something about "Dangling Man" by Saul Bellow

 
Our Dangling Man keeps a journal in which he agonizes over the gaps between his past and present selves. His encounters with people sound largely antagonistic.

The voice of the journal belongs to Joseph, a young man living in Chicago. At this moment in his life, Joseph is unemployed, and 1942 America is at war. Joseph's voice captures truths that are universal (or, at least national), temporal, and personal. Frustration over his compulsion to drill and drill himself for value taint Joseph's reflections. Although determined to unleash these thoughts, Joseph is an unwilling participant in a culture that increasingly casts every self in the lead role.

At the time of his writings, Joseph, Canadian by birth, has been waiting for word on his acceptance into the American army during World War II. He surrenders his personal freedom to end this suffering. He closes his journal with the words,

Hurray for regular hours!
And for the supervision of the spirit!
Long live regimentation!

Notes:
Dangling Man, written in 1944, is Saul Bellow's first published work. I thought Dangling Man had interesting moments, but I did not enjoy reading it.

Something on "Seize the Day" by Saul Bellow

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.