A well-written character in a book can feel like an old friend, and literary critic Harold Bloom delves into a few of his favorites in The Bright Book of Life: Novels to Read and Reread. Bloom died in October 2019, at the age of 89, and this ambitious final book of his career is elegant and insightful; reading it feels like sitting down with a grandfatherly English professor whose knowledge and wit is simultaneously enviable and inspiring, if not occasionally off-putting. (Bloom taught at Yale and Harvard, and it's easy to suspect he writes the way he spoke in the classroom--with a rambling sense of natural authority.)
In a career spanning more than 60 years, Bloom offered his take on some of modern literature's most oft-cited influences--most notably, Don Quixote, Shakespeare and even Sigmund Freud, whose theories on sexuality and human relationships influenced much of Bloom's most controversial criticism. The Bright Book of Life builds on these characters, authors and ideas, alongside deep dives into a total of 52 works by Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, Leo Tolstoy, Joseph Conrad, Ursula K. Le Guin and other literary giants. With loquacious reflection made palatable by thoughtful, meaty prose--underscored by lengthy excerpts from each title--Bloom makes the case for why these timeless works of fiction remain important and powerful. The Bright Book of Life will likely serve as a reminder to add a few of the classics to that ever-growing 2021 reading list. --Angela Lutz, freelance reviewer