lament

•

On The Bookshelf

vUER TIIE STARS
IT rttE:

VEIV

Between Friends

"Ravelstein," Saul Bellows controversial new
novel about his former colleague,
is a journey through love and memory.

SAN DEE B RAWARS KY
Special to the Jewish News

e-aII
telmasteri

i e c<e

2 824*1 66t
-,; V,-• •
• •
ww :tickOtmaste MG
n or

Coming next co-sponsored by

'svi?

VOL"

June 16th - "Motown Legends" The Four Tops, Al Green & The Temptations

Tickets also available at the Freedom Hill Box Office M-F 12-5 pm

■ 11 MN WWI ■ M MEI 1=111

MIN III

-

810-979-7010

MIME MEM MEM MEM UMW NMI MEM

COUPON

mm

FAMILY ITALIAN DINING & PIZZA
RATED ;1 BY THE ONES WHO COUNT OUR CUSTOMERS"
4033 W. 12 MILE, 3 Blks. E. of Greenfield, Berkley
548-3650

—

I
I
I

• NO SEPARATE CHECKS
• 1 COUPON PER TABLE • ONLY ONE COUPON PER PURCHASE
JN
• EXPIRES 12-31-2000

I

DINING ROOM, CARRY-OUT

I a'.'..

i

• COUPON NOT VALID WITH DAILY SPECIALS

1050:0(
srom.

NMI EMI =III MIIII MOM NMI IMIIIII MINI MIMI OMNI 1=IIIII MIN 111

B

elli is

Now Featuring Sunday Brunch

F r om 11 am - 3pm

Auburn Hills Location Only

•

I

I

■ 11 ■ IIII MIMI IIIMI MINI NMI MIMI . NI= II=1

of Auburn Hills

Reservations Suggested

248-373-4440

88

I
I
I

DAILY LUNCH & DINNER SPECIALS
ROUND PIZZA
SQUARE PIZZA
PIZZA - RIBS - FISH
HOMEMADE GARLIC BREAD SMALL OR LARGE SMALL - MED - LARGE
ON FOOD PURCHASES
OF $6 OR MORE

I

5/26
2000

l

or Abe Ravelstein, "fitness
was not his cup of tea. He
treated his body like a vehi-
cle — a motorbike that he
raced at top speed along the rim of the
Grand Canyon."
In all -ways the eponymous
Professor Ravelstein of Saul Bellow's
new novel is larger than life: He's tall,
overweight, with enormous appetites
for beautiful things, for food, drink
and cigarettes, luxuries of all kinds, for
clever conversation and for gossip, for
ideas. "There was nothing of the aver-
age in Ravelstein's life. He did not
accept dullness and boredom."
Like a large prince, he held court,
regaling the admiring friends and stu-
dents he carefully selected with his
stories and his wisdom. "Because he
loved to talk, to think while talking,
to lean backward while the bath of
ideas overflowed — he instructed,
examined, debated, put down errors,
celebrated first principles, mixing his

Greek with a running translation and
stammering madly, laughing as he
embroidered his expositions with
Jewish jokes."
Ravelstein (Viking, $24.95) is a
novel of passionate friendship and
loss. Chick, an elderly writer who is
the book's narrator, presents a memoir
of his late best friend, Abe Ravelstein,
a brilliant professor of political philos-
ophy in Chicago.
Here, Bellow's borders betweefi fic-
tion and life are transparent: The book
is said to portray the relationship of
Bellow with the professor, critic and
best-selling author who died in 1992,
Allan Bloom. Bellow, who fathered his
fourth child last December and will
turn 85 in June, and Bloom taught
together at the University of Chicago
and were close friends for many years.
Bloom wasn't particularly well
known until the publication of his
1987 book, The Closing of the
American Mind, a project suggested by
Bellow in which Bloom rails against
cultural permissiveness. In the novel,
Ravelstein becomes quite wealthy after
the success of his book,
the idea for which was
suggested by Chick, and
finally Ravelstein is able
to afford his lifestyle.
Aware that he is
dying, Ravelstein asks his
friend to write his biogra-
phy after his death;
Bloom was said to have
asked the same of Bellow.
Even before the book
was published, people
aware of the subject criti-
cized Bellow for betray-
ing Bloom and robbing
him of his privacy. He
suggests in the novel that
Bloom is a homosexual
and that he may have
died from AIDS (which
was not mentioned in
news reports of-Bloom's
death).
In an interview with
the New York Times,
Bellow expressed sorrow
for having exposed