Having only recently begun reading Bellow I have found him to be an admirable guide to the way contemporary man thinks about the world and particularly human relationships. Although the characters sometimes seem a little too involved in philosophical wool-gathering to be true, their ruminations provide critical insights into the way our society is constructed. In The Dean's December, the contrasts are between the decaying society of late communist Rumania and the problems of society in contemporary Chicago. The Dean is in Rumania to be with his dying mother-in-law, a formerly powerful party official who has been ostracised for allowing her daughter,an internationally famous astronomer, to emigrate to the west.. The Dean, who is a respected journalist has ruffled powerful feathers in Chicago with a series of pointed articles critical of certain aspects of Chicago society and has also been involved in seeking justice in a case where one of ! his students has been murdered. In this he is opposed by his radical nephew who thinks that the case is racist because the accused are African Americans of deprived social origins. Bellow is a master of setting the scene - the bleak December weather echoes the coldness of communist and capitalist society, the cheerless bureaucracies and intricate politics of both settings. As well as societies problems, the Dean must also confront his own mortality as he watches his beloved mother-in-law die and the reactions of his wife and slightly eccentric relatives to this stress. This is a book which will repay several readings. Highly recommended.