We've got your back. With the Tough-O-Meter, you'll know whether to bring extra layers or Swiss army knives as you summit the literary mountain. (10 = Toughest)
Snow Line (8)
Not gonna lie to you: Herzog is lean on plot and heavy on its descriptions of Moses Herzog's tangled psychological issues. This can make the book feel like a tough slog, especially when Herzog gets really philosophical and starts quoting from all kind of poets and thinkers.
But with all that said, the word-by-word language of the book is totally readable if you bear down and focus, and it's totally worth wading through depressive episodes and philosophy name-drops. After all, this is the novel that made Saul Bellow famous (and nabbed him the National Book Award and the Prix International, and helped him win the Nobel Prize).