Take a story's temperature by studying its tone. Is it hopeful? Cynical? Snarky? Playful?
Lighthearted, Humorous
Saul Bellow may be playing around with a man's tragic downfall in Seize the Day, but he's having a lot of fun doing it. Whether or not you can sympathize with the novel's poor schmoe of a hero, it's hard not to laugh at Wilhelm when Bellow's writing takes on a teasing, lightly satirical tone. Just look at the way the book's very first lines set the scene:
When it came to concealing his troubles, Tommy Wilhelm was not less capable than the next fellow. So at least he thought, and there was a certain amount of evidence to back him up. He had once been an actor—no, not quite, an extra—and he knew what acting should be. Also, he was smoking a cigar, and when a man is smoking a cigar, wearing a hat, he has an advantage; it is harder to find out how he feels. (1.1)
Honestly, Wilhelm is about as good at concealing his troubles as an ostrich is at hiding its body by sticking its head in the sand. But, rather than saying that straight out, Bellow's narrator dances around it, painting a loving, laugh-out-loud portrait of Wilhelm that has all the good humor and wit of Jane Austen at her very best.