This is about as close to a “classic”
as I will get to until I reach my goal some time next year. It has been a long
time since I have cracked open a Saul Bellow book and finished it, at least a
decade or more. When I saw Bernard Sr. reading a copy of The Victim in The
Squid and the Whale, I picked that one up, which led to Dangling Man and Seize the
Day. Bellow was my first taste of the top of the literary hierarchy, the next
step from authors I was reading at the time: Hubert Selby Jr., Bret Easton
Ellis and the guy who got boys to read, Chuck Palahniuk. It had been awhile and
it felt right to start with his most famous novel The Adventures of Augie
March. For a more critical look at this book, I will assume you can get one in
the few introductions to this book written by Christopher Hitchens and Martin
Amis, but here, I will try to review objectively a book that is on the
short-short list of “Great American Novels”. First off, it is great and
deserves the status that it holds in American letters. Sprawling yet grounded,
whimsical but harshly real with every page filled with equal amounts of hope
and despair, this is the kind of novel that lives and grows in your gut, it
vivid scenes alive in your brain and in your heart, surely to stick around with
you forever. No wonder it is so beloved. It’s famous first sentences about being
“Chicago born” our uttered by our eponymous hero, a rather different kind of
hero to be exact, one who finds himself embroiled in situations beyond his
control, which is exactly how he likes it. Augie grows up during the Great
depression, with his mother, Grandma Lausch, who might or might not be his real
Grandma, his mentally challenged brother George and finally Simon, his older brother
who plays easily the biggest role among a rich, diverse and fascinating cast of
characters Augie meets throughout his travels, which take him from Chicago to
Mexico to New York and finally Europe. What sets Augie apart from other
American literary heroes is his constant state of inaction. He always finds
himself caught up in plans made by others, whether they are selfish or altruistic.
Reading through this, I couldn’t help but think of the doomed protagonist Tommy
Wilhelm from Seize the Day, another character who lets the world determine his
path in life and, to offer a bit of armchair interpretation, the sort of person
Augie might become if he doesn’t take action in an increasingly large and frightening
world. While Seize the Day is a grim little book, this is a bog book with a big
heart with many memorable scenes, my favorite being one where Augie saves a
girl named Mimi, only, in doing so, to lose everything he has worked for, and
rich, minor characters like the crippled William Einhorn, a property owner
financially crippled by the Crash who is a surrogate father figure to Augie, to
Hymie Bateshaw, whom Augie meets on a sinking ship in what is the book’s
wildest scene. A long, extensive ode to the growing world and the harshness and
beauty of it all, this is truly a great book, its status undeniable and well
earned. I can’t wait to read more Bellow. I didn’t realize I missed him.
Rating: 5/5
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