I only realised yesterday that saul bellow died last week. nobel prize winner in 1975, he wrote funny and humane novels like 'humboldt's gift' and 'henderson the rain king' but his best novel is 'the adventures of augie march' - it's funny, wild, full of great characters, crazy situations and wonderful language and it's definitely up there with 'ulysses' and 'the great gatsby' as the greatest novel of the 20th century. if you haven't read it, I really recommend it - a mix of 'on the road', '..gatsby', 'ulysses', 'oliver twist' and 'a confederacy of dunces'. bellow believed that we have control of our 'destiny' if only we think big, have a sense of humour, take chances and be true to ourselves. in a century suffocated by abstract concepts like totalitarianism and advertising peer-pressure, it was an important message. arthur miller, hunter thompson and saul bellow - three huge figures dead in the space of a month or so... (completely un-related to music, apologies)