I'm happy to report that I'm finally finished The Adventures of Augie March, my 71st read from Time's list of 100 All-TIME novels. Sure, it was on the longish side, at 612 pages, but really, this one shouldn't have taken this long.
Unsurprisingly, this book follows the adventures of one Augie March, a Chicago-born middle child in a poor, single-parent home. Augie seems to drift from one situation to another, without any real aims in life, or any drive to change his situation. Almost every change for Augie is the result of happenstance, not because of some conscious decision he had made to do something.
Augie drifts between various jobs, never sure of where he's going, and never really concerned with what happens. His long list of occupations include human trafficking, book thieving, training an eagle, dog keeping, and a hitch with the Merchant Marines. Sprinkled among these odd jobs are a series of women who Augie tends to feel passionately about to a point, before losing interest in them; much like his career.
The story is told in first person, as if Augie is writing his memoirs, and most chapter focus on a different occupation or woman, without any real connection to previous or future chapters. It's almost as if he remembered a story, put it to paper, and continued adding little anecdotes until he had reached 600 pages.
