In Bellow's novella, Tommy Wilhelm unleashes all the self-loathing and regret you can stand. He's a recently unemployed (nearly unemployable) middle-aged man who's separated from his wife and children and currently fixed under the critical gaze of his snobby father. We find him on a loose regimen of uppers and downers and at wits' end, dwelling on his mistakes and the disapproval and disappointment given from within and from his wife and his father.
All his life, Wilhelm impulsively grabbed at the first and closest opportunity--kind words from a talent agent grew into a misguided quest for movie stardom; a kind girl was taken for a wife and mother of his children; and now a market tip from a stranger offers his last hope to avoid bankruptcy. These mistakes, we are to learn, follow from his immaturity, his aversion to responsibility and effort.
Even though he's now trapped under a crush of self-reflection, I like to think it was in part the lack thereof that got him here. And besides that, he's doomed to unhappiness because he's fixated on getting happiness though approval--approval sought through financial gain, mostly. This was a good read, and I very much like the ending in which, finding himself amid a swell of people on the street, his choking anxiety suddenly gives way to a rush of emotion. Beautifully written, that.
