The Adventures of Augie March - DONE!

[Luvrte66]

Yes, at last, at last, I went back to it and finished it! I am
absurdly proud of myself for finishing, but I also don't like to
abandon a book unless I think it's total crap, and I definitely didn't
feel that way about Augie.

At first I couldn't decide if I liked Augie or not by the end of the
book, but overall I decided that I did. Like all of us, he is
completely human, with all of our quirks and failures. He doesn't
pretend to know all the answers; in fact, his whole life is about
trying to figure out what he should do, and what it all means. He does
seem to recognize his own failures, but seems unable to change his
behavior, or his hopes and dreams for the future. How can you hate a
guy like that?

I think I like Augie just for his complete and utter humanness. I
found his time on the lifeboat with Basteshaw interesting. Basteshaw
promised all the answers...the answer to life itself. Augie rejected
that. Does Augie just want to figure it out for himself, or does he
believe that there really is no knowing?

I loved these lines: "Death is going to take the boundaries away from
us, that we should no more be persons. That's what death is about.
When that is what life also wants to be about, how can you feel except
rebellious?"

I'm with you, Augie.

Solid book. On to Brideshead Revisited for me!

Beth