11. Bellow retells Schwartz/Kramer struggle in ways that make Kramer look bad. In novel he's critic named Magnasco.
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Replying to @HeerJeet
12. Magnasco/Kramer is opportunist "overweight, roundfaced, young in years only, steady, unflappable, born to make progress in cultural NY"
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13. In novel, Magnasco/Kramer is rescued from enraged poet by group of lesbians dressed as longshoremen.
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14. Last fanciful plot point was perhaps Bellow's dig at Kramer's well known homophobia.
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15. As you might imagine, Kramer was not happy by this harsh & negative portrayal (over events where he actually behaved honourably).
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16. In a later survey of Bellow's career, Kramer said Humboldt's Gift was novel where he & other readers lost faith in the novelist.
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17. Kramer didn't elucidate why he didn't like Humboldt's Gift, and stopped caring for Bellow after reading that book.
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18. Now, Saul Bellow and Joseph Epstein were friends in the early 1970s, played racketball together.
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19. But Epstein was also friends with a group of intellectuals who Bellow increasingly mocked in his fiction: Kramer and Edward Shils.
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20. Epstein broke with Bellow in late 1970s & decided to get revenge on novelist with a counter-roman-a-clef.
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21. Epstein's 1990 short story "Another Rare Visit With Noah Danzig" is attack on Bellow's habit of putting his friends in fiction.
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Replying to @HeerJeet
22. That Epstein story can be found here: http://www.commentarymagazine.com/article/another-rare-visit-with-noah-danzig/ …
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