In Song

Get in solid walls with the know-it-alls / Get in trouble with Saul Bellow runs the chorus - in fact almost the entire lyric - of Sufjan Stevens's melancholy banjo-driven (and there's a mean recorder in there as well) take on the great man. There can't be that many songs name-checking Jewish-American Nobel Prize-winners for Literature but, then, there aren't too many singer-songwriters attempting the in equal parts mighty and mad project of producing albums of songs dedicated to all the states of the union - one album per state! Saul Bellow was recorded for the brilliant Come On Feel The Illinoise but didn't even make it onto the album, only being released afterwards on The Avalanche, the album of 'outtakes and extras' that followed. I've just listened to the track in celebratory mood, having also just finished Herzog (liked the ending, by the way) and I'm tempted to say something flippant like Sufjan gets more humanity into his three minute sketch than Bellow does in his whole novel. This sounds clever but happens not to be true or even close to the truth. (In fact, I have no idea what Sufjan's song is actually 'about', though it sounds great.)

So I'll simply say that at this point in time I can't find it within me to make any enthusiastic kind of recommendation for Mr Bellow's work and I'm not in a desperate hurry to read Mr Sammler's Planet again, the other of his novels I have sitting on my bookshelves in KL. However, every right-thinking fan of singer-songwriters and lover of fine music generally should ensure he (or, for that matter, she) listens to Mr Stevens's recent albums, starting with his Illinoise masterpiece. Essential listening for banjo-lovers everywhere.