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Mr. Sammler’s Planet Audiobook
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(3.01) - 1,394 listener ratings
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Publisher Description
Mr. Artur Sammler is, above all, a man who has lasted, from the civilized pleasures of English life in the 1920s and 30s through the war and death camps in Poland. Moving now through the chaotic and dangerous streets of New York’s Upper West Side, Mr. Sammler is attentive to everything, and appalled by nothing. He brings the same dispassionate curiosity to the activities of a black pickpocket on an uptown bus, the details of his niece Angela’s sex life, and his daughter’s lunacy as he does to the extraordinary theories of one Dr. V. Govinda Lal on the use we are to make of the moon now that we have reached it.
Beneath this novel’s comedy, sadness, shocking action, and superb character-drawing there runs a strain of speculation, both daring and serene, on the future of life on this planet—Mr. Sammler’s planet—and any other planets for which we may be destined.
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"Typically perplexing Bellow fare. His neurotic conduit here is Artur Sammler, an aging Holocaust survivor living in New York City. Mr. Sammler is wise, acute, and painfully observant of the twisted humanity that surrounds him in the great city. Plot-wise the story is typically thin; a black effete pickpocket flashes Mr. Sammler, a close friend is slowly dying in the hospital, and he has to deal with recovering a professor's manuscript about H.G. Wells that his daughter had stolen for his sake. However, the book is intensely internal and neurotic. The overall theme of the book is of society spoiling our planet, and the whistful desire to shoot from a rocket somewhere else in the galaxy, clean and untouched, and begin again. Bellow writes prose that is oftentimes turgid and almost unreadable, but there are of course moments here and there of astounding beauty. Sammler's final conversation with Professor Dal in particular, where Sammler is finally able to articulate his thoughts, is equal parts dense, dogmatic, and absolutely shimmering. Read it for yourself, but prepare yourself for a challenging trip."
— Scott (4 out of 5 stars)
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“An enduring testament and prophecy.”
— Chicago Sun-Times -
“The most important writer in English in the second half of the twentieth century…Bellow’s oeuvre is both timeless and ruthlessly contemporary.”
— Sunday Times (London) -
“What better narrator to handle Bellow’s complex characters, ideas, and luscious layering of words than AudioFile Golden Voice George Guidall?…Guidall portrays the septuagenarian Sammler as an observer of the human condition…Sammler’s encounter with a pickpocket, his anxiety about his daughter, his other familial concerns—Guidall recounts them all. But it’s Bellow’s language that resonates in his expert performance. Winner of the AudioFile Earphones Award.”
— AudioFile
Awards
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Winner of an AudioFile Earphones Award
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Winner of the 1971 National Book Award for Fiction
Mr. Sammler’s Planet Listener Reviews
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" A compelling book. I could relate to the way Mr. Sammler looks inside from outside very well. "
— Bakul, 2/16/2014 -
" Given that it won a Nobel prize for literature, I'm sure there's something redeeming about this book, but I couldn't see past the sexist and racist elements to find it. "
— Catherine, 2/7/2014 -
" This book just didn't coalesce very well for me. It's populated (over populated?) with characters that never form a very coherent whole. A let down compared to Herzog. "
— Herzog, 2/5/2014 -
" This is a classic. How Bellow can tell such compelling stories with so little dialogue, over such a short period of time and hold the reader is amazing. This is one of the best. "
— Dave, 2/4/2014 -
" The first 150 pp pretty head-y and hard to get into, but that made the last 150 pp really good. "
— Brooke, 1/24/2014 -
" wisdom of the curmudgeon. i love. "
— Anewman, 1/18/2014 -
" for bookclub. I enjoyed it much more after our discussion, otherwise it was an ok holocaust survivor book interspersed w/ pointless philosophical essays that went in apparently meaningless circles. "
— Kathyred, 12/29/2013 -
" I was into depressing or "literary" books for a while in 1971. Not sure I would like them today. "
— Karen, 11/14/2013 -
" A dense intellectual discourse more then a novel. Very thin on plot. Probably could use a re read or two in the future as it's difficult to catch everything in one reading. "
— Arlo, 9/11/2013 -
" I read this for a literature class while studying abroad in Israel. I had a lot of trouble with the dense style and the plot, if I recall, was some what bizarre. "
— Shawn, 7/30/2013 -
" One of Bellow's best. Up with "Herzog" and "Augie March". "
— Eric, 3/27/2013 -
" my favorite book right now "
— Julia, 9/8/2012 -
" I really liked this. I had an edition with no pictures on the cover. It was a hardback. I think it was green. Green was the best edition. "
— Zach, 2/11/2012 -
" read in college modern fiction class. entertaining enough "
— Tom, 1/30/2012 -
" Depressing but interesting. A close look into the difficulties of the Jewish immigrant after the First World War. Sorry, canot carry on with this review as as Ebay.fr window keeps popping up and making typing difficult "
— Julia, 11/8/2011 -
" Thoroughly enjoyed Bellows' third NBA-winning (1971) novel, though it was as challenging as all of his work. I've read maybe six of his novels now, but I still say that "Henderson" is his best. "
— Brian, 3/12/2011 -
" At times I found this a little tiring, especially towards the beginning, but as it went on I began to love it. "
— Jim, 1/27/2011 -
" I was into depressing or "literary" books for a while in 1971. Not sure I would like them today. "
— Karen, 12/20/2010 -
" read in college modern fiction class. entertaining enough "
— Tom, 12/6/2010 -
" a winding reflection on life and portrait of new york city at the end of the 1960s. i will have to go back and reread this in more than 5 minute stretches during my commute. "
— will, 10/10/2010 -
" A compelling book. I could relate to the way Mr. Sammler looks inside from outside very well. "
— Bakul, 9/3/2010 -
" I really liked this. I had an edition with no pictures on the cover. It was a hardback. I think it was green. Green was the best edition. "
— Zach, 4/17/2010 -
" Artur Sammler, sobrevivente do holocausto, cego de um olho, está rodeado por loucura e excentricidade. Resta-lhe reflectir sobre o mundo, a sua evolução e observar a chegada do homem à Lua. Qual será o nosso destino? "
— Reginacm, 1/26/2010 -
" for bookclub. I enjoyed it much more after our discussion, otherwise it was an ok holocaust survivor book interspersed w/ pointless philosophical essays that went in apparently meaningless circles. "
— Kathyred, 1/12/2010 -
" This is a classic. How Bellow can tell such compelling stories with so little dialogue, over such a short period of time and hold the reader is amazing. This is one of the best. "
— Dave, 11/10/2009 -
" I read this book for my American Lit. Class. It's a little too cerebral to be call "pleasure reading." "
— Michael, 7/23/2009
About Saul Bellow
Saul Bellow (1915–2005), author of numerous novels, novellas, and stories, was the only novelist to receive three National Book Awards. He also received the Pulitzer Prize, the Nobel Prize in Literature, the National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, and the American Academy of Arts and Letters Gold Medal for Fiction. During the 1967 Arab-Israeli conflict, Bellow served as a war correspondent for Newsday. He taught at New York University, Princeton, and the University of Minnesota and was chairman of the Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago.
About George Guidall
George Guidall, winner of more than eighty AudioFile Earphones Awards, has won three of the prestigious Audie Award for Excellence in Audiobook Narration. In 2014 the Audio Publishers Association presented him with the Special Achievement Award for lifetime achievement/ During his thirty-year recording career he has recorded over 1,700 audiobooks, won multiple awards, been a mentor to many narrators, and shown by example the potential of fine storytelling. His forty-year acting career includes starring roles on Broadway, an Obie Award for best performance off Broadway, and frequent television appearances.