Mr. Artur Sammler, Holocaust survivor, intellectual, and occasional lecturer at Columbia University in 1960s New York City, is a aregistrar of madness,a a refined and civilized being caught among people crazy with the promises of the future (moon landings, endless possibilities). His Cyclopean gaze reflects on the degradations of city life while looking deep into the sufferings of the human soul. aSorry for all and sore at heart,a he observes how greater luxury and leisure have only led to more human suffering. To Mr. Sammlerawho by the end of this ferociously unsentimental novel has found the compassionate consciousness necessary to bridge the gap between himself and his fellow beingsaa good life is one in which a person does what is arequired of him.a To know and to meet the aterms of the contracta was as true a life as one could live. At its heart, this novel is quintessential Bellow: moral, urbane, sublimely humane.