Great ( )

The two-dimensionality of Clara somehow made this the longest novella I have ever read. ( )

Not Bellow's best. An awkward thing, not quite sure if it's a short story or a novel or a novella, sparse in some areas and a bit too much in others. It's not bad, just uncertain. Still good in points. ( )

The cover of my edition depicts a woman's hand tossing a book out of a building. Little did I know just how prophetic this could have been. If I were to have applied the Perl rule, this novella surely would have been tossed.
The story centers around country girl made New York executive, Clara Velde. She's had four husbands, three children and a lover she feels is her soulmate and the man she should have married. Her lover gave her a splended emerald ring which she holds dear. The ring is her connection to this man through the years and spouses which passed their lives. The ring disappears twice, perhaps this creates some sort of epiphany for Clara, it's hard to say.
This book was my first foray into Bellow and perhaps I was expecting too much, perhaps the bar was too high and maybe, just maybe, it was too highbrow for me for surely there is a message in this book. Why else would have it been written. But to tell you the truth the story left me exasperated and too ambivelent to even try to figue it out. I'm just happy to be done with it. The characters left me cold, the dialog was often confusing and it all seemed pointless ( )

I enjoyed this little novella. It felt in some ways like a follow-on to one of my favorite short stories, "I Stand Here Ironing" by Tillie Olsen. Clara Velde is middle-aged, a transplant from Indiana who has forged a life as a fashion magazine executive in New York. Her sex life has petered out, if you will excuse the pun, and been channeled into her work, her children, and her deep friendship with her smart but quirky former lover. The ring's power changes throughout the story as it comes to symbolize all of the different ways she has succeeded in life. ( )