, dying, stern man who treats his son with wretched contempt when he is forced to ask for money, unfeelingly, his father emasculates Tommy's condition in phrases that cut deep in their scathing: 'You cry about being helped,' he said. 'When you thought you had to go into the service I sent a check to Margret every month. As a family man you could have had an exemption. But no? The war couldn't be fought without you and you had to get yourself drafted and be an office boy in the Pacific theater. Any clerk could have done what you did. You could find nothing better to become than a GI.' Ouch.

All of this combines in a memorable scene towards the end of the novella, after Tommy has been humiliated by his ex wife, who holds him to his payments towards their children which he cannot afford and his father, boling with rage, rejects him entirely: 'Go away from me now. It's torture for me to look at you, you slob!'. Tommy goes out into the street: 'And the great, great crowd, the inexhaustible current of millions of every race and kind pouring out, pressing round, of ever age, of every genius, possessors of every human secret, antique and future, in every face the refinement of one particular motive or essence - I labor, I spend, I strive, I design, I love, I cling, I uphold, I give way, I envy, I long, I scorn, I die, I hide, I want.'

Despite all the circumstances, the slings and arrows Tommy has suffered, he retains the essential human essence, the grappling with existence that Bellow stared into deeply in his work. There is something of the defiance, the glorifying human passage of Augie March, that remains, even in the most desperate, desperate circumstances.

I recently finished reading Martin Amis's EXPERIENCE: A MEMOIR in which he cites Saul Bellow as a literary father figure (moreso, it seems, than his own author father Kingsley Amis). This made me want to read something by Bellow and since SEIZE THE DAY is a short novel (114 pages) from his peak period I chose to read this book first. Cynthia Ozick's introductory essay was not a very helpful introduction to the book. She quotes heavily from the novel, which is a bit of a spoiler. Perhaps it would have been better to read her essay after reading the novel.

First published in 1956, the novel is about a middle-aged man in New York City who is separated from his wife (and sons) and living in a residential hotel, the Gloriana, the same hotel where his father keeps a separate apartment. I appreciated this book as a portrait of a middle-aged, middle class white male in mid-twentieth century America. One feels both sympathy for and frustration with the main character, Tommy Wilhelm. He's intelligent and well-meaning, but also weak and easily swayed by others' opinion of him and what he needs to do to become a "success." A failed Hollywood actor, he seems startled to learn, like Willie Loman, that personal attractiveness is not always enough to ensure success. His disappointment in himself is echoed by his own father, Dr. Adler, who is unwilling to give him words of encouragement (or the much-needed financial aid his son seeks). But his birth father is not the only father figure in his life to betray or disappoint him. There was also Maurice Venice, the sleazy agent who encouraged Wilhelm to drop out of college to pursue a career in pictures. And then, in the present day of the story (the entire novel unfolds in a single day like the much longer ULYSSES) there is Dr. Tamkin, a dubiously credentialed psychiatrist, who lures Wilhelm to invest in lard in the Chicago commodities market, precipitating the primary crisis of the novel. Against this tortured backdrop is the story of Wilhelm's own efforts to remain a visible and active part in his own sons' lives while trying to initiate a divorce from their mother. While some readers may perceive the depiction of the "blood-sucking" Margaret as misogynistic, Bellow's depiction of this failed relationship seems authentic, especially for the era he was writing about. Fathers' rights were few and women, even separated and divorced women, were expected to stay at home and take care of their children. And in the end, SEIZE THE DAY is a novel without either untarnished heroes or blameless victims. Even disappointing father figures can speak profound truths, as Dr. Tamkin does when he tells Wilhelm, "Don't marry suffering. Some people do. They get married to it, and sleep and eat together, just as husband and wife. If they go with joy they think it's adultery." In SEIZE THE DAY Bellow has given us a powerful meditation on what it means to pursue the soul's deepest desires and to mourn the many deaths and losses even the most optimistic among us is bound to encounter living out the life they've been given.

I really enjoyed this audiobook--the narrator was excellent and the audio recording was the perfect length to keep me company on a cross country flight. The storyline, about a middle-aged sad sack type of guy whose life is imploding, is timeless. For some reason, this book reminded me of The Moviegoer by Walter Percy: a story where nothing of great note happens, but a lot of soul searching and angst is on tap.

I had never read (or listened to) a work by Saul Bellow before and I was really captivated by how well his words made the characters in this book come to life. He didn't rely on the device of creating likeable characters in order to get the reader interested in them, but I was rooting for them anyhow.

The American Dream is such an awesome, vast, teeming notion that promises so much and forgets those who are broken on its huge wheel. Tommy Wilhelm is one such man, a salesman in mid life who has lost his job, left his family and now festers in limbo, worrying, fretting with his burden in a hotel room. Everywhere he turns, he is scorned. By the mysterious Tamkin, a wild and shifty charismatic character who insists a fortune can be made easily be made by closely watching certain patterns: 'You think the Wall Street guys are so smart - geniuses? That's because most of us are psychologically afraid to think about the details.' He is, of course, a conman, who deceives Wilhelm out of the last of his money, but Wilhelm is too gullible to see this.

Then there is his father, Dr Adler - a proud, dying, stern man who treats his son with wretched contempt when he is forced to ask for money, unfeelingly, his father emasculates Tommy's condition in phrases that cut deep in their scathing: 'You cry about being helped,' he said. 'When you thought you had to go into the service I sent a check to Margret every month. As a family man you could have had an exemption. But no? The war couldn't be fought without you and you had to get yourself drafted and be an office boy in the Pacific theater. Any clerk could have done what you did. You could find nothing better to become than a GI.' Ouch.

All of this combines in a memorable scene towards the end of the novella, after Tommy has been humiliated by his ex wife, who holds him to his payments towards their children which he cannot afford and his father, boling with rage, rejects him entirely: 'Go away from me now. It's torture for me to look at you, you slob!'. Tommy goes out into the street: 'And the great, great crowd, the inexhaustible current of millions of every race and kind pouring out, pressing round, of ever age, of every genius, possessors of every human secret, antique and future, in every face the refinement of one particular motive or essence - I labor, I spend, I strive, I design, I love, I cling, I uphold, I give way, I envy, I long, I scorn, I die, I hide, I want.'

Despite all the circumstances, the slings and arrows Tommy has suffered, he retains the essential human essence, the grappling with existence that Bellow stared into deeply in his work. There is something of the defiance, the glorifying human passage of Augie March, that remains, even in the most desperate, desperate circumstances.

I recently finished reading Martin Amis's EXPERIENCE: A MEMOIR in which he cites Saul Bellow as a literary father figure (moreso, it seems, than his own author father Kingsley Amis). This made me want to read something by Bellow and since SEIZE THE DAY is a short novel (114 pages) from his peak period I chose to read this book first. Cynthia Ozick's introductory essay was not a very helpful introduction to the book. She quotes heavily from the novel, which is a bit of a spoiler. Perhaps it would have been better to read her essay after reading the novel.

First published in 1956, the novel is about a middle-aged man in New York City who is separated from his wife (and sons) and living in a residential hotel, the Gloriana, the same hotel where his father keeps a separate apartment. I appreciated this book as a portrait of a middle-aged, middle class white male in mid-twentieth century America. One feels both sympathy for and frustration with the main character, Tommy Wilhelm. He's intelligent and well-meaning, but also weak and easily swayed by others' opinion of him and what he needs to do to become a "success." A failed Hollywood actor, he seems startled to learn, like Willie Loman, that personal attractiveness is not always enough to ensure success. His disappointment in himself is echoed by his own father, Dr. Adler, who is unwilling to give him words of encouragement (or the much-needed financial aid his son seeks). But his birth father is not the only father figure in his life to betray or disappoint him. There was also Maurice Venice, the sleazy agent who encouraged Wilhelm to drop out of college to pursue a career in pictures. And then, in the present day of the story (the entire novel unfolds in a single day like the much longer ULYSSES) there is Dr. Tamkin, a dubiously credentialed psychiatrist, who lures Wilhelm to invest in lard in the Chicago commodities market, precipitating the primary crisis of the novel. Against this tortured backdrop is the story of Wilhelm's own efforts to remain a visible and active part in his own sons' lives while trying to initiate a divorce from their mother. While some readers may perceive the depiction of the "blood-sucking" Margaret as misogynistic, Bellow's depiction of this failed relationship seems authentic, especially for the era he was writing about. Fathers' rights were few and women, even separated and divorced women, were expected to stay at home and take care of their children. And in the end, SEIZE THE DAY is a novel without either untarnished heroes or blameless victims. Even disappointing father figures can speak profound truths, as Dr. Tamkin does when he tells Wilhelm, "Don't marry suffering. Some people do. They get married to it, and sleep and eat together, just as husband and wife. If they go with joy they think it's adultery." In SEIZE THE DAY Bellow has given us a powerful meditation on what it means to pursue the soul's deepest desires and to mourn the many deaths and losses even the most optimistic among us is bound to encounter living out the life they've been given.

In the December 2003 issue of "The Atlantic Monthly", Martin Amis wrote a rave review of Saul Bellow. Among the encomiums:

"Bellow sees more than we see--sees, hears, smells, tastes, touches. Compared with him, the rest of us are only fitfully sentient; and intellectually, too, his sentences simply weigh more than anybody else's. * * * I hereby trumpet the prediction that Saul Bellow will emerge as the supreme American novelist."

I have now read two of Bellow's novels and I confess that I don't understand such extravagant praise by Amis and many others. Despite the prolixity of "The Adventures of Augie March", I ended up enamored with it (though not so much so that it made my personal list of "Top 10 American Novels"). What saved "Augie March" for me, endeared it to me, was its energy, ebullience, enthusiasm. It was life-affirming. I would have thought that a novel with the title "Seize the Day" would also be life-affirming. At the risk of being overly simplistic, the title now strikes me as ironic. And the novel itself, as well-crafted as it is as a literary artifact, was somewhat of a disappointment.

Tommy Wilhelm, age 45, is an irresolute loser. Dissatisfied with college, he succumbed to the blandishments of a phony talent scout to seek his fortune in Hollywood. Dissatisfied with his name, he changed it from Wilhelm Adler to Tommy Wilhelm. Dissatisfied with his marriage, he left his wife and two sons. Dissatisfied with his sales job with the Rojax Corporation, he quit that in a huff. He now is living in the Gloriana Hotel on the Upper West Side, he has invested his last $700 in the commodities market (lard and December rye) at the urging of the glib but shady Dr. Tamkin, his estranged wife is hounding him for money, and he is forced to ask his 80-year-old father to cover his bill at the Gloriana. He is a bitter disappointment to his father, to his wife, and most of all to himself.

The title is voiced by Tamkin, as he tries to cheer up Wilhelm: "The past is no good to us. The future is full of anxiety. Only the present is real--the here-and-now. Seize the day." But Wilhelm is irredeemably weighted down with the past and his history of poor decisions. And Tamkin is a charlatan. Perhaps it had more ironical force in the blithe and un-self-conscious Fifties (it was published in 1956), but today SEIZE THE DAY strikes me as a grim and dreary - and less than great - novel.

Middle-aged Wilhelm las lost his sense of direction. He cannot find the means to support his wife and kids, who he recently walked out on, and is looking for pity and help from everyone that he can.
The premise may not sound that interesting but Bellow does an incredible job of showing how suppressing emotions come back to haunt us. Throughout this book, Wilhelm has several life-changing interactions with the other characters, and comes out a totally different person. These interactions are gracefully executed by Bellow, showing an amazing grasp of differing psyches and how they interact with others.
I don't want to give anything away, but Wilhelm's final confrontations with Tamkin and his father are absolutely amazing. If your interest can be held by an intensely personal journey (as opposed to a plot driven thriller), then this book may be for you. Once you've finished the book, just compare the opening paragraphs with the closing ones and you should get a hint of what you just gained. Doing so may even convince you to give it another go.

Saul Bellow needs little introduction. This slight book, however, is not his most well known. It may be the most accessible, a sip before diving into larger, more daunting works. Despite its brevity, this story of a day in the life of Tommy Wilhelm packs punch.

Bellow is a master stylist. He writes a paragraph as aesthetically pleasing as anyone:

"A long perfect ash formed on the end of the cigar, the white ghost of the leaf with all its veins and its fainter pungency. It was ignored, in its beauty, by the old man. For it was beautiful. Wilhelm he ignored as well."

Three characters are most central to the story: Tommy Wilhelm (formerly Wilhelm Adler), his father (Dr. Adler), and Dr. Tamkin. Other characters are interesting and relevant, but the relationships between Wilhelm and his father and between Wilhelm and Dr. Tamkin are the focus. When the story opens, Wilhelm has no job, an estranged wife who will not give him a divorce, two sons he rarely sees, more debts than he can pay, a strained relationship with his father, and three orders of lard.

The orders of lard are Wilhelm's first foray into the commodities market. Wilhelm knows nothing about the market and so suffers considerable anxiety when the price for lard drops and the choice is between selling at a loss or waiting for a rebound. "The psychologist, Dr. Tamkin, had got him into this." Tamkin and Wilhelm first met at a nightly gin game where Wilhelm "had never won. Not once." Dr. Tamkin proceeded to convince Wilhelm that there was easy money to be gotten on the commodities market. Wilhelm explained that he did not want to get rich, he just wanted "a little steady income". Dr. Tamkin agreed to show him the ropes:

"Sure I will. I do it regularly. I'll bring you my receipts if you like. And do you want to know something? I approve of your attitude very much. You want to avoid catching money fever. This type of activity is filled with hostile feeling and lust. You should see what it does to some of these fellows. They go on the market with murder in their hearts."

Of course, Wilhelm's cold father had, vaguely, warned him from taking Dr. Tamkin's advice, telling Wilky, as he calls the 40-something Wilhelm: "He's interesting to talk to. I don't doubt it. I think he's pretty common but he's a persuasive man. However, I don't know how reliable he may be."

Wilhelm is preoccupied for most of the rest of the novel with precisely the question of how reliable Dr. Tamkin's advice is and with Wilhelm's relationship with his father, Dr. Adler. Dr. Tamkin has Wilhelm's last $700.00, which Wilhelm desperately needs, in those three orders of lard. Dr. Adler apparently does not have much love for Wilhelm. If he does love his son, the love is outweighed by his disappointment in how Wilhelm has turned out. If the commodities speculating does not work out, Wilhelm will have to ask his father for money, but he is not at all sure his father will oblige.

Bellow unfolds these plot lines with always sufficient narrative tension to pull the reader along, but leaving enough room for some excellent prose in service of some lofty ideas. Wilhelm is trying to find his footing in the world as it crashes around him. Bellow, in placing Wilhelm in this situation, raises the question of the place, of even the worth, of an ordinary man who makes mistakes. Wilhelm's musings regarding his life purpose raise one of the more profound questions of the novel:

"Maybe the making of mistakes express the very purpose of his life and the essence of his being here. Maybe he was supposed to make them and suffer from them on this earth. And though he had raised himself above Mr. Perls and his father because they adored money, still they were called to act energetically and this was better than to yell and cray, pray and beg, poke and blunder and go by fits and starts and fall upon the thorns of life. And finally sink beneath that watery floor -- would that be touch luck, or would it be good riddance?"

I cannot speak for Wilhelm, but for readers it would be tough luck if his character ever disappeared. This is an easy read in that the characters are engaging, the prose is excellent, the narrative is interesting, and the pages are few. However, Bellow does demand something of his readers, so attentive readers are particularly rewarded. Bellow's is a writing to be savored rather than gulped. I am sure most palates will find the novel pleasing, some will find it superbly so.

The title of Saul Bellow's masterpiece, "Seize the day", is spoken by a character:

"There is the present moment. The past is no good to us. The future is full of anxiety. Only the present is real - the here-and-now. Seize the day".

The fact that he, who speaks this line, is a mystery in the novel adds a new dimension to what he said. This man is Dr. Tamkin, with whom the protagonist, Tommy Wilhelm, becomes close friends. The man could be a real psychologist, a charlatan or even a delusional person. But, still, his influence on the other is quite strong. He becomes the father figure to Tommy, since he is not n good terms with his real father.

During the course of one day in which the action in the novel takes chance, Tommy will reconsider his life - but still, he may feel too restrained to change it. He lives in a hotel - so does his father, and Dr Tamkin. Trying to get a divorce and out of money, the only love he has is for his too kids who he hadn't see much lately. He felt in love with a girl sometime ago, but she quitted him since he couldn't get a divorce from his wife.

Bellow gets us under Tommy's skin. His failures - as a Hollywood star, as a salesman, but also as a son and a father - is what guides the narrative. The more the protagonist tries to overcome his problems, the more buried in them he is. The only available possibility is to come to terms with - especially with his conscience. Rarely do his actions and decisions seem to marry his desires and wishes.

Published in 1956, this short novel is read in a continuous flow, since its prose is straight and, despite having psychologist as one of the main characters, Bellow never turns to psychological explanations. The characters are seen through their actions and philosophical shades. Dr Tamkin is more a philosopher than a psychologist, if he actually is such. "All creations are his just inheritance. You don't know what you've got within you. A person either creates or he destroys. There is no neutrality..."

If, as Tommy puts it, `a man is only as good as what he loves', what good is he? His love - for his father, wife, kids, girlfriend, friend - is always shared with his fears, anxieties and uncertainties. Is he not a good man? Or maybe, he is just a XX Century man - divided between his desires and his duties.

Carpe Diem Saul Bellow
La historia, no solo de un fracaso, sino de un miedo generalizado al fracaso, por parte de una sociedad que te ve en términos e ganancias y beneficios, no solo para ti, sino para los tuyos y donde ser un fracasado implica ser una carga social para los demás, que no están dispuestos a tolerarte, a hacerse cargo de ti y mucho menos a oírte mientras te quejas de lo mal que te ha tratado la vida y lo injusto que han sido los demás para contigo.
De eso se trata esta historia, que no tiene desperdicios de ningún tipo, pues es corta, solo consta de 154 paginas, es precisa y cuenta el tema sin desvíos, muy frecuentes en la obra de Bellow. Tommy Wilhem es un fracasado de 44 años quien le gusta lamentarse de sus problemas con todo el mundo y es ese lloriqueo el que hace que el personaje nos resulte antipático, torpe y mediocre. En su juventud tomo las decisiones equivocadas, como muchos jóvenes han hecho, pero eso no es motivo para lloriquear por lo que se ha hecho o se ha dejado de hacer. Su problema no es ese, sino de actitud ante la vida. Su miedo a ser un inadaptado lo convierte en eso, en un inadaptado. La cosa de la que huimos a veces esta más cerca mientras más huimos de ella. Solo cuando nos enfrentamos a la vida con valor y con entereza estamos nosotros prestos a vencer nuestros demonios internos y llegar a ser alguien. Pero no se equivoquen en este punto; ser alguien no es ser un acaudalado millonario o un empresario prospero, por mucho que a usted se le quiera convencer de ello. Ser alguien es amarse como uno es, sin reservas y estar contento con lo que la vida y las circunstancias le han dado por el día de hoy, eso es ser alguien y alguien feliz.
Ya lo dice la cita completa del latín: carpe diem minimun crédula postera: Goza del día de hoy sin creer mucho en el mañana.
Luis Méndez.

The main character in Saul Bellow's novel is Tommy Wilhelm. He now lives with his father at the Gloriana Hotel in New York. Everything he has ever undertaken has gone wrong. He never managed to complete his studies. He was dragged to Hollywood by an old friend, Maurice Venice, who promised him a career as a film star with Kaskia Films. But then it turned out that Venice was simply a pimp and Wilhelm ended up by working in a restaurant in California. Later he married Margaret, he had two sons Paulie and Tommy and found a job with a company called Rojax Corporation. When he was dismissed his marriage broke up and Wilhelm's father's wrath reached the point when he refused to give his son a single penny.
When Wilhelm meets psychologist Dr Tamkin, he is drawn into speculation in commodities at one of the branches of a good Wall Street house. Wilhelm clings to the hope that his luck is about to turn - he has given the last of his money to Dr Tamkin. Is Tamkin ripping Wilhelm off or is he offering him one last chance to make it out of his mess?
A moving portrait of a man with sensitive feelings, a soft heart, a brooding nature and a tendency to be confused under the many pressures of life.

Bellow's esteemed novella is a marvel of immanently crafted, modern realism. Situated within the course of a day, Bellow brings us into the life of Tommy Wilhelm, a middle-aged failure who is looked down upon by his father, his ex-wife, and just about everybody else. When he is propositioned with an opportunity by a true snake-oil-salesman to play in the stock market, Tommy's fortunes fall even farther into disrepair. Bellow's prose is beautifully ornamented with a textured sense of detail-and there is genuine pathos to be found here-but I can't help but feel unmoved by the self-conscious sense of the epiphanic structure Bellow imposes. A fine work nevertheless.

Saul Bellow was one of the most prominent, sharp and intelligent exponents of the American literature.

Carpe Diem constitutes a somber portrait around a looser, a man who systematically is incapable to win in any order of his life. Emotionally destroyed, spiritually demolished, financially bluffed, this man has been victim of the rest of the world in all orders. That oppressive anguish of visible creative impotence, product of a total absence of will, has transformed him into a true puppet.

This corrosive gaze still expands far beyond his inner demons and all the environment around him is the extension of his passiveness. A candid looser, a tricked man by his wife, is object of mockery for the rest of his social circle.

This novel was one the most bitter and crude works in the Fifties. It reflects the existential uncertainness of a weak spirited human being, immersed in world that simply does not understand him and besides incapable to feel and to cry with him.

An agonic portrait of a man worthy of the most genuine compassion, and also the a bitter metaphor around a man without emotional center.

Stunning and devastating.

In every life there are days of reckoning, and moments of supreme truth. When those days occur and we look back on everything that has happened in our lives, then what is to be seen and known? In "Seize The Day", Tommy Wilhelm has such a day of reckoning, when everything in his life reaches a turning point of disintegration and despair. Everything seems to fall apart before his eyes, as old wounds from his past are laid completely bare. His deepest wish is for a measure of genuine love and respect, amid the ruins of a life that has never been fully lived. In many ways Tommy Wilhelm's story is the story of all of us, as we search for real meaning each day. Like Tommy Wilhelm we struggle to seize the day, and to find something of value in the ever passing moments of our lives.