About this title: In Saul Bellow's exuberantly autobiographical novel, the larger-than-life Augie March begins as a poor Chicago boy growing up during the Great Depression. Drifting from job to job, he falls in love with Thea, an eagle trainer, and develops schemes--each more grandiose and unrealistic than the last--for making money and becoming famous. THE ...
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Description: Good. 0140189416 This book is in Good Used Condition. The Book shows some signs of wear. There may be some markings inside the book. The pages have started to yellow. 100% Money Back Guarantee! ! ! read more
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Penguin Books
Date Published: 1996
ISBN-13:9780140189414ISBN:0140189416
Description: Fine. No dust jacket as issued. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 544 p. Penguin Great Books of the 20th Century. Audience: General/trade. Book is in excellent condition. Cover has some light edge wear. Pages are clean, binding is tight. We ship daily, Satisfaction Guaranteed. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Penguin Books, Harmondsworth
Date Published: 1984
ISBN-13:9780140072723ISBN:0140072721
Description: Good. No Jacket. 7.8 x 5.2 x 1 inches. 544pp. Has wear. Covers rubbed and soiled. Spine creased. Pen underlining and notations to text in a rainbow of colour inks. Reading/Reference copy. Lang: English. Vols: 1, Wt: 1lbs. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: A Modern Library Book Pub By Random House
Date Published: 1965
Description: Good in Poor jacket. 12mo-over 6¾"-7¾" tall. ML 362. Intro by Lionel Trilling. Light spotting/tanning to page edges, red cloth covers, front cover embossed, gold lettering on spine, light edge wear, ends bent, text crisp & clean, no marks. DJ worn & torn. The best of the world's best books. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Crest Books
Date Published: 1953
Description: Good. Paperback. Light cover wear, more on spine, no markings, pages nice & tight. Complete and unabridged story that introduces the most startling extremes of realism with cheerful casualness. Winner of the 1954 National Book Award for Fiction. read more
"This picaresque novel about Chicago-Born Augie March, from his youth in Chicago to his seemingly-doomed marriage, is rich in language, characters, episodes and ideas. I cannot say that I find it a "great" book, but there are so many bits of greatness in it that, considering the current banal literary landscape, it is impossible not to give it a five-star rating.
"Augie" was not a journey without its flaws, for this reader. After one reading, I would say that it is considering the time span it encompasses, overlong, and overstuffed with characters, incidents, philosophies, the latter often spouting from the lips of unlikely philosophers. Its innumerable artistic, historical and philosophical references will IMHO escape all but the most erudite historian/philosopher. But more troubling is Bellow's style. As rich and varied as is his phrasing, too often the numerous characters who populate Augie's world lapse into philosophic discussions using syntax, slang and imprecise expressions that obscure, rather than clarify, exactly what it is they have to say, even if they make the language more colorful and arresting.
Nonetheless, it's a rich if long journey (585 pages), well worth the effort."
"I'm still digesting this one, sort of like an anaconda that decides to eat a young antelope and has to lay around in a stupor for a month until full mobility returns.
I probably dogeared 20 pages in this book, because as I was reading certain passages I was flattened by all the word beauties. Bellow's English isn't my own - you can feel he grew up hearing a different syntax tattooed into conversation, the language of polyglot speakers luxuriating in words. The constant references to classic mythology and great literature I found endearing - I grew up in a different time and a different place, but I can relate to seeing the doors to the kingdom of ideas, and laboriously trying to lay the heavy blocks that would let me get over the guarding walls.
I'll probably reread this. There's too much in it for one go through ... and the section with the hawk. My god."
"To say I read this isn't fair, I didn't finish it at all. Had to read it for snooty Heights club - you know how there are books you hate and you;re not sure if it's you or the book? I mean you read Joyce and you're just like, what am I missing?? Here I have to respect Bellow because he won lots of neat prizes, not the least of which the Nobel, and so who am I to not be able to get through it? PLus it's humbling - ie, real smart people read books like this, or Hemingway or Faulkner and actually think they're good, whereas if you're fake smart, you take this on the subway to impress the people around you and then stare at the Dr Zizmore ads because at least those you get. So I know Bellow can write, I am just too dumb to like it. But giving a book I couldn't read an inflated review just seems wrong."
"This book kicked my butt seven ways until Sunday - this is the second time I've tried to read it, and I only made it this time through sheer dint of will. I was determined to read it because it's on the Modern Library top 100 novel list, but it was not easy for me. But victory was mine, and having pushed through I have to say that I feel a better woman for it.
It is a bildungsroman, the story of Augie March, who grows up in Chicago with his mother, elder brother and mentally challenged ill younger brother, as well as their indomitable boarder, an elderly woman they call Grandma who runs ragged over them all. The story tells of his wild youth, growing up in the city and drifts through his early life until it eventually stops. Not so much plot - more like Bellow ran out of steam. Look - I understand why this is considered a great American novel. Bellow is a great writer, and there is so much packed into this novel. In this sense, it reminds me of Rushdie, and The Moor's Last Sigh. It's such a rich tapestry of life - overwhelming and terrible and grand. It is work to pour through a book like this, but it's rewarding - certain passages knocked even me off my socks (who didn't really like the book that much). But I definitely appreciated it more than I cared for it - there is so much going on to such little end that while I saw what he was doing and why it matters as a novel, I couldn't care for it anyway."
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