SOMETHING TO REMEMBER ME BY By Saul Bellow (Secker & Warburg, $238) ARE mere mortals allowed to question the works of Nobel literature prize winners? It's a matter any reviewer should contemplate with trepidation. I do so in the case of Saul Bellow because he has the generosity of spirit and modesty to question his own works.
In the foreword to this collection of three short stories Mr Bellow tells readers how he used to write ''fat books''.
''It's difficult for me now to read those early novels,'' he writes, ''not because they lack interest but because I find myself editing them, slimming down sentences and cutting whole paragraphs.'' Mr Bellow approvingly quotes Chekhov as saying: ''Odd, I have now a mania for shortness. Whatever I read - my own or other people's works - it all seems to me not short enough.'' The American writer shares these sentiments and urges the reader to contemplate the virtues of brevity. Yet Mr Bellow's reputation is largely built on fat books such as Herzog , Humboldt's Gift and Dangling Man . He is supposed to have a tremendous understanding of human nature which is said to permeate these works.
Personally, I find Mr Bellow to be rather confusing although I am often caught up with the characters who march through the pages of his work.
I therefore approached Something to Remember Me By with eager anticipation, hoping that the confusion of the longer works would disappear in the brevity of these short stories. In the story which gives the name to the collection, Mr Bellow succeeds beyond reasonable expectation.
However, in the already published story entitled Theft , he seems to be back to his old tricks dealing with the tangled emotions of lovers who have married other partners, younger lovers who are not understood by the female side of the older relationshipand a rather impersonal onlooker, named Laura Wong, who hovers in and out of the story.