description: Augie comes on stage with one of literature’s most famous opening lines. “I am an American, Chicago born, and go at things as I have taught myself, free-style, and will make the record in my own way: first to knock, first admitted.” It’s the “Call me Ishmael” of mid-20th-century American fiction. (For the record, Bellow was born in Canada.) Or it would be if Ishmael had been more like Tom Jones with a philosophical disposition. With this teeming book Bellow returned a Dickensian richness to the American novel. As he makes his way to a full brimming consciousness of himself, Augie careens himself through numberless occupations, and countless mentors and exemplars, all the while enchanting us with the slapdash American music of his voice.
language: English
title: Adventures of Augie March
titlecomplete: Adventures of Augie March
characters: Simon March, William Einhorn, Augie March, Grandma Lausch, Mimi Villars, Mrs. Renling, Manny Padilla, Charlotte Magnus, Thea Fenchel, Lucy Magnus, Clem Tambow, Mintouchian, Arthur Einhorn, Kayo Obermark
genres: Fiction, 20th Century, Classics, The United States Of America, American, Historical Fiction, Literary Fiction, Literature, Jewish, Novels
ratings_count: 17889
places: Chicago, Illinois, Mexico, Paris
awards: awardedAt: -504892800000
name: National Book Award
category: Fiction
publisher: Random House Value Publishing