Wouk's last novel. Subpar ( )

This was a good book but I think I expected too much and so was disappointed. I read Margery Morningstar and Don't Stop the Carnival when I was a kid and loved them both plus I love epistolary books. But, honestly, this book just kind of reminded me of 'no there there'. Letters, faxes, emails and phone transcriptions about putting together a movie about Moses.

It was a yawner. But it was Herman Wouk. Sigh. ( )

This was a very fun, very easy read with a lot of humor. The story is basically the effort being put forth by a group of people, with various motives, who want to get a movie about Moses made in Hollywood.

The main character is Margo Solovei, a writer who grew up in an Orthodox Jewish household, who attended an orthodox Jewish school and whose rabbi father, is less than thrilled with her life choice to become a Hollywood player.

Like a fascinating web that spins out and out, the story is told through Margo’s correspondence, emails, faxes, meeting notes etc. with different people who have a vested interest in the film or a vested interest in Margo.

The project is being financed by a Yiddish Australian tycoon whose reasons are never entirely clear for making the film. Herman Wouk and his wife are major characters and at the end of the book is a very touching tribute by Wouk to his wife, with her picture. One could almost say she was his muse.
Other characters are Margo’s childhood sweetheart, a friend of a friend who becomes a good friend, producers, directors, charlatans and a reluctant low profile Aussie sheep station owner and reluctant but very good actor.

There was one very entertaining sub-story involving a friend from Jewish School and her orthodox husband and their marital highs and lows. Shirley and Avram were thoroughly entertaining and a much needed break in the wheeling and dealing part of the story that centered on Hollywood.
This is a quick read and an easy one. I actually read it in between other books when I needed a quick break from something heavier. This is a pretty fun read. Three and a half stars. ( )

Ninety-severn year old revered author Herman Wouk has always dreamed of writing a novel about Moses but has never been able to get a good start on the material. Instead he wrote this delightful fictionalization of the making of a motion picture epic about Moses the lawgiver. He is a character in his own story as he is approached by the money men to approve the script once it is written by the up-and-coming Margo Solovei. Amidst the turmoil of behind the scenes wrangling lies a sweet love story between Margo and Josh, a brilliant young lawyer Margo parted with years ago due to religious differences; he is a devout Jew, Margo not so much. It also features the 60 years loving marriage between Herman and his Betty. The story is written in e-mails, Skype chats, memos and notes which makes for a very fast read. It is humorous and witty but definitely not a story about Moses if that is what the reader is looking for. I found it quite fun. ( )

A rare modern example of the antique genre of the epistolary novel. But while the epistolary novels of the 17th and 18th Centuries took the form of a series of letters and/or diary entries, this is the 21st Century. Thus, this plot proceeds via modern media--e-mails, text messages, voicemails, memos, transcripts of business meetings.
Nonagerian author Herman Wouk (best known for The Caine Mutiny Court Martial) weaves a strange story here in which the real Herman Wouk plays a role. The idea is floated to produce a modern retelling of the story of Moses and the exodus of his people from Egypt. Unlike the famous Cecille B. DeMille production of The Ten Commandments, though, this one is intended to strictly adhere to the biblical account. Respected Jewish author Wouk is brought in to validate the authenticity of the script as it evolves. Wouk really doesn't want to do it (he's a 96 year old man hoping to finish one last book of his own before his time runs out), but he's coerced into doing. He tries to distance himself from the project, despite being impressed by the woman who's brought in to write the script.
There's a dynamic religious tension throughout the book. Wouk is a practicing Orthodox Jew. The scriptwriter was raised as one, but she drifted from that path long ago. As the story evolves, however, thing happen.
I was raised in what could have been described as a pretty much homogeneous white bread WASP community (except that most of us were Roman Catholics rather than Protestants), so I've spent the last several years familiarizing myself with Jewish culture in order to better understand that thread that runs through American culture. This book provided a lot of insights.
Worth reading. ( )