Autobiographical Elements
The character of Herzog in many ways echoes a fictionalized Saul Bellow. Similarities between Herzog and Bellow include:
- Both grew up in Canada.
- Both are Jewish.
- Both have parents who had emigrated from Russia (St. Petersburg).
- Both lived in Chicago for significant periods of time.
- Both were divorced twice (at the time of writing; Bellow would go on to divorce four of his five wives.)
- Both were sons of bootlegger fathers.
- They are the same age.
- The character of Valentine Gersbach is based on Jack Ludwig, a long-time friend of Bellow who had an affair with Bellow's second wife, Sondra..
Asked about these similarities, Bellow said "I don't know that that sort of thing is really relevant. I mean, it's a curiosity about reality which is impure, let's put it that way. Let's both be bigger than that."
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