A Century After His Birth Saul Bellow's Prose Still Sparkles

"Saul Bellow, one of the 20th century's great writers, was born 100 years ago next month. The publishing world is marking the anniversary with a flurry of books — a Library of America edition of Bellow's fiction, a hefty tome of collected nonfiction, and a big new biography."

"Another way to remember the author, of course, is to go back to the original books. His best-known work is probably Humboldt's Gift,the Pulitzer Prize-winning 1975 novel based on his own friendship with poet Delmore Schwartz."

"In one scene, the narrator and the poet drive through the Holland Tunnel:

The car went snoring and squealing through the tunnel and came out in bright sunlight. Tall stacks, a filth artillery, fired silently into the Sunday sky with beautiful bursts of smoke. The acid smell of gas refineries went into your lungs like a spur. The rushes were brown as onion soup."