Where to start with Saul Bellow

American novelist, 1915–2005. Won the National Book Award for Fiction in 1954, 1965 and 1971 and the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1976.

Best Saul Bellow book to start with: The Adventures of Augie March (1953), on 4 of the 17 lists it could have made.

The Adventures of Augie March, which won the National Book Award in 1954, is the place to begin. It is long and fast, the story of a Chicago boyhood and youth told with huge energy by a narrator who learns his lessons on the street.

If you would like a smaller bite first, Seize the Day was shortlisted for the National Book Award in 1957 and takes place over a single day. It is a novella, the shortest thing here, and a good test of whether his voice suits you. Herzog is the next step up: a professor in a crisis writes letters he never sends, and the short chapters keep it moving. It won the National Book Award in 1965. Henderson the Rain King, shortlisted in 1960, is his broadest comedy, about a rich American who goes to Africa to fix himself.

Humboldt’s Gift, which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1976, and Mr. Sammler’s Planet, which won the National Book Award in 1971, are denser later novels. They make more sense once you have got used to the way he talks on the page, so leave them until last.