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This essay presents the author's opinions about the novels of Saul Bellow, a renowned novelist. When the author was working in Düsseldorf, West Germany, he read seven novels written by Bellow. These seven novels were: "The Dean's December," "Herzog," "Humboldt's Gift," "Henderson the Rain King," "Mr. Sammler's Planet," "Seize the Day," and "The Adventures of Augie March." What Bellow's novels do, and what the article author thinks fiction at its best does better than any other genre, is to give the reader a chance, otherwise impossible, to imagine herself or himself into someone else's history, diction, ways of thinking, and quirks of personality. No other art form allows the same access to the heart and mind of another.

Introduces a series of article on life narratives which were presented during a conference at the University of Virginia in February 2002.