Patrick Skene Catling
Bellow: A Biography by James Atlas (Faber, £25), seems as complete, candid and justly balanced as if it had been published after Saul Bellow's death. It is possible to imag- ine Bellow reading it with pleasure. The book is no hagiography but is warmly appreciative and the warts (multiple infi- delities, name-dropping didacticism) are depicted without malice. He deserved all his prizes. Immediately after turning page 686, I reread Herzog with enhanced enjoy- ment, fitting facts to the fictional version of the great man's passionate neuroses. Negrophilia: Avant-Garde Paris and Black Culture in the 1920s by Petrine Archer- Straw (Thames & Hudson, £14.95), is a readable doctoral thesis, with many well- chosen contemporary illustrations, which demonstrates that interracial relations are not quite as bad they were when Africanici- ty was a hot novelty. I strongly recommend John Banville's new novel, Eclipse (Picador, £15.99), simply because it is beautifully written.
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