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. He is a'born recruit', easily influenced by others who try to mould his destiny. Not until he tangles with the glamorous Thea, a huntress with a trained eagle, can he attempt to break free. A modern day Everyman on an odyssey in search of reality and identity, Augie March is the star performer in Bellow's exuberant, richly observed human variety show.
'Funny, poignant, crowded with carnivalesque types and yet narrated in a voice that is lonely and simple, it is Bellow's fat comic masterpiece' Observer.
