The Actual by Saul Bellow is a lyrical novella recounting the decades-long pining of unreadable genius Harry Trellman. Years cannot erode the love he has for his first love, Amy Wustrin, who falls in and out of marriages. After both are brought together by a retired meddling billionaire at the exhumation of Amy’s ex-husband, they leave nothing to be pondered further.
Despite the late-80s-ness of this book’s racial terminology, it’s a beautiful tale about the lingering effects of first love and the isolation of intelligence. The characters are infinitely complex despite the limitations of a hundred pages, and the intimate conversations between characters are breathtaking. Each word is so delicately deliberate that a removed sentence would shake the foundation of the narrative. I highly recommend this book and will pursue more of Saul Bellow’s works and the tiled connection between Amy Wustrin, Jay Wustrin, and Harry Trellman will always live within in me as one of the most effective and seductive employments of imagery and interpersonal character work I have ever read.