Literary giant Saul Bellow passed away at 89, leaving behind a groups of novels destined to remain in the canon as long as the major existential quandaries of life remain unsolved. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, the Nobel Prize, and three National Book Awards, Bellow was the author of The Adventures of Augie March, Herzog, and Henderson the Rain King, in which his slightly depressed main characters struggle with assimilation, upward mobility, and of course, sex. While his characters more often than not chose assimilation over a pure Jewish life, Bellow remained interested in what it means to be a Jewish American in the 20th century (excellent article on Jewish themes in his fiction here.) Even though he was ambivalent about whether he believed in God, he said “my intuition is immortality. No argument can be made for it, but it’s just as likely as oblivion.” Whether he’s right or not, he remains immortal for the coming generations who will surely find meaning in his work.