The Astonishing Life of August March
The phrase “child of the theater” has never been more literally or comically depicted than in this delightful romp of a book. August March is abandoned at birth by his actress mother in a pile of dirty laundry backstage at the Scarsenguard Theater. Since the elderly laundress who discovers him can’t take him home with her, she keeps him at the theater, where he subsists on champagne and remnants of stagehands’ lunches, his only education the plays he watches from his cubby in the rafters. At the age of six, his language is flowery and ornate, but he has never been outdoors or seen New York, his own city.
Anyone looking for Serious Historical Fiction will be startled, if not disappointed, by this novel. I confess that I was taken aback at first by the implausibility and apparent lack of Serious Research evident in the first few pages. The novel covers the period from the 1930s to the 1960s with very little mention of world or even local events. Nevertheless, August March and the eccentric people he meets won me over. August leads readers on a merry chase from the criminal underworld of New York to a posh private boys’ school in Massachusetts, and then back to the city for more adventures. He learns quickly how to spot local New Yorkers: “People walking dogs were usually locals, as were those carrying briefcases, but someone who looked angry at the person walking in front of them was always a guaranteed New Yorker.”
If you can suspend your disbelief, you’ll giggle your way through this quirky coming-of-age story with a protagonist who is equal parts Benjamin Button, David Copperfield, and Don Quixote.
