Dear Augie,

This is not about you. It's truly about me. You are indeed a fine book, but unfortunately, I can only award you 3 stars. It's my own personal issue. You see, I simply don't have a penchant for long books. There are numerous other books patiently sitting on my bookshelf, eagerly awaiting their turn. I have this strong desire to experience each and every one of them. The thought of being committed to spending two whole weeks with you made me feel a sense of suffocation.

I'm well aware that those other books haven't garnered as many awards as you have. However, I require the freedom to explore and read them. Please don't take this to heart, Augie. Truly, it's not you; it's just my own reading preferences. I firmly believe that generations of readers will thoroughly enjoy your adventures. But for me, they seemed to drag on for far too long.

Perhaps at a different stage in my life, things might have worked out differently, and I could have wholeheartedly given you the 5 stars that you rightfully deserve.

Best wishes, Augie. I'm glad that we crossed paths, but now I must move on. k

This novel has been on my "to read" list for an incredibly long time. In fact, it was even before Martin Amis declared it "the Great American Novel" several years ago in Harpers.

It is truly stuffed with dozens of vivid characters and incidents. As a Chicagoan and a die-hard Chicago fan, I was especially captivated by Bellow's descriptions of the city and its sometimes rather bizarre inhabitants during the 1930s and '40s.

The narrative thread is essentially a variation on that classic theme: a young man's search for identity and a place in the world. For better or worse, Augie March, the narrator, is one of those fictional characters with a penchant for philosophizing about life as he unfolds his life story. At times, I couldn't help but think that the story would have been just as profound without all the musing.

March's escapades in Mexico were truly wonderful. They included an ill-fated love affair with an eccentric woman who was completely obsessed with training an eagle to hunt lizards. This all culminated in a romantic breakup that eloquently and emotionally encapsulated why so many relationships go awry.

The ending, however, left me slightly puzzled. I couldn't quite fathom why Bellow chose to end the story where he did. Among the Bellow books I've read, I think this one doesn't quite measure up to "Henderson the Rain King," although it's admittedly difficult to compare a book you've just read with one you read some years ago. (The other Bellow novels I've read, which I would say are good but not as outstanding as these two, are "Herzog" and "Seize the Day.")

Bellow acolytes beware, for your emperor lacks clothes and it's mightily cold outside. However, it's not quite as bad as that. Bellow isn't abysmal. In fact, if I could on goodreads.com, I'd award this novel around 2 1/2 stars. There are certain stretches in 'The Adventures of Augie March' where he's really good, gracefully treading philosophical waters like a crane, much like in his first novel 'Dangling Man' and sporadically in his 'Collected Stories'. But as I read Augie March, two very telling Charles Bukowski quotes came to mind.

The first Bukowski quote references Truman Capote, whom he accused of merely 'ice-skating' in terms of his literary output. This, to me, exemplifies Bellow in some spots. He presents wonderful philosophical ideas and quotes or references great minds and historical moments, drawing on his extensive reading in various disciplines. But he doesn't seem to do much with these borrowed ideas. They're piled on his characters to show their knowledge, but for most of the cast, it feels out of place. Seriously, how many of the diverse characters he portrays can hold court on so many esoteric topics and also sling out yiddish slang? And then ask about your conversational latin?

To quote Mark Hamill to George Lucas, allegedly: \\"(Real) People don't talk like this.\\" The second Bukowski quote, which can be read as the antithesis to Bellow's authorial ethos, is that 'true genius may be saying a complicated thing in a simple way'. It seems that Bellow, like the Stephan Fry of his day, takes a hundred words to say what two or three could easily accomplish and is proud of it. I understand his verbose style, but his delineations, while often gorgeous, drag his text down. Characters think, talk, and describe a lot, but don't actually do, accomplish, or evolve much. It's like a hurricane in a desolate field that disrupts and destroys but leaves only a slightly put off patch of land when it dissipates.

I said it before in my 'Collected Stories' review, and it's true here too: Bellow's authorial voice strains under the lash of too many influences. And I can now add that his voice seems fake, or at least too practiced, cultivated, and prepared. It's like a dance at too many weddings, trying to be all things to all people all the time. I was reminded of Kerouac's struggle to find his voice in 'On the Road'. The difference is that Kerouac found his voice and developed it, while Bellow, unfortunately, yoked together a voice that collapsed under the weight of its own intellect and confused aspirations. In the 'Paris Review' interview, Bellow discussed his slavery to traditional novelistic forms and his need to prove himself to the Anglo-Saxon literary establishment. This revelation rang true for me, given my own ethnic and cultural background.

But Bellow's voice in 'Augie March', while initially enthusiastic, runs out of steam as the novel progresses. The further you get, the more you can feel his desperation to declare, declare, declare, while only piling on more ideas, fancies, and theories onto a character who can't decide or break free. And this doesn't even begin to address the stylistic mess of the novel. Tonally, it's all over the place, often ensconced in whimsy and old fart sentimentalism, which is why his comparisons to Dostoyevsky ring false to me. After the 1929 stock market crash, one sentence references people jumping to their deaths, while Augie goes to Mexico to train an eagle to catch iguanas. In what universe is that considered 'realist'?

And speaking of realism and Theodore Dreiser, whom Bellow admires, in 'Sister Carrie', the ending shows Carrie having succeeded materially but dying spiritually, sitting in a rocking chair going nowhere. This was Augie March for the most part, to me. I don't hate Saul Bellow as a writer. He's good in spots, but the intensity of this review is directed more at the accolades he's received and the defensiveness of some of his fans. Leo Tolstoy, one of the greatest literary minds, openly admitted that he didn't 'get' Shakespeare. So, basically, there. Jewish Literature is a labyrinth, and Bellow's voice is different, but so far, it's not one I'd favor. There are many other great voices in Jewish Literature, and Bellow is part of this company, but not in its upper echelon. Maybe after some time, I'll be more than happy to listen to his voice again.

ETA: When I penned my review last night, I was deeply disappointed with the conclusion. The outcome was such that I had no inclination to write anything about that blasted book. Indeed, I am an emotional individual who becomes engrossed in the books I read. There was a great deal that I omitted but should have mentioned.

Bellow's writing is highly descriptive, replete with details about the appearance of people and places. The dialogues adeptly capture the lifestyles of the characters. You gain a clear understanding of who you are dealing with. Personally, I felt as if I was observing a family that was unfamiliar to me. A loving family from the lower classes, yet rough and coarse. To put it bluntly - most of them are crooks and swindlers. What's fascinating is that Augie does receive an education, and when he writes his story, he has a vocabulary that seems out of place in the context of his surroundings and the class of people he is描绘. This initially feels all wrong - until you realize that it is written later in his life. I knew before he did that his attempt to融入 the North Shore community of Chicago was simply not going to succeed. I have lived in Chicago, and Bellow does an excellent job of portraying the different areas and their inhabitants.

There are several aspects of this novel that are, in fact, autobiographical. Bellow admired Trotsky and intended to meet him in Mexico. He joined the Merchant Marines during the Second World War. He, too, endured the Depression, just like Augie. So my query is to what extent Bellow concurs with Augie's philosophy on how life should be lived! And that is precisely what troubles me - the ending and the impression it leaves, as well as what it implies about Augie's future and life philosophy. I finished the book feeling extremely disappointed.

********************************

I had to listen to one-third of the book before I began to develop an affinity for it. The ending completely fizzles out. I have no clue what the author was attempting to convey with this book.

However, there were parts that I did like. Augie meanders through life, drifting from one thing to another, being pulled in various directions by those around him. I liked it when he was drawn into working for a union. I had hopes for him then. I also liked it when he encounters a woman who hunts with eagles and catches snakes. Gosh, these parts were captivating. I felt as if I was there with them in Mexico. But then, of course, the story progresses.

The narration was EXCELLENT. Augie's personality becomes something recognizable; he becomes a person you know. Each character speaks differently, although some are more adept than others. There is a guy who stutters, and in this instance, the narration was so good that you could listen to the lines multiple times. It was very, very funny! (Yes, and there is humor in the book.) Grover Gardner, the narrator, also does an outstanding job with the different languages - French, Italian, and Spanish.

What can I say about Augie? Well, I do wish the guy good luck. I hope he would take a stand and pursue what he desires....

Saul Bellow's name was only vaguely familiar to me. However, I must thank Goodreads once again for helping me discover a great book. After seeing "Augie March" on one of my friend's 5-star lists and reading a highly positive review by another friend, I decided to give it a try.

The first few pages confirmed what Eric had said. Since reading Nabokov, I hadn't been so impressed by language. Nabokov's sentences are long, often meandering, yet intensely vivid and smooth. Bellow's sentences are also long and vivid, but in a unique way that I initially described as "tornad-ic" due to the unusual organization of appositives and clauses. Every time a new character is introduced, Bellow unleashes a cyclone of description, leaving no room for indirect characterization. For example:

"Mostly for the satisfaction of dexterity, though Stashu invented the game of stripping in the cellar and putting on girl’s things swiped from clotheslines. Then he too showed up in a gang that caught me one cold afternoon of very little snow while I was sitting on a crate frozen into the mud, eating Nabisco wafers, my throat full of the sweet dust. Foremost, there was a thug of a kid, about thirteen but undersized, hard and grieved-looking" (11).

"Their families were trying to get them out, but in the meantime they had been shipped to Nicaragua and were fighting Sandino and the rebels. She grieved terribly, as if he were dead already. And as she had great size and terrific energy of constitution she produced all kinds of excesses. Even physical ones: moles, blebs, hairs, bumps in her forehead, huge concentration in her neck; she had spiraling reddish hair springing with no negligible beauty and definiteness springing from her scalp, tangling as it widened out, cut duck-tail fashion in the back and scrawled out high above her ears. Originally strong, her voice was crippled by weeping and asthma, and the whites of her eyes coppery from the same causes, a burning, morose face, piteous, and her spirit untamed by thoughts or the remote considerations that can reconcile people to awfuler luck than she had" (16).

These are just two examples from the beginning of the book, but I could have easily found many more by opening it at random.

The story simply recounts the life of Augie March, an American born in Chicago. Augie admits early on that he doesn't have a single purpose but is more diffuse. What follows is an entertaining account of all the adventures and life-paths that Augie ends up on. Although some of these paths are extraordinary, Bellow manages to make the reader relate to them. I, for example, have never been a falconer, but I could understand getting into something new because of a girlfriend's interest. I've also never tried to transport illegal immigrants, but I can recall doing dumb or illegal things because of friends' suggestions.

In addition to being an enjoyable read, this book made me think about how much the people in our lives influence the course of our lives. A favorite quotation from the book is: "Metaphor for being well-read: 'I still had the craving I had given in to all summer long when I had lived on books, to have the reach to grasp both ends of the frame and turn the big image-taking glass to any scene of the world'" (274).

This novel didn't disappoint my expectations, and it is the one that contributed to its author, "Saul Bellow," winning the Nobel Prize in 1976.

It is truly great in its theme and its essence, rich and full of the colors of life. And although it starts from a very traditional American reality, yet it addresses all of us as humans. We strive in this life to search for ourselves.

This doesn't mean that the novel is artistically traditional. Rather, it is a point where multiple techniques from different literary genres converge, and I didn't know that I would encounter such beauty.

The protagonist of the novel, "Augie," tries to flee from the great void of idleness that hit the American and global economy in the 1930s of the last century. He begins a comprehensive geographical journey within America, searching not only for a livelihood but also for the meaning of the American dream and for his identity as a young man living between the boundaries of conflicting cultures and mentalities and different ways of life.

In Pursuit of Exuberance

I first read "In Pursuit of Exuberance" in the mid-to-late 70's. For a long time, I considered Bellow as one of my favorite three to five authors and Augie as one of my top three novels. I haven't re-read it yet, but I intend to. Working from distant memories, what I loved about it was the sense of exuberance and dynamism. At that time, it meant a lot to me to find evidence that intellect and vitality could be combined in one person.

This is a novel by and about a thinking man. Augie March is a "thinking doing being". What I love about this novel is how much Augie gets up to during his life, how much thinking, learning, living, and loving he does while defying mortality and death. He is the epitome of a special brand of intellectual and personal dynamism, and this is one of my favorite novels.

The novel is 536 pages long and consists of 26 well-defined chapters, but it doesn't follow a traditional linear plot. It contains many heroes and is not a traditional hero's journey. It's not precisely crafted in the sense that life experiences have been heavily edited. Instead, much life has been left in, and what's been said about that life is precisely crafted. Bellow removed the obstacles that might block our sight, so we can see and experience the real world.
"Augie March" is a smorgasbord, not a TV dinner. It's expansive, discursive, and invites us to focus, observe, think, and enjoy. Augie's quest is singular, like Columbus', to discover the world and himself. You might not enjoy this novel if you're easily bored or fear jumping ship mid-voyage. But if you're not deterred, welcome aboard!
Augie is not a passive character. He goes where his quest takes him. His experiences and adventures are a direct response to his quest. Just as there is little narrative linearity, Augie has no grand familial lineage. His mother is responsible for three boys and a dog, and family love is at the heart of the novel. Grandma Lausch, not a blood relative, is a major influence who wants what's best for Augie and his brothers.
The single word that captures Augie's aspirations is "nobility". A key metaphor is the difference between nobility and savagery. While we are all part of the Animal Kingdom, what separates humanity is the capacity for thought and the tendency to explore, discover, and create. Augie's name, short for August, hints at the noble. With all his aspirations and expectations, it's crucial that he succeed. His adventure with Thea in Mexico is symbolic of his plight. The eagle, Caligula, fails to achieve its purpose and becomes a flop, like Augie fears.
Augie's great advantage is that he is a good listener, bright, intelligent, and loyal. However, his greatest risk is that others can take advantage of him. Women play a vital role in his life as mother, lover, and friend. Mrs Renling and Cousin Anna Coblin are ambitious for him. One of Augie's mentors, Mr Einhorn, points out that he is a contrarian. He spends some time as a union organiser and becomes an anti-Stalinist Trotskyist. However, his heart is not fully behind the cause.
Both Bellow and Augie seem to believe in "the universal eligibility to be noble". They are more concerned with the equal opportunity to achieve Nobility than with the primacy of Equality. "Augie March" was a major assertion and achievement for an American Jew. It conveyed a message of inclusion and co-existence. The novel was a large part of the argument for Bellow's entitlement to the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1976.
What appealed to me about the novel was not just the subject matter but also the language. Bellow's first sentence announced his modus operandi: he was going to write free-style, in his own way. He wrote like he spoke, and it was entertaining, persuasive, and inspiring. His words were beautiful to listen to, even when most intellectual. I'll leave you with some sentences that appealed to me: "I have always tried to become what I am." "Happy as a god." "You are the author of your own death." "Mama was beginning to have the aging stiffness and was somewhat bowlegged."

Augie was more honest than one could ever need, and more real than reality could bear. Thus, he couldn't find himself in a civilized and hypocritical world with double standards.

It's a philosophical and social novel that combines simplicity and depth. We follow the journey of Augie March, the simple young man who was born and raised in Chicago during the Great Depression until World War II. He is seeking his way in this life, experienced to the point of naivety, moving from one job to another and from one relationship to another, trying to reach a reality that matches his thoughts, dreams, and principles that stem from his conscience, his high sensitivity, and his idealistic view of life. And between this and that, he falls into the crisis of confusion caused by a reality full of tricks, corruption, and exploitation, and the values that he was raised with and absorbed in his childhood from his environment and readings.

Every person he met in his life, from his grandmother to a simple servant, each one gave him a range of knowledge and pushed him towards a great and wide experience. Yet, his life was unstable, fluctuating, approaching a goal and then retreating, moving away from it, due to his sensitive personality that craves perfection that is not attainable. Augie went through many adventures to discover the truth at a high price, which pushed him in his days and years and made him feel that even if you live your life, you will need to contradict yourself and your principles sometimes and make many sacrifices, because life is not a stage for idealism.

The conversations in the novel are among the best, with a lot of depth in analyzing human beings, analyzing society and its situations, and discussing many existential issues. It's a great novel that I highly recommend.

Soon, but not just yet, I will embark on the task of writing a comprehensive summary of this magnificent novel penned by an outstanding writer.

This novel seems to be a microcosm of life itself, as most everything about life can be found within its pages.

It delves into the various aspects of human existence, exploring themes such as love, loss, hope, and despair.

The characters are vividly portrayed, each with their own unique personalities and flaws.

As I read through the novel, I am constantly amazed by the depth of the author's imagination and the skill with which the story is told.

Once I have completed the summary, I hope to share my insights and interpretations with others, so that they too can appreciate the beauty and complexity of this wonderful work of literature.

Saul Bellow’s third novel, The Adventures of Augie March (1953), was a game-changer for him. It won the (US) National Book Award for Fiction and catapulted him to fame. This novel has been on my 1001 Books I Must Read wishlist for some time. I was really happy when I saw it on the display shelf at my library.

The only other Bellow novel I had read was his last one, Ravelstein (2000), which didn't really appeal to me. So, I wasn't exactly eager to read more of his works. In fact, I borrowed The Adventures of Augie March with low expectations. I thought I might stop reading after 50 pages if it didn't engage me like Ravelstein failed to do. How wrong I was!

The Adventures of Augie March earns its place in 1001 Books because it is a lavish and bustling narrative in the picaresque tradition. It reimagines the hero as a modern-day Huck Finn. Augie is a handsome and thoughtful character who gets involved in a series of increasingly exotic adventures. His odyssey takes him from Chicago to Mexico, from Europe to an open boat in the mid-Atlantic. The footloose hero is recruited into a series of crazy scams, including book stealing, arms trading, and being appointed to guard Trotsky.

In the Penguin edition I read, Christopher Hitchens is hesitant to give the title of The Great American Novel to Augie March. However, he admires the novel for its scope, optimism, and principles. Augie's ambition to be noble on his own terms and his quest to be an educated man on his own terms seem like anachronisms in the proudly ignorant and amoral era of Trump. But the expression of an ideal, even if largely unrealized, is still refreshing, considering the book was written more than half a century ago.

To read the rest of my review, please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2017/01/08/t...

Who am I to deny recognition of what others call “the Great American Novel”? Augie is launched on the world like a modern-day Huckleberry Finn crossed with Tom Jones.

But Augie’s arc does not quite have their level of comic edge, the moral quandaries of Huck or the pursuit of women like Tom. He is like a chameleon, scrambling from one odd job or scheme to another, passing from one mentor to another, then breaking free but never quite growing up. He was a great inspiration for me, always aspiring to better himself, trying something new, and able to keep in flight without crashing after hard knocks.

He starts from humble beginnings of poverty in the depression-era Chicago melting pot, with an absent father and a neglectful mother he describes as “simple-minded”. His guidance by a controlling Russian immigrant boarder, Anna Lausch, assumes the proportions of that of a typical mother and a label as “Grandma”. As we see in Wells’ “The Glass Castle”, the major life skill she imparts is the ability to manipulate others and, of equal importance, to see through the ploys of others. When he is nine, she engages him in a caper to ensure the optometrist will give his mother free glasses. His older brother Simon was not up to the lying required as he saw the world in the black and white of a Boy Scout. Augie, however, is a natural at such dissembling.

The “enthusiasms” referred to in Augie’s reflections point to the moral grounding he got from his brother’s noble aspirations. His love and empathy for his younger brother, Georgie, who is cognitively handicapped, contribute to another humanizing influence on Augie’s character. His ersatz grandmother is stunning in Bellow’s marvelous portrayal, the epitome of a larger-than-life character.

In retrospect, Augie is able to see she was “one of those Machiavellis of small street and neighborhood that my young years were full of”, but at the time he took to heart many of her lessons, including a solid work ethic and a wariness over the pursuit of love.

By age 14, the critical lesson he is learning has to do with shaping one’s fate through applying oneself in work. Here he bounces back after being squelched in exploring music. From menial jobs like busboy or bellhop or dog training, Augie moves on to dabbling with robbery and graduates to an assistant and virtual son to a wealthy and powerful businessman and later to an aristocrat with a love of expensive horses. This subsuming himself to others gets him in trouble, and he learns to invest himself in his own initiatives. But it takes him longer to get his balance when it comes to success over subjugations of love.

I love how even though Augie dropped out of school, he is always reading and is always trying to forge lessons out of life. I find him to have the same kind of warm-hearted, questing outlook as Richard Ford’s Frank Bascom. Augie embodies the American dream of the potential to grab opportunities and become a self-made man. Though he never achieves a stable success or even clear goals for himself, his ability to keep morphing in the face of changing circumstances makes him a new kind of American hero.

The literary experts pin Augie’s adventures down as “picaresque”, but I believe Augie’s character gained in wisdom and independence over time. And I don’t see the satire or the comic, delusional hopelessness in his arc as we see with “Don Quixote”. He is closer to Jim Harrison’s “Brown Dog”, a rascal with heart, more a giver than a taker. I like to think that Augie learned to play like Brown Dog, found true love, and came to savor the rewards of “laughing and eating peach pie.”

I have delved deep into the works of the magnificent writer Samuel Elkin in recent years. Noting that he admires and likens his own writing to that of William H. Gass and Saul Bellow, whom he prizes as "stylists," I find myself returning to Saul Bellow. I haven't appraised his writing since my teenage years, and even then, I only read a single book. Clearly, all writers have a style and ways to work it out within adaptable parameters. But what Elkin means by characterizing certain writers as stylists is that they are highly attentive to the possibilities of language and the marvelous performances that can be crafted sentence by sentence.

If Bellow isn't quite as exuberant as Elkin, there's no denying that both present the reader with closely related, highly idiomatic language full of superhuman pizzazz and infectious bonhomie. These writers are attuned to the joys of language and much else in bittersweet life. In both cases, we're talking about language and life in post-war America. In Bellow's works, a person isn't just fired; they're given the "shove-ho." Idiom is like a playset for freewheeling delights.

If you're inclined to pay a belated visit to Bellow's America (and beyond), it makes sense to get a copy of THE ADVENTURES OF AUGIE MARCH. It's his third novel, his most epic, and almost certainly his most highly esteemed. You don't have to take my word for it. Penguin seems to think you might listen to Martin Amis and Salman Rushdie, who both praise AUGIE as a top candidate for THE Great American Novel. This tells you that you're in for something more than just refined language virtuosity. It's something locally universal, expansive, epic, and bordering on perfection.

The Penguin Classics edition also has a lovely introduction by Christopher Hitchens. He compares a passage from AUGIE MARCH, where the hero meditates while looking out over an American body of water, with one from THE GREAT GATSBY. Hitchens concludes that while both men have endured flawed and wretched humanity, Carraway finds only consolation in meditation, while Augie finds inspiration. It's a beautiful observation that reveals something crucial. Hitchens' essay is very fine, and I won't quote it further. I'll even try not to quote passages from THE ADVENTURES OF AUGIE MARCH that he's already covered.

Hitchens shares valuable insights into the novel's themes, such as social mobility, the sensibility of good-humored ironic opposition, Napoleon's legacy, and the idea that a man's destiny can be his guiding principle. The novel is about Augie's relationship with his destiny. "My mind was already dwelling on a good enough fate," he says early on, and variations of this recur. The name Augie March is like a beautiful little poem about destiny and its pursuit. Bellow loves his words and uses them masterfully.

Opposition is another important theme. Einhorn, a wheelchair-bound man, tells young Augie, "You've got opposition in you." But this isn't the opposition of a pugilist; it's that of a no-nonsense student of life. A person with a good-natured ironic opposition can be serious about their destiny but not too serious. There must always be a grain of salt. Agonies also play a role, especially a young man's romantic ones. But from these, things must bloom, and the call to move forward must be heeded. You can't keep a good man down, especially if he's strengthened by stubborn opposition and resilient humor.

Thea Fenchel, Augie's first true love, may send him into a codependent tailspin and leave him heartbroken, but she also leads him to Stella and the ironist's delighted picture of "the god Eros holding me down with his foot and forcing all kinds of impossible stuff on me." Hitchens is right that it's no accident that the word "Adventure" appears on the cover of Bellow's novel, like in a Mark Twain picaresque. Destiny involves many jobs, travels, a host of amusing American grotesques, multiple stations, and an awakening to the connoisseurship of spiritual and material abundances.

We follow young Augie from his impoverished boyhood in Chicago through the Depression, to Mexico with a rich girl and a feckless eagle, to war, marriage, and international business. It's the first three decades or so of an exemplary life. We meet a Dickensian profusion of people, like Steve the Sailor Bulba, Gillaume the dog groomer, Bluegren the mob-connected florist, and the Commissioner. There's also a boxer with "slum motions of deadliness" and the irascible Grandma Lausch. Trotsky makes a brief appearance in the Mexican section, and Louie Fu, the owner of a Chinese restaurant in Central Mexico, has a great name.

Augie, our guide through all this, refers to himself at one point as a "runner after good things, servant of love, embarker on schemes, recruit of sublime ideas, and good-time Charlie!" He believes in life, primarily at the level of intuition. His bearing entreats kindnesses from man and larger patterns. He can't seem to hold a grudge, even against his brother Simon. "Finding yourself among warm faces, why, there're many objections that recede, as when enemy women may kiss." I like to learn about novels from novels, and I'm inspired to write them myself. But I'm not alone in wanting to learn about life from novels. If you're interested in the novel and in life, if you're hankering for a literary formula that might serve you, if adventure means more to you than a map and compass, then THE ADVENTURES OF AUGIE MARCH is for you. It has its reputation because it went out there, devoured life, and earned it, my friend.