Augie March, The Adventures of

Augie March, The Adventures of, novel by Saul Bellow, published in 1953.

Augie March, a young Chicago Jew, leaves his charity‐supported mother, tyrannical grandmother, and mentally retarded brother George, and with his opportunistic older brother Simon ventures into the world to make a living. He manages to graduate from high school but learns about life and himself through diverse jobs and experiences. He first works as a “man at arms” for the crippled William Einhorn, a learned but inept and dishonest businessman who instills in him a love of books; then he becomes a salesman in an elegant saddle shop, leaving when Mrs. Renling, the owner's wife, tries to refine and adopt him. He takes part in a robbery, tries to smuggle immigrants over the Canadian border, steals and sells expensive books, and is briefly a union organizer. Unlike Simon, Augie remains emotionally involved with his family, is deeply upset when his mother and George are institutionalized, and grieves when Grandma Lausch dies. Unwilling to emulate Simon, who married Charlotte Magnus for her money, he leaves his job with Simon and stops courting Charlotte's cousin Lucy, persisting in searching for his own fate in his own way. His love affair with Thea Fenchel, on their iguana hunt in Mexico, convinces him that independence and love are irreconcilable but, sometime later, back in the U.S., he marries Stella, an actress he aided in Mexico. Considering the shambles of Simon's marriage and reflecting on his own unachieved desires for a stable life, Augie recognizes that “everyone got bitterness in his chosen thing,” but retains his optimism, humor, and amazement at man's “refusal to lead a disappointed life.”