Saul Bellow had five marriages. In his novel, Humboldt’s Gift, he created an alter ego with similar bad luck named Charlie Citrine, whose wife had left him for another man and filed a ru- inous lawsuit against him. While telling a friend about his marital trials Citrine makes the following observation about his case: “It keeps me in touch with the facts of life. It’s been positively enlightening.”
“How so?”
“How so?”
“Well, I realize how universal the desire to injure your fellow man is.”
