And yet, from the next world, he wipes the unfortunate Citrine and gives him a gift that can melt him as an inheritance. For the sake of principle, it is not necessary to say what kind of gift this is, but it is important to justify the name of the “unfortunate” Citrine. Success may have consumed his work, but he is involved in various situations beyond his control. His ex-wife decides to take over all his possessions, his finances go from bad to worse, while the short-tempered mobster Cantabile crashes his expensive Mercedes and becomes his shadow. First threatening him and then wanting to be his agent. Meanwhile, Citrine loses another woman in a plane crash and ends up having an affair with the young and very attractive Renata, who ends up leaving him for a wealthy undertaker.

From Chicago, which is his base, to New York, where he finds Humboldt, and from there to Europe, Citrine does nothing but travel through his body and mind. The loud paradox is that he spends most of his time lying down, away from the noise of the crowd, thus wanting to connect with the world of ideas. His whole obsession with apathy and withdrawal into the world of non-material reality is reminiscent of Proust. Citrine is a figure who keenly experiences the impending end, the agony of the afterlife, the ravages of old age, and the various setbacks of his life in a debilitatingly intellectual way.

It is clear that some of Bellow’s main concerns run throughout the novel: a sense of destiny that is never far from the abyss, and a light of talent or inspiration that fades gradually to the point of complete withdrawal, which is a sign of death. Even in the few light parts of the book, the word is surrounded by darkness.

The voice of the novel is a multitude of voices put together. Literary legend has it that Bellow began with the intention of writing just one short story about Citrine’s relationship with Humboldt, and then pieced together several different texts, making the puzzle look out of place. And not because everything is united by the author’s style, reminiscent of the mood of a playful wave. Sometimes he plunges you into philosophical analysis, and sometimes he seduces you with his caustic humor and irony (especially in those places where he shoots directly at the general state of mind of the United States). The novel was fortunate enough to be translated into Greek by a very good translation by Margarita Zachariadou. The edition also includes an extremely interesting epimeter by Geoffrey Eugenides.