Augie March

The narrator and principal character in this novel, Augie is born and raised in somber Chicago in a fatherless, non-practicing Jewish family on relief. He describes himself as a "black mass of hair and cleft chin" that contrast with his handsome older brother Simon. By age nine he is adept at lying to the Charities an unaffected by Grandma's "kitchen religion" or the Poles' flamboyant Catholicism. He does not "fatigue" himself over being born into "occult" work...but is an "easy touch for friendships." Early on he takes menial jobs and Grandma predicts that this will be his fate unless he buckles down. He is not cut out for academics but and lacks Simon's luck in the workplace. In high school Augie and Jimmy Klein are caught running a Christmastime swindle. Augie is repeatedly drawn when financially desperate to dabble in petty crime. The object of his...