The Adventures of Augie March

By: Saul Bellow

Narrated by: Tom Parker

Augie is a poor but exuberant boy growing up in Chicago during the Depression. While his friends all settle into chosen professions, Augie demands a special destiny. He tests out a wild succession of occupations, proudly rejecting each as too limiting - until he tangles with the glamorous perfectionist Thea.©1949 Saul Bellow (P)1993 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Wow!

The writing is often closer to poetry than to story telling. I’ve read two or three other books by Bellow (Humboldt, Herzog) but this is the best I’ve read so far. Fascinating characters, great writing. The reading also very good, though once in a while the reader mis-pronounced a title or foreign word, but no big deal - he has a good ear for the characters he is reciting. The prose moves so quickly that I am tempted to start again from the beginning.

Great Novel

Great novel by an almost forgotten master. Very well written and captures a fictional life with all the real flavorful details of the era(s).

Very long

There is no real plot. It is very long with what seems hundreds of characters. It is more stream-of-consciousness than a structured plot.

A stylistic breakthrough for its time but...

A stylistic breakthrough for its time but reading this in 2021 it lacked the fresh force it must have had when it was published in the 1940s. Bellow is obviously a very skilled writer, and his prose and reflections on life captured my interest well into the book. He is a master of the novelistic apercu, a comment that makes an illuminating point. But the plot structure is weak and after a while the character and plot didn't develop enough to maintain my interest. If I had a greater capacity to enjoy well crafted descriptive prose and scattershot philosophy, I'd have given it a higher rating.

A lousy choice for 1Book 1Chicago

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

To some friends only -- those who are into literary fiction that has no real plot. I would recommend it to persons who revel in language and turns of a good phrase, to people who are so well educated as to "get" all the references, allusions and "inside" jokes. I would not recommend it to a traveler needing a long read. I gave it to my son for a trip to London and he gave up after 20 pp. It's a tough sell, this book. It is based in Chicago (mostly). It is about a boy growing up and how he makes his choices and finds a way to live a life that is not a disappointment. But Augie's telling of it (1st person) is so tedious, so drawn out that even at the end I could not champion the boy's overcomings. Few (1 or 2) characters were interesting and memorable -- and Augie is NOT one of them. Some of the episodes of his life were interesting. none was laugh out loud or tear-jerking.

By the end, I believe Bellow summoned up every "great" book ever written -- and he managed to incorporate no less than Don Quijote de La Mancha, Frankenstein, Robinson Crusoe and a hundred other ancient texts and parables as well.

I felt as if I was watching as Bellow trotted out his lofty education, as if he wanted the reader to know he had "made it." I am not speaking of Augie March, but of the author himself.

I cannot understand how this was a Nobel winner. Yes, it details the life of a young Jewish American boy, and it underscores the myths of what makes a life, but really, it's just too tedious. Augie's sufferings are minor, his joys are diluted, his fears are tepid, his actions are null -- if action is what you call his responses.

So, what was good about it? Language, references to those arcane texts (if you're into the scholarly stuff). Unbelievably, there were no dates of any sort. No placement on the timeline, though all the literature says it starts in Depression era Chicago. We can surmise through the aging of the characters that it ends in the late 50s, early 1960s, but not sure. Perhaps this is Bellow's idea of making it an everyman bildungsroman that could land in any era, but I found it inaccessible.

Am I glad I read it? Yes... another notch on the bookshelf.. I feel I accomplished a great feat by finishing it and trying hard to exact some value from it.

Recommend it? Yes, with the qualifications stated above.

Has The Adventures of Augie March turned you off from other books in this genre?

No..

What about Tom Parker???s performance did you like?

Clarity, emotion (where none was in the text), apparent effort to make us care about the characters who were white-washed and stiff.

Did The Adventures of Augie March inspire you to do anything?

Some thoughts of Augie's are very deep and profound. It will cause me to go back to my highlighted passages (Kindle and Audible) because they did resonate with me and I felt some of the philosphies applied to me.

Any additional comments?

Taking on this text requires a dedication that may work best in intervals. It is valuable because it is part of the canon of American literature. As for being a Chicago-based book.. I don't think so. There are about 4-5 chapters that transpire in Mexico, some more in Paris, and others in New York. Except for Augie's propensity to deal in certain illicit activities (and that's not specific to Chicago either), Chicago is only mentioned in wistful reminiscences or references to where characters hang out, get the streetcar, go and party, etc.

I expected more ethnicity out of this Chicago born Jewish writer. It just was not there. Adjust your expectations and it will be fine.

Thank You Mr. Bellow

I am thankful to have experienced the world of Augie March and to have met the many cherished characters. Only the mind of a genius can create such beautiful work like this.

Vintage Writing That Works Today

What made the experience of listening to The Adventures of Augie March the most enjoyable?

I read a lot of contemporary books, Occasionally, I try something a little older, and sometimes I am put off by the writing styles of authors who wrote before the mid-twentieth century. So, it was with some hesitation I picked up Saul Bellow’s “The Adventures of Augie March.” I was delightfully surprised at how much I enjoyed this novel. Mr. Bellow writes with a beauty and skill that does not distract from the story but makes his story more personal and valuable to the reader.
Many older novels, though beautifully written lack a compelling story that is relevant to the twenty-first century reader. “The Adventures of Augie March” gives today’s readers a taste of the first half of twentieth century America in a way that is both relatable and entertaining. Augie March and most of the characters who interact with him in this story are not at all loveable people. But what they do have is a certain authenticity that Mr. Bellow systematically and skillfully reveals to the reader. These characters through their actions and a parlance steeped in speech of their times that vividly portray life in the 1920’s, 30’s and forties.
Tom Parker does a masterful job in narrating this book. His performance added much to the enjoyment of the Audible edition.
Recommended: Yes.

What did you like best about this story?

Well read and easy to listen to.

I had great difficulty reading this book. I spent about a year and a half trying to get through the story myself. I finally decided to give Audible a try. Normal I can't focus on a story with someone else reading but Mr. Tom Parker did an excellent job and I'm finally able to put this book behind me. He did a very good job with all the run on sentences, (in my opinion), and changing his voice for all the different characters. So if you're looking to read this story take my advice and listen to it instead.

THAT part of the Universe visible from Chicago!

I knew from the first couple paragraphs of this novel that it was fantastic, amazing, like a well-built Italian or German sports car. However, once Bellow jumps into Augie's flight to Mexico with Thea (where they try to to catch Mexican lizards with a wussy eagle) it was equivalent to discovering the sports car you are driving actually has 7 gears and your radio goes to 11. Anyway, this is one of those books where sentences seem likely to escape the gravity of English, the characters are as big as planets, and the plot is as big as Eternity or at least the Universe or at least that part of the Universe visible from Chicago.

Little Action, Little Story, Great Book

If you require action and a strong arc of plot, this is likely not the book for you. I loved it. I suspect this book will be better appreciated by more mature readers. The young might feel this book portrays life as a chaotic unpleasant cacophony, while mature readers might better appreciate the underlying beauty of the individual’s interactions with the chaos that is life. This book follows the protagonist from a poor Chicago childhood through adulthood and the many strange twists and turns of life while the narrator evolves with the protagonist, learning about himself and the world, yet never having, or even wanting, control. Some reviewers comment upon the blatant sexism and objectification of women. Yep, the guys in this book (as some in non-fiction) are dogs. There were other surprising aspects of reality reflected in this 1949 novel: gays, transvestites, abortion, adultery, communism, and more. The prose ranges from good to spectacular. Bellows amazingly makes the language seem American colloquial while avoiding, almost entirely, clichés.

The narration is wonderful, with brilliant characterizations from youth to adulthood, clarity to confusion, and conveying both the wisdom and foolishness of human existence in America.