The Dean's December

Albert Corde, dean of a Chicago college, is unprepared for the violent response to his expose of city corruption. Accused of betraying his city, as well as being a racist, he journeys to Bucharest, where his mother-in-law lies dying, only to find corruption rife in the Communist capital. Switching back and forth between the two cities, The Dean's December represents Bellow's "most spirited resistance to the forces of our time" (Malcolm Bradbury).

Robert Tower

''The Dean's December'' is heavily thematic - and talky. But the themes are fully grounded in the book's matrix of idea and event and language. And the talk is excellent. Despite my distrust of didacticism and my yearnings for a stronger line of action, I found the novel continuously interesting in its play of ideas (even when cranky) and moving in its fervor. And Bellow's style - the play of language, the ''spin'' that he puts upon words - has never been more arresting. -- New York Times

A literary giant, Saul Bellow loomed large over writers attempting the Great American Novel, since many would argue that he has already achieved this feat at least once over. He was considered a foremost chronicler of the Jewish-American post-war experience, but the "human understanding and subtle analysis of contemporary culture that are combined in his work" are what won him the Nobel, and helped him transcend cultural and national borders.