On the back of my book, Edwin Wilson, The New Yorker, says of Dangling Man, "One of the most honest pieces of testimony of the psychology of a whole generation who have grown up during the Depression and the war." But the psychology of Joseph's dangling seems to me very familiar to the type of isolation and dangling that can happen today especially in that aestheticized academic way or thought through within theoretical frameworks. I was surprised by how moving I found parts of this book. Some how its emotional qualities sort of snuck up on me so that I was surprised to find myself tearing up(Jan 5, p63;Jan 11,p76; Jan 26, p86...) or unable to read a page out of horror for what one knows is going to happen(Dec. 26 p46-49). I found that the relationship between Jospeh and Iva to be incredibly murky and ugly at times and at others absolutely clear and quite beautiful; I think it was this balance that made their romance incredibly touching to me. It seemed highly(brutally?) real. The fact that Joseph lives on the south side of Chicago seemingly quite near where I used to live around UChicago seemed to double the emotional quality of the scenes that take place outside his apartment in Chicago. I knew all the streets. From the book, it was clear some had changed. Because it is written in diary format, it seemed to make me recall and invest my own memories and feelings about moments that happened in the same streets or on the same trains in which Joseph finds himself. So a good Chicago read. Get the edition with the Coetzee intro if you can. Read it at the end. Interesting. Not quite a full 5 but not 4, maybe 4.5.

Dangling is when you are waiting for the US government to call you to service in WWII, but through mistakes and bad timing, it just doesn’t happen. And being a good citizen, you give up your job since you feel you could be gone any day and don’t want to prevent some other poor bloke from making money. You can live off your wife. And now, what to do with that free time with the threat of sudden soldierhood constantly looming…. Think a lot, walk around, drink coffee in different places, more philosophizing. Nowadays we would call this early retirement (well, there are situational similarities), or retrenching. In the 40s, in this case, it’s a situation worthy of a book. The book was OK, made better by the excellent descriptions of the era and wartime Chicago, made worse by the overwrought angst-iness, if that’s a word. “Enlist already” was at the top of my thoughts through about half the book. Bonus points for having a scene occur 4 blocks from where I used to live.

"...Já não sou senhor de mim; sinto-me grato por isso. Estou entregue noutras mãos, liberto da autodeterminação, cancelada a liberdade.

Huŕra pelo horário estipulado!
E pela supervisão do espírito!
Viva a arregimentação!"

THE END

خاطرات مردی که در انتظار اعزام به خدمت ارتش بیکار است و دچار ملال شده!

Bello Devo rileggerlo

3.5/5. First Saul Bellow book I've read. His journal entries while waiting to be drafted, dangling between the mundaneness of his life and the excitement of war. War, which he sees as just another incident, having succumbed to the ennui and weariness of life and unable to do anything with his freedom. Definitely makes you wanna read more of his works after this.

Omul suspendat-Saul Bellow

✍️"Lujin-Crimă şi pedeapsă:Viaţa e grea. Vae victis! Cei învinşi n-au decât să sufere."

Războiul a luat suflete, a distrus vieți, atât a celor ce au participat la el, cât și a unora ce așteptau să ia parte la el.

Joseph, dorindu-și să se înroleze în armată (cu ocazia barierde-al Doilea Război Mondial) își dă demisia de la locul de muncă până să i se aprobe înrolarea.... și constată că are o perioadă de 7 luni de când nu muncește pentru că nu a primit ordinul, întâmpinând anumite dificultăti.
Așteptarea înrolării l-a demoralizat, se observă starea deprimantă în care se află, lipsa vitalității, sedentarismul, incapacitatea de concentrare ( cititul este o pasiune pentru el, dar nu mai reușește să se concentreze, citeste același fragment de mai multe ori și degeaba).
Starea de nervozitate, cheful de ceartă s-a observat odată cu întâlnirea lui cu Jim Burns, dar totodată i-a afectat si relatia pe care o avea cu Myron (cel cu care trebuia sa discute despre o eventuală slujbă, dar cum să recomande un recalcitrant?).
Întâlnirea de Crăciun cu fratele lui, Amos, nu a fost fără incidente, simtindu-se jignit de insistentele fratelui său de a-i da haine, bani, ajungând să se răzbune pe nepoata lui, pe Etta, tragandu-i o mamă de bătaie.

✍️În această încăpere, separat, alienat, neîncrezător, nu găsesc în ţelul meu o lume deschisă, ci o închisoare ferecată, lipsită de speranţă.

Și față de sotia sa, Iva, comportamentul i s-a schimbat, și față de el însuși... aflând aventura lui cu Kitty mi s-a schimbat si mie parerea despre el, avea 5 ani de căsnicie...

It’s crazy that this book was written by a 30 year old and not a 24 year old. Maybe I would have been more impressed if I had read it a few weeks ago before the string from which I dangled was snipped.

"no virtue could be considered greater than that of trying to preserve oneself."

For such a short book, this one is NOT light.
A story about Joseph, rebel and a little disillusioned with life. He spends his time doing pretty idle things.

But from there it's a little crazy. It's dense and a lot of inner ramblings and he struggles to explain to everyone and even himself, why he is so against work schedule and a planned day.

but I can't say I enjoyed it. The living arrangement (and the guy who never closed his bathroom door?) was confusing because I wasn't sure how much common space they shared.

although I did find the last few chapters interesting and even chuckled at the end.

For a while I thought I was a Bartleby. But I am actually a Joseph. I would prefer to. Give me a task and I will do it! he is so me fr .. except my version of trying to get drafted is trying to go to grad school.

This is what being unemployed does to the human mind lol,, and it’s also a great x-ray of american society — we say we value freedom, but true freedom is scary and insanity-inducing and will soon have us grasping at the nearest structure for support.

There is nothing scarier than the prospect of being completely accountable for our own lives.

“Long live regimentation!” i guess.

Reason read: Reading 1001 TBR takedown, January 2024. Dangling Man was written by Saul Bellow in 1944 and takes the form of a diary. the story centers on the life of an unemployed young man named Joseph, his relationships with his wife and friends, and his frustrations with living in Chicago and waiting to be drafted. This is the author's debut novel and is not his best by a long shot. I do think that a man who is not working and has no motivation is probably a miserable man and this man is miserable and is set on making everyone around him miserable even the reader of the book. Little plot otherwise. I rate it 2 stars.

Favorite quote = “Great pressure is brought to bear to make us undervalue ourselves. On the other hand, civilization teaches that each of us is an inestimable prize. There are, then, these two preparations: one for life and the other for death. Therefore we value and are ashamed to value ourselves. We are hard boiled. We are schooled in quietness and, if one of us takes his measure occasionally, he does so coolly, as if he were examining his fingernails, not his soul, frowning at the imperfections he finds as one would at a chip or a bit of dirt. “

From my “1001 Books to Read Before You Die” (Edited by Peter Boxall) reading list.