A penniless and parentless Chicago boy growing up in the Great Depression, Augie March drifts through life latching on to a wild succession of occupations, including butler, thief, dog-washer, sailor and salesman.
Saul Bellow was born in 1915 to Russian emigre parents. He
published his first novel, The Dangling Man, in 1944; this was
followed, in 1947, by The Victim. In 1948 a Guggenheim Fellowship
enabled Bellow to travel to Paris, where he wrote The Adventures of
Augie March, published in 1953. Henderson The Rain King (1959)
brought Bellow worldwide fame, and in 1964, his best-known novel,
Herzog, was published and immediately lauded as a masterpiece, 'a
well-nigh faultless novel' (New Yorker).
Saul Bellow's dazzling career as a novelist was celebrated during
his lifetime with an unprecedented array of literary prizes and
awards, including the Pulitzer Prize, three National Book Awards,
and the Gold Medal for the Novel. In 1976 he was awarded a Nobel
Prize 'for the human understanding and subtle analysis of
contemporary culture that are combined in his work'.
Bellow's death in 2005 was met with tribute from writers and
critics around the world, including James Wood, who praised 'the
beauty of this writing, its music, its high lyricism, its firm but
luxurious pleasure in language itself'.
Astonishingly and tremendously entertaining
*The New York Times*
A rollicking, perplexing, astounding whopper of a picaresque
novel
*Chicago Sunday Times*
Funny, poignant ... it is Bellow's fat comic masterpiece
*Augie March*
The great novel of the young person
*Harper's*
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