The Adventures of Augie March
- Title: The Adventures of Augie March
- Author: Saul Bellow
- Published: New York: The Viking Press, 1953
I am an American, Chicago born – Chicago, that somber city – and go at things as I have taught myself, free-style, and will make the record in my own way: first to knock, first admitted; sometimes an innocent knock, sometimes a not so innocent. But a man’s character is his fate, says Heraclitus, and in the end there isn’t any way to disguise the nature of the knocks by acoustical work on the door or gloving the knuckles.[1]
And that my friends is how Bellow begins The Adventures of Augie March. It truly is an American story. One that captures the hopes, dreams, and disappointments that many may experience. The characters are alive and believable. There is a little bit of Augie in each of us I believe. We want to do our own thing and make the best of life, but very often we are carried along by the current. It is almost as if the inevitable has a way of grabbing us by the coattails and dragging us along. The experiences and encounters that Augie experience are very wide in what they encompass. I think Bellow did this to give us as wide a panorama as he could of this time in history. The meeting of Trotsky in Mexico, the taming of the eagle, and shipwreck are really outlandish scenes, and yet, Bellow pulls it off and I had no problem believing it and going along.
He starts in pre-depression era Chicago, with all the hustle and bustle of the big city, a side trip to Mexico, and ending up in Europe after World War II. I love how he presented all walks of life. He displayed the best and worst of each. No holding back punches for anybody. It is a story about finding your way through life, especially all the different relationships one could have. I particularly enjoyed all the references to literary works. It took me a little to get into his style of writing, but once I was tuned in, the last half of the book took only a couple of days.
My opinion, this is a good book. One that captures quite a bit about the human condition. I look forward to reading some of his other works sooner rather than later.
About the Author[2]
Saul Bellow was a Canadian-American
writer who was born Solomon Bellows on June 10, 1915 in Lachine, Quebec and
died April 5, 2005 in Brookline, Massachusetts.
He grew up and spent most of his
life in Chicago. His mother died when he
was 17. He was married five times. He was a professor at the University of
Chicago for many years until he moved to Boston and taught at Boston University. He won the Nobel Prize in 1976.
[1] Bellow, Saul. The Adventures of Augie March. New York: The Viking Press, 1953. Page 3.
[2] Gussow, Mel and Charles McGrath. “Saul Bellow, Who Breathed Life Into American Novel, Dies at 89.” New York Times. April 6, 2005. https://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/06/books/saul-bellow-who-breathed-life-into-american-novel-dies-at-89.html
