Dangling Man

Some critics, including Edmund Wilson and Kenneth Fearing,^[1] criticized the novel's lack of a definite plot, but praised Bellow's depiction of what they saw as the characteristic features of the generation of American intellectuals raised during the Great Depression. Dangling Man can be seen as a superfluous man narrative, raising interesting parallels with Turgenev's The Diary of a Superfluous Man and exploring the 19th-century Russian literary concept through a contemporary American experience.

Irving S. Saposnik, in The Centennial Review, wrote that "None of Saul Bellow's other novel's (sic) has perplexed his critics more than his first novel, Dangling Man.^[2]

The title Dangling Man, an episode of the television show The Crown, references the work. Prince Charles, as portrayed by Josh O'Connor, compares himself to Joseph during the episode.^[3]

• Summary of Dangling Man on saulbellow.org