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The Astonishing Life of August March

A Novel

ebook
1 of 1 copy available
1 of 1 copy available

In this enchanting first novel, an irrepressibly optimistic oddball orphan is thrust into the wilds of postwar New York City after an extraordinary childhood in a theater—Candide by way of John Irving, with a hint of Charles Dickens.
Abandoned as an infant by his actress mother in her theater dressing room, August March was raised by an ancient laundress. Highly intelligent, a tad feral, August is a true child of the theater –able to recite Shakespeare before he knew the alphabet.

But like all productions, August's wondrous time inside the theater comes to a close, and he finds himself in the wilds of postwar New York City, where he quickly rises from pickpocket street urchin to star student at the stuffiest boarding school in the nation.

To survive, August must rely upon the kindness of strangers, only some of whom have his best interests at heart. As he grows up, his heart begins to yearn for love—which he may or may not finally find in Penny, a clever and gifted con artist.

Aaron Jackson has crafted a brilliant, enchanting story at once profound and delightfully entertaining. Like The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The World According to Garp, and Be Frank with Me, this razor-sharp debut—a classic tale of a young innocent who finally finds his way, reminds us that everyone can find love. Even August March.

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    • Kirkus

      February 15, 2020
      An orphaned child searches for love in New York City in this debut novel by a writer and comedian. In the early 1930s, an actress gives birth to a son between acts of These Dreams We Cherish in the Scarsenguard Theater and promptly abandons him after the show. The infant is discovered by the laundress, Eugenia Butler, who hides him backstage and becomes something of a surrogate mother, though she only cares for him while she's at work and gives him champagne as his first food. "That the boy survived his infancy was perhaps the greatest miracle in his miraculous life," we're told. Indeed. After almost a year, Miss Butler names the boy August March, and the child remains unknown to all the theater's inhabitants except one actor, Sir Reginald Percyfoot. In 1945, August is left to survive on his own after Miss Butler dies, Percyfoot refuses to take him in, and the Scarsenguard is demolished to make way for a hotel; he becomes a street thief to survive. He is finally located by Percyfoot, who tells him he's inherited Miss Butler's five-story brownstone (which raises the question of why she was willing share her home after her death but not in life), but then Percyfoot promptly sends the never-schooled August off to boarding school. Though August offers rich soliloquies, having grown up seeing all manner of plays, he has difficulty adapting to the expectations of formal schooling, though he thrives when offered a chance to direct the school's plays. August still lacks purpose or family, however, and after graduation, he returns to running cons with the help of a girl he's fallen in love with, who is only dimly capable of returning his affections. If you can suspend your disbelief long enough to buy the book's setup, the characters' lack of interiority and weak or absent motives make it difficult to engage with the story, which seems to exist in a slightly alternate world but one strangely without charm. One of three things often keep a reader interested in a book: its world, characters, or ideas. Though Jackson's prose is nimble and clever, his novel can't quite decide what it's interested in, so neither can we. A lightly told but incomplete story.

      COPYRIGHT(2020) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

    • Booklist

      February 15, 2020
      In this wry and hilarious farce, readers meet August March, a boy born to a famous stage actress and abandoned in her dressing room minutes after exiting the womb. August is raised by Eugenia Butler, the senile seamstress at the theater where he was found. It never occurs to Eugenia to bring August home, so he spends his childhood in the theater's rafters and far reaches. August is reasonably unmoored when the theater is razed by a rich hotel magnate. The theater is the only world he's ever known. Then his aging caregiver passes away, and August wonders how he will possibly survive. He is saved by Sir Reginald Percyfoot, a British actor who pseudo-adopts him, sends him to boarding school, and launches him into adulthood. As a young man, August relishes a sweeping con and even finds a lover who shares his passion for swindling. In their final ruse as a duo, August attempts to scam the rich hotel magnate who leveled his world in the first place. Irreverent, bizarre, and a roiling good time.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)

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