Seize the Day
Seize the Day is Bellow is a bite-sized chunk; not much more than a novella; a story set in a single day you could read in a single sitting. When I first read it, many years ago, 42-year-old unemployed salesman Tommy Wilhelm must have seemed like an ancient mariner. Now I see him as man who should be in his prime, tragically moored by circumstances largely of his own making. His father is a doctor and a success, but also a man lacking any compassion for his two children (and one imagines, formerly for his deceased wife). Maybe Wilhelm thought hard work was for suckers, because he fell for flattery, dropped out of college and moved to Hollywood, thinking show business could be his career. His handsomeness was one thing; an unusual speech impediment is another. At some point he falls into line, marries and becomes a salesman, until he feels an injustice has been done to him by the company and takes his bat and ball home. An obvious comparisons is to Miller's Death of a Salesman ,