To escape the European horror, Mr Sammler was obliged to crawl from his own grave, and to kill. He is assured by Dr Lal that a perfect society is attainable, on the moon. Meanwhile on Mr Sammler's planet, so recognizably our own, there seems little chance of attaining it.
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To escape the European horror, Mr Sammler was obliged to crawl from his own grave, and to kill. He is assured by Dr Lal that a perfect society is attainable, on the moon. Meanwhile on Mr Sammler's planet, so recognizably our own, there seems little chance of attaining it.
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In Saul Bellow's National Book Award winning novel, "Mr Sammler's Planet", Artur Sammler, a 74-year old Holcaust survivor, is a devoted reader of the medieval German mystical philosopher, Meister Eckhart, Sammler's love of Eckhart immediately established a bond with me. We are both Jewish, of the same age, and devoted students of the Meister. As the novel opens, Sammler travels every day from his west side New York City apartment to the 42 Street Library where he reads Eckart's Latin works. Late in the novel, Sammler remembers how, returning from a trip to Israel, he was in his accustomed place in the library reading the following passage from the Meister.
"Blessed are the poor in spirit. Poor is he who has nothing. He who is poor in spirit is receptive of all spirit. Now God is the Spirit of spirits. The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, and peace. See to it that you are stripped of all creatures, of all consolation from creatures. For certainly as long as creatures comfort and are able to comfort you, you will never find true comfort. But if nothing can comfort you save God, truly God will console you." (209)
Sammler observes that he does not literally believe what he reads. Still, after a lifetime of voracious reading, Sammler finds that he does not find the need to read anything else beyond Eckart.
Eckart and his teachings of spirit and detachment form only one point of departure for Bellow's rich, philosophical novel which considers the relationship between detachment and spirituality and human connection in the person of Artur Sammler. The novel is set over a three day period in 1969 in New York City with many flashbacks to Sammler's earlier life as a Jewish-Polish emigre in London, where is was a friend of H.G Wells, and then to his wartime life in the Holocaust where his wife and many others were murdered before his eyes and he literally faced death from both the Nazis and the Poles.
The book includes extensive dialog and the reader hears the voice of Sammler together with the voices of many others. However the novel is written in the third person through an omniscient narrator who seems to understand all his characters' inward thoughts and whose voice often blends with theirs, particularly Sammler's. The third person narration allows the reader to distance from and to reflect upon the voice and thoughts of Sammler.
The novel is set against the backdrop of what was once termed the sexual revolution and also against the rise of the student protest movement and the New Left. Technological advance and the landing on the moon also form important parts of Sammler's reflections in the novel, as do the crime-ridden, violent streets of New York City. Sammler reflects on his surroundings in interior monologues, but more so in conversations with others. Bellow introduces many of Sammler's relatives and acquaintances. Sammler's relationships and responses to them shape the book, which is a mix of interiority and action. Here follows some of the primary characters in the story.
Sammler had been rescued from a displaced persons camp in 1947 by his nephew, Gruner, a successful physician and investor, who has largely financially supported Sammler throughout his life in America. Gruner has two adult children, a daughter who is sexually promiscuous and a son who is intellectually gifted but a drifter perpetually on the make. Sammler is uncomfortable with the lifestyles of both Gruner's children.
Gruner had also rescued Sammler's daughter Shula, known as Shula-Slawa who had in her turn been rescued by nuns and lived in a convent during her teenage years where she absorbed Catholicism in addition to her Jewish birth religion. Shula-Slawa has been in an abusive marriage in Israel. Sammler rescues her yet again and brings her back to New York City. She steals a manuscript from an Indian biophysicist, a theft which leads eventually to a lengthy and important philosophical discussion between the scientist and Sammler.
Sammler lives with his widowed, lonely niece in a west side apartment. In the course of his bus trips from the library, Sammler observes an African American pickpocket. The pickpocket, noticing Sammler's attentions, follows Sammler home, leading to a pivotal scene and confrontation.
Sammler lost an eye in the Holocaust. This partial blindness is a crucial metaphor in the novel as it encourages the reader and Sammler himself to reflect on the possible limitations of Sammler's opinions and perspectives on what he sees. As the book progresses over its three-day course, Sammler seems to move from his internalized, isolated critical perspective on himself, American society and his family and acquaintances to a less critical perspective recognizing the importance of human bonds and commonalities. With all the emphasis he places on God and on detachment, as indicated in the quote earlier in this review, Eckhart's mysticism also recognizes the importance of life in the world. Sammler comes to deepen, in my view, rather than to reject, his understanding of Eckhart's spirituality and to appreciate the importance of human loyalty and to fulfilling what he calls the "terms of his contract".
Bellow's novel provoked conflicting responses upon its publication, and it continues to do so. The novel has been subjected to a great deal of scholarly, critical attention, as is appropriate for its intellectual and human depth and for its themes. The book is not light reading. "Mr Sammler's Planet" will bear repeated reflection. Readers will have different views about Sammler and about whether they agree with his various positions about the America of his day and our own. The book encouraged me to reflect, as only great literature can do, upon my own "contract" and my own thoughts and my engagement with life.
