Hundred Book Challenge # 13: "The Adventures of Augie March" by Saul Bellow

It's been an odd week 'round here with all the news and so forth. Rather than talk about all the stuff that's clogging up social media feeds, I'm talking about a cool little book. 

“The Adventures of Augie March” is ultimately the story of what happens to a man who just goes along with the flow. The titular Augie March is a fellow who, though fiercely intelligent in his own right, is content to be lead around by others to the point where he is could almost be part of something before he pulls himself away hoping for something else.

March’s observations are wry and often hilarious though with a heavy thread of melancholy throughout.  

There is no judgment presented in how Augie lives his life. The pros and cons are measured out equally. For every adventure Augie finds himself in he is weighted down by a distinct lack identity. He wants to be known as more than the guy who is up for anything, but not at the cost of not actually being up for anything.

Augie goes through a number of memorable jobs and relationships that range from the mundane- he works in a coal tip for a while, to the illegal- he steals books from bookstores to sell to college students, to the outrageous- he attempts to train bald eagles to catch lizards in Mexico.

These picaresque novels are a lot of fun to read. A chance to vicariously live the lives of intelligent rouges is hard to pass up and this book is almost as fun as a Dickens novel.

There seems to be quite a few of these books on the hundred book list- possibly a sign of what we had post-war where an intelligent wanderer was romanticized- though not by much. Saul Bellow’s novel allows his protagonist to be fully aware of the consequences of his actions. When Augie is running from the law and squatting in a house full of bums he is accosted. When he finds himself in a waning relationship- the natural result of a spontaneous affair- he is a violent, miserable wreck. When he helps an otherwise friendless woman find a doctor for an illegal abortion, he loses not only his fiancé, but also a future of wealth and the society and friendship of his brother.

Augie March approaches success but then backs away before reaching it. It’s a sad and familiar story.

On a related note: my dad read this book after I finished and said he didn’t like the ending. It just sort of stops. Yep. It does but I kind of like that. His life isn’t over so his story ends- told from the first person perspective it almost makes sense that his memoirs would stop just short of being perfect.