Passionate, insightful, often funny, and exhibiting a linguistic richness few writers have equaled, the novels of Saul Bellow are among the defining achievements of postwar American literature. The Library of America volume Novels 1956–1964 opens with Seize the Day, a tightly wrought novella that, unfolding over the course of a single devastating day, explores the desperate predicament of the failed actor and salesman Tommy Wilhelm. The austere psychological portraiture of Seize the Day is followed by an altogether different book, Henderson the Rain King, the ebullient tale of the irresistible eccentric Eugene Henderson, best characterized by his primal mantra “I want! I want!” Beneath the novel’s comic surface lies an affecting parable of one man’s quest to know himself and come to terms with morality; like Don Quixote, Henderson is, as Bellow later described him, “an absurd seeker of high qualities.” Henderson’s irrepressible vitality is matched by that of Moses Herzog, the eponymous hero of Bellow’s best-selling 1964 novel. His wife having abandoned him for his best friend, Herzog is on the verge of mental collapse and has embarked on a furious letter-writing campaign as an outlet for his all-consuming rage. Bellow’s bravura performance in Herzog launched a new phase of his career, as literary acclaim was now joined by a receptive mass audience in America. LIBRARY OF AMERICA is an independent nonprofit cultural organization founded in 1979 to preserve our nation’s literary heritage by publishing, and keeping permanently in print, America’s best and most significant writing. The Library of America series includes more than 300 volumes to date, authoritative editions that average 1,000 pages in length, feature cloth covers, sewn bindings, and ribbon markers, and are printed on premium acid-free paper that will last for centuries.

In this debut novel we meet Roy Belkin, a reclusive man, Internet troll, and neurotic ritualist who must begin each day with the task he calls The Service: visiting Christian chatrooms to reply to users innocent questions with mocking answers. At forty-seven and balding, with mild agoraphobia, Belkin is a man without direction. He rarely leaves his apartment (he refers to the outside world as The Pounding), and when he must leave, he meticulously recounts the day in his Thunder Book, a journal where he lists all that repulsed him that day. But everything changes the day Belkin returns to his apartment to find the building ablaze, and learns about the suspected murder of the apartment building's maintenance man. As police question him, Belkin meets the mysterious Pernice Balfour, the alluring, religiously obsessed neighbor accused of the crime. And soon, Belkin has no choice but to come out of his shell (and his apartment) to try to clear her name. But the more that Belkin investigates, the less clear things become. Wandering through San Francisco's seedyTenderloin district, Belkin begins to unravel the truth behind the murder, and along the way, he encounters a bizarre series of characters and situations, including a "pansexual" crime-scene photographer, an idiot detective, and an all-knowing government operative --

More than thirty-five years ago, Gordon Meyers had a low number in the draft pick so he packed his belongings and reluctantly left Glenna Rising, a med student without whom he could't imagine living. Now, decades later, Gordon is a former globe-trotting consultant with a grown son and an ex-wife an overwhelming desire to see Glenna again. Glenna is astonished when Gordon walks into her Manhattan office, but agrees to accompany him for a drink. Together they rediscover the passion that drew them together before it tore them apart. As the evening progresses, Gordon will finally reveal the true reason for his return.

Grove Press continues the reissue of Bruce Jay Friedman's critically acclaimed fiction with The Current Climate by the comedic genius whose work Nelson Algren hailed as "more interesting than most of Malamud, Roth, and Bellow ...[and] more important." The Current Climate continues the hilarious misadventures of the screenwriter from Friedman's novel About Harry Towns. Harry is now twenty years older and living in New York, a frustrated playwright struggling to sell a TV series to make some quick cash-and paralyzed by the decision of whether or not he should get tickets to see Cats.