Word: plotting
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Bellow's book is a first-class mystery--and that's not a compliment. True, the plot could be called a mystery in the standard literary sense, but the book's theme, purpose and often its characters are enigmas themselves...
...guess is that Bellow made a poor attempt at the latter. His plot is so weak and the book's structure so seemingly arbitrary that whenever a theme--usually Clara and Teddy's love--is introduced, it is lost in the confusion...
...book that Bellow develops fully is Clara's character. Her name says it all: She is a combination of a naive, good-mannered, rural woman (Clara) and a lustful, svelte, executive yuppie (Velde). Bellow actually addresses the reader, as if to say that Clara, and not the plot, is what's important...
...Bellow had expanded A Theft to a full-length novel, he could have developed all these interesting characters and fully organized the scattered plot. On the other hand, he could have easily condensed the book into an effective short story, focusing on Clara and eliminating useless characters and anecdotes...
Susanna, in cahoots with the Countess (Martha Warren) launches a plot against the Count (David Kravitz) who wants Susanna and doesn't return the Countess' love as he should. Basically, Susanna wants Figaro, the Count wants Susanna and the Countess wants the Count. Throw in a case of a lovesick teenager (Cherubino), recruited to aid in the scheme by the women, and a subplot where the orphaned Figaro learns the identities of his real parents, and you get some really dangerous liaisons...