Three years after the first volume’s publication comes the second part of Zachary Leader’s sweeping biography of one of the most admired – and one of the most complicated – novelists in American history. As the book begins, Saul Bellow (1915-2005) is riding high on the success of his critical and commercial smash Herzog. While that peak was followed by many more literary high points—from his Pulitzer Prize winning Humboldt’s Gift to his final work, Ravelstein, published at age eighty-five—Bellow’s personal life took a rocky descent, as his mid-century notions of race and sex came up against the radically changing mores of his artistic set. And yet under Leader’s crystal-clear eye—honed from a lifetime of renowned work, including his Pulitzer-nominated biography of Kingsley Amis—Bellow’s redeeming qualities still sparkle amidst the copious flaws.