The Adventures of Augie March, by Saul Bellow.

Wow - did this book take me long enough to read?! I have to admit that I thought of quitting reading it, but in the end, after finishing the book, I am so happy to have read it. This book was written in 1949, so the writing is much different from the modern writing that I was raised on. One of the things that drove me nuts at first was that the book seemed to have no antagonist, except perhaps Augie's life. However, in hindsight I realize that Augie had multiple different antagonists that he was constantly trying to overcome, and without one the rest of the book would have been completely different.

So, in this book we follow Mr. Augie March, who is the narrator of the book. One of the interesting things in this book is you never really know how old Augie is, so you have no idea how long of a life it's spanning. There are often times where an undetermined amount of time is spanned, making the age of the main character even more unpredictable. Augie starts off in a hard life, and really, it never quite gets better.

Augie's family consists of his mother, who we never know beyond the name Mama, and his two brothers, Simon and Georgie. We quickly learn that Simon is some sort of business-minded overachiever and Georgie has some sort of mental disability. Also living with them is Grandma Lausch, who isn't actually their Grandmother, but is never referred to in any other way.

Augie goes through many trials throughout the book, and many love interests. Actually, often his trials are closely connected to the women. Of course, his rambunctious high school friends also help land him in jail a few times. We follow Augie through many job attempts, college, a giant adventure through Mexico, and through war (they never actually tell us what war though).

The writing of this book is great, though it seemed rather crude for the time it was written. There is quite a few cussing and some sex scenes, though these are easily skimmed through since there is no importance in these scenes. Often there are times where you wonder why a particular scene is in the book, even til the end, since it doesn't change the outcome of the book. I believe that some scenes could be done without changing the outcome, but I do love the ability to look back on the book and find the humor in the adventures that Augie has experienced.

So, hard to read, but great to reflect on. A few humorous times in the book, and a bunch of problems for our main character. I, personally (remember all ratings are purely opinionated), give this book 3.5 OUT OF 5 STARS.

Reading Next:: Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen