By 2024 it has been 71 years since the publication in 1953 of ‘The Adventures of Augie March‘ by Saul Bellow (Saul Bellow | US news | The Guardian). The book is still held up by many critics as a contender for the accolade of the great American novel.
Augie March is Jewish in Chicago in the 1920s in the run up to The Wall Street Crash. The city is a tough place for a young boy to grow up in. His first experience of sex is with a paid prostitute. The chronicle of his early life is a kaleidoscope of menial jobs and scams, all the while immersing himself in a programme of private reading. His occupations include being a butler, a shoe salesman, a paint-seller, a dog-groomer, a book thief, even a trades union shop steward.
Falling in love with a beautiful rich woman Augie’s adventure continues in Mexico where he trains eagles and hunts gila monsters. On the outbreak of war he becomes a merchant marine and is torpedoed, spending a long time in a lifeboat listening to the existential musings of a crazed fellow survivor called Bateshaw.
Bellow himself called his writing here ‘a cascade of prose’. The author’s voice is witty with a penetrating insight into human motivation and action. The book is enriched by subtle analysis of twentieth century culture. Take a deep breath and plunge into this great carnival of American character and situation.
Saul Bellow won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1976.
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First published 1953
592 pages in Penguin Classics
ISBN-13 : 978-0141184869
