Rating: 
Summary: The American Novel
Review: The perfect gift for any male who has learned to read. Although it is filled with daunting historical and anthropological references, one needn't be afraid to skip them. Bellow would be the first to understand. This is the greatest American novel and nothing else is even close. Melville, Hawthorne, James, Dreiser, Lewis, Wolfe, Hemmingway, Mailer, et. al., are amateurs by comparison. If you are going to read one book in your lifetime, THIS IS THE ONE. What is it about? It's about everything: the straight dope, no quarter given, no sacred cow spared, no good deed unpunished, no relief for either the virtuous or the wicked; humanity celebrated and exposed; the old, the young, connivers, sufferers, strivers, slackers, cons, cripples, pols, debutantes, grand dames, burghers, prize fighters, polymaths, revolutionists, feminists, whores, and tycoons; authority, philosopy, religion, politics, economics, civics, tribalism, philanthropy, sex, money, pride, vanity, hope, despair, all tickled relentlessly and effortlessly, toppled of their own weight. Bellow looks into the void and comes away chuckling, and so will you if you've got the right stuff. If you haven't got it, let Augie help you find it, but don't forget to read between the lines. Whatever you do, don't let academic idiots and caviling critics divert you from reading it.
Rating:
Summary: Greatness
Review: This book is greatness. To Soul Wanderer below: Opinions vary.
Rating: 
Summary: Book Club Bomb
Review: This book is long, overly descriptive, and difficult to read due to the constant addition of characters many of whom come and go without giving the reader a chance to care about them. There are chapters and characters that are more compelling than others - but it seems rather hit or miss. Also, more than once I found myself a page or two into a description when I realized that I couldn't remember who or what was being described. The worst part was spending energy and time, page after page only to have it end abruptly and seemingly without purpose. Lastly, it is important to mention that I was the only one of seven (three of whom are English teachers) in our book club that finished this book.
Rating:
Summary: An American Luftmensch
Review: This is easily one of the finest novels that I have ever had a chance to read and proves one of the basic rules of good fiction--experience bucks education. Augie is the product of his own character, intent on understanding all that surrounds him as he makes his way through up and down the cultural, class, and political divides of the 1920's, 30's and 40's. The narrative is the education of a poor boy who could see as much value in the pronouncements of a crippled boss, exiled intelligentsia, and pool room hustlers as in the massive amount of poetry, fiction, and history that he assimilates into his worldview--one that values common decency as much as intelligence and cunning.
This is a book that I have now read three times and the view of American idealism from fifty years ago when it was published is simply awe inspiring. The times when the text breaks from its narrative molde and goes into an extended discussion of philosophicl ideas in Yiddish inflected vernacular with idiosyncratic grammar can make you cranky and can often be perplexing. This is completely secondary though, for a close reading of any of these passages brings to light just how sophisticated Augie is--some of the actions he takes make him seem only slightly smarter than an ape though.
If this had been the only book that Bellow had written he still would have earned the Nobel Prize in 1976. I can thnk of few books I have read where a character has drank so deeply and appreciatively of their own culture, upbringing, and experience as Augie March did. When Augie opens his mouth with the book's first sentence declaring "I am an American," he speaks with a level of sincerity, certainty and complexity that animates very few other characters in the novels of any nation.
Rating:
Summary: as irrelevent as calling a book 'over-written', here we are
Review: This is one of Bellow's most highly regarded novels and there are plenty of reasons why. It's wonderfully written, maintains the interest throughout a very honest, human story that few people won't be able to relate to. It focuses on its time and place directly and gives the reader deep insight into the people who are living, turning the narrative into a seperate dimension, dragging you into this universe and keeping you there, forever, trapped, unhappy after a long time of joy. Augie keeps talking, keeps telling you his story, and after a while it seems like he has used himself up. Oh, sure, all these additions allow us to know the boy/kid/man, and he tells it with intriuging insight; but sometimes things he tells us about himself are repeated, Augie loses focus and when he gets nervous or unsure of himself, he details the shattered, minute details that serve to distract us.Yeah, it's a terrific book, but among Bellow's first three novels, I believe it is the least of them. Read it anyway, get what is to be gotten, then move on, keep it in your mind, allow Augie to haunt you for a while, then forget all about that person who bothered you like hell but just couldn't stop trying to help--
Rating:
Summary: Early Bellow is still excellent reading
Review: This is the earliest Saul Bellow novel I have read thus far, and I've found it to be on par with his later, more mature and stylistically sharper works. This novel literally recreates life in the Depression and afterwards, something I never lived through but could swear on did now, knowing the attitudes and moods of the times that Bellow so expertly details in this rollicking novel. The cover alone drew me in, the stark black and white shot of 1930's Chicago, a moment captured of bustling humanity, an era that can never be recreated, that can only be discovered in books suck as these. Augie March is one of the most positive and endearing characters, trusting everyone and falling down again and again, but always get back up.
Bellow weaves his huge cast of characters, far larger than his other later novels, with ease and any comparsion to Dickens are appropriate, but Bellow's style flows better, from first to last sentence, there is not a wasted phrase, not a lost word, not a sentence that leaves one scratching one's head in puzzlement.
This is literature of the best kind, the kind that makes you think and feel. This is literature doing what it is supposed to be doing.
Rating:
Summary: A literary masterpiece
Review: This novel is unquestionably one of the great masterpieces of our time. Saul Bellow paints portraits of characters like Rembrandt. He has a brilliant technique for divulging not only the physical nuances of his characters but also gets deep into the essence of their souls. He has an astute grasp of motivation and spins a complex tale with an ease that astounds. Even the most unusual twists of fate seem natural and authentic. Augie is a man "in search of a worthwhile fate." After struggling at the bottom of Maslow's hierarchy of needs as a penniless youth in Chicago, he ultimately discovers that alignment with the "axial lines" of his existence is the secret to human fulfillment. While his brother is engrossed in chasing after financial enrichment and social esteem, Augie learns through his own striving that such pursuit is "merely clownery hiding tragedy." Augie is a man dogged in his pursuit of the American dream who has an epiphany that the riches that life has to offer lie in the secrets at the heart's core. If, as Sarte says, life is the search for meaning, then Augie is the inspired champion of this great human quest. The true test of a great book is that you wish it would never end. Fortunately, Saul Bellow is as prolific as he is brilliant and there is much more to explore. Bellow is worthy of the characterization of one of America's best living novelists: he is a treasure. His wisdom staggers the imagination. Don't let this novel pass you by!
Rating:
Summary: Unquestionably One of the Best of the Century
Review: This sprawling novel is often quite evocative and nearly always entertaining. What it offers is essentially a satire on American culture--but as embodied in a magnificent array of sympathetic characters, both enthusiasts and outcasts. Augie's passivity makes him an ideal vehicle for this examination, and it's easy to identify with his bewilderment. With wise-cracking incisiveness, Bellow takes the American romanticism of writers like F. Scott Fitzgerald and turns it on its ear.
Rating: 
Summary: character interest
Review: This was the book that had so many of Bellow's friends excited that he had broken out of his sophmore slump. However, the work is immense, wordy and, at times completely incomprehensible. What was Bellow attempting here? I can only imagine the fury at which he was scribbling (or typing) away in some of those opening chapters. If not for passages that I've since attempted to re read seven or eight times, I would consider this a great book. It is instead, an interesting, at times entertaining and worthwhile one. The spirit of the thing is enough to keep one reading, as I did, when there were many moments of lyrical prose to pull the rest of it along. Some of the characters are thin, except for Augie and his family. His brother and his in-law family are amusing and provide for setting and dialogue that are Bellow hallmarks.
Rating:
Summary: Great writer, good book
Review: This was the first book that I read by one of this country's most respected writers. While some passages including the ending were poorly conceived and lacked the rest of book's drive, I greatly enjoyed most of it. Augie, the eternal recruit, is the main character of this novel. For the greater part of the book he has no well defined plan for life and surfs along on waves generated by others. This plot structure allows Bellow to observe and comment upon a wide stratum of human society with often striking results. On top of that he supplies the narrative with an enormous drive, which makes the first half of the book a highly compelling read. Strangely, both the drive and the so well constructed persona of Augie receive a bad blow by the reappearance of Thea and her eagle. To me the ensuing episode is really at odds with the all what made the preceding part so great. There is virtually no justification why the protagonist so suddenly goes head over heels for a person that had barely interested him before. Moreover, the whole eagle business is bizarre and boring and seemed a train wreck instead of the supersonic ride of the earlier chapters. After leaving Thea and her disappointing feathered friend south of the border the story again picks up some steam, but loses it's momentum around the aimless end. While I considered the glass more than half full, it was frustrating to witness the enormous contrast in quality between the best and lesser parts of this book. Based on the best parts, the young author deserved himself a spot among this country's best, while the eagle and the ending would have disappeared in the wastebasket of most of his fellow Nobelians. In all, an often superior novel with a couple of tough spots. Often a great read, but no Fielding or Dreiser.
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