An abandoned baby's journey from precocious orphan to homeless criminal to artist makes for an enchanting story of destiny in Aaron Jackson's debut novel, The Astonishing Life of August March.
It's the 1930s in New York City at the Scarsenguard Theater. During a play's intermission, an actress waddles backstage to give birth to a baby boy and returns to the stage as the curtain rises on Act II. Since motherhood would be inconvenient for her career, the actress leaves the newborn under some clothing in her dressing room after curtain call and dashes off to drinks with a Hollywood producer. Eugenia Butler, the theater's octogenarian seamstress, finds the baby, lulls him to sleep with stale champagne, leaves the boy in a closet and goes home.
But unlike the actress who gave him life, Eugenia returns the next day and begins raising the boy backstage, naming him August March. He learns to walk, talk, read and write without ever leaving the theater, by watching rehearsals and performances from the wings, and from interactions with an actor who befriends him. August's vocabulary and theatrical mannerisms lend him an air of sophistication and intelligence. Will this informal education be enough when he's thrust out onto the streets of New York with no concept of real-world survival?
Author and comedian Jackson deserves a standing ovation for striking a bittersweet balance between the cruelty of characters expected to love a child and a naïve kid's will to live. August's struggles show that life is hard, but readers will be comforted and inspired by his resiliency and where he ends up. --Paul Dinh-McCrillis, freelance reviewer.