Thank you Net Galley for the free ARC. Some people have all the luck and also much misfortune. August was born backstage at a theater between acts and immediately abandoned by his mother. An old seamstress cares for him and cares enough to make him her heir. He also makes the acquaintance of a famous actor who helps him get an education. Many years are wasted on drink and petty crimes, but in the end August comes full circle. Good story, fun to read.

Book review
The Astonishing Life of August March
A novel by Aaron Jackson

Epic, funny, moving, emotionally powerful, compelling, fascinating... so many words come quickly to mind in trying to describe the many, many pleasures of Aaron Jackson's The Astonishing Life of August March. Astonishing is also spot on. In earlier times, this novel would best be described as picaresque.(If you don't know what it means I suggest you look it up as it as aptly accurate).

August March is born, abandoned and quickly forgotten by a beautiful Broadway starlet right before for stage entrance. Finding a home in the loving arms of the stage laundress, August is a true child of the theater, living in backstage nooks and crannys, and memorizing Shakespeare soliloquies, before finding himself on the wicked streets of postwar New York. Befriended by a Fagin-like master thief and a vain, pompous and highly successful actor, March journeys his way through life in search of someone who will love him and a place to call home.

This book has everything I expect in a great novel. A unique and original plot, well written characters, compelling situations, a protagonist one can really care about – imagine, as the publisher so notes, the whimsy of John Irving mixed in with a healthy dose of Charles Dickens. So true!

I am extremely grateful to NetGalley and Harper Collins for providing me with an advance copy of this thoroughly delightful novel. Highly recommended.

The story started out well, interesting, fun and original but as the story progressed it became a little. more far fetched. The ending seemed rushed and not well thought out. The writing was OK and I enjoyed the book and look forward to the authors next book.

When raised in a. closed environment, in this case the theater, one’s life experiences are sure to be limited, but also very specific and intense . Such is the main character in this story who leads us through stirring adventures during and exciting time.

August March grew up in the theater — literally. Tossed in a laundry basket at birth by an empty-headed starlet, raised by the laundress who found him, but left him in the theater at night so she could sleep, and educated by a typically vain and pompous leading man (who was the only one to know he existed), August indeed had the titular astonishing life advertised.

A fast romp through New York from the 30s to the 60s, the best parts of the book are August’s classics inspired dialog and soliloquies. He was trained in the theater (never, in fact, leaving the physical building until he was in his teens), and he behaves like a character in the dramas he observed. While the tone is light, there is a serious thread throughout — August craves family and belonging as most of us do, but has never been in a position to find it. He adapts, he survives, but it’s often a lonely existence.

I wouldn’t call the plot realistic in any sense, but who cares? Lots of fun, well written, and featuring a character who, while understandably flawed, forges a strong path through his own life.