Noticer

The 81-year-old Saul Bellow’s slim novella “The Actual,”published^([sic]) three years before the heftier “Ravelstein,” distills his abiding attraction to “first-class noticers” into a Chicago romance with fairy-tale elements, in which a lifelong noticer is sought out and rewarded for his gift.

“He’s a great noticer of things, a great listener. His dialogue still sounds like real speech.”