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Trevor: I read Dangling Man ages ago when I seemed to be in a similar situation to Saul's Bellow's at the point when he wrote the early novel, i.e. waiting to be drafted into the American army but longing for other options as I dangled.

Your version of the book shows an introduction but J.M. Coetzee, which is interesting as both had a connection with the Univ. of Chicago. I hope that you have found time for other works by Mr. Bellow & think that you'd enjoy Herzog, if you haven't already read it. Bill

I remember starting Herzog, but not finishing for some reason, but it was a lifetime ago. This would have been written shortly before I gave up on film altogether. I’ve only recently started watching them again. Thanks Bill. I will try to make time for Herzog again

Trevor, I’m not sure why you would say American filmmakers are incapable of making films for adults. While I agree Hollywood churns out a lot of crap (and it’s only gotten worse), we have had tremendous American filmmakers. Here are just a handful ( I do notice a few are European�� ha!) that have inspired, consoled, or educated me in some way:

American Hustle Christian Bale
I’m Not There Actors play Bob Dylan
Blue Jasmine Cate Blanchett Bobby Carnevale Andrew Dice Clay�� woody Allen
Fracture Ryan Gosling Anthony Hopkins
A Single Man Director Tom Ford, Colin Firth, Julianna Moore
End of the Affair Julianna Moore Ralph Fienes
Sense of an Ending �� novel by Julian Barnes Jim Broadbent
Little Miss Sunshine Steve Carrell,
Cassandra’s Dream by woody Allen Ian (Ewan McGregor), Terry (Colin Farrell)
Sideways Wine tasting in central California
Savages Philip Seymour Hoffman
Indignation ...... by Phillip Roth Logan Lerman
Talented Mr Ripley Jude Law Phillip Seymour Hoffman Gweneth Paltrow
Carol Cate Blanchett Roony Mara
Squid and the Whale, Cafe Society, Greenberg Jesse Eisenberg
My Policeman Harry Styles
2 Lovers Joaquin Phoenix, Gwenth Paltrow

Btw, I agree with you on Bellow�� I just couldn’t get through his books, found them tedious and uninspiring. Never finished one to have that epiphany you spoke of.

I'm totally unfair when it comes to US films. I understand. But I've been burnt so many times, I just can't take the risk. Two hours ends up feeling like days and for weeks after I just get upset about how shit the experience was.

I've read Sense of an Ending and love Barnes, there will be a review here somewhere by me of the book - so, I probably wouldn't see the film for that reason alone. I recently saw the new version of White Noise - a book I loved - and it was DiLillo meets National Lampoon - just kill me. Utter, utter shit. And I brought my girlfriend to see it after raving and raving about the book - it was complete humiliation linked to 2 hours of agony by boredom.

The only film on the list you have provided that I've seen is Blue Jasmine. I have never seen a Cate Blanchett film I have liked. I know, I know, she's Australian and I have a patriotic duty or something - but I find her over-acting just endlessly annoying. I sort of thought of Blue Jasmine as 'A Street Car Without Desire' - and it pretty much sums up my criticism of American film. Here is this fantastic play, and yet someone decided to wrap it in cotton wool and emasculated it and made it into something mindlessly twee. How is it possible that 2013 could be made even more 'Victorian' than 1947? The film wasn't so much sex with a condom, but rather a condom without sex.

I have been so disappointed by so many American films - dating back to Kramer Vs Kramer, I guess - that it is just easier to believe the nation is incapable of making film and should just give up trying.

I get it, this is a totally unfair criticism - but when the only film in the list you provide I've seen is one that confirms my thesis - well, what can I say?

You wrote “…but the scene in the coffee shop where he screams at the communist for selling out the movement is still burnt into my soul…��

I don’t think we read the same book. Joseph tells his friend Myron that Jim (the communist in the coffee shop) would not recognize him because he (Joseph) quit the party ten years earlier and so, in eyes of the party and its adherents, Joseph became a nonperson, someone who could safely be discounted. Joseph tells Myron that Jim is following the party’s dictates by his (Jim’s) treatment of Joseph. So, far from selling out the “movement,�� Joseph is screaming at him for blindly following (and practicing) the movement’s totalitarian dictates. In other words, Saul Bellow was condemning the communist party.

Oh, it is so long ago since I read this - but I'm nearly certain you are right, that he was condemning the communist party - still a highly affecting scene since the narrator had once been a believer too, I think, from memory - of which I have now only the vaguest fragments. As you can see from my review, I reviewed this in 2007 quite a few years after actually reading it.

Sorry to have upset you. Hope you get over it soon.

I wouldn’t worry; it happens to all of us. As I approach my ninth decade, I’ve been forced to acknowledge some of these lapses myself.