Marjorie Morningstar
by Herman Wouk
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Book Summary Information
Author: Herman WoukEdition: Paperback
Format: Bargain Price
Published: 1992-06-15
ISBN: N/A
Number of pages: 584
Publisher: Back Bay Books
Book Reviews of Marjorie Morningstar
Book Review: The Quasar and The Earth
Summary: 4 Stars
"Marjorie Morningstar" was not, perhaps, Herman Wouk's greatest work, but I thought it very good in itself. I always secretly suspected Wouk may have been sorting out his own youthful identity crisis and found it easier to write of it by changing the gender. The underlying theme is far beyond that of a pretty-but-average star struck Jewish girl struggling to come to terms with the constraints of her religion against the mighty tide of worldly influences; it is a also tale of how life can turn things around on everyone in the final analysis - and of how those who dream and work, though the odds seem impossible, can triumph over those who are simply born to dream.
It opens immediately with the girl, standing in front of her mirror, quivering in anticipation of leaping out and onto the great "runaway train" - her life a blank slate before her, no experience yet from which to draw behind her. It is the perfect medium for the vast majority of our mistakes, and some of us will remember it well. The enthusiasm, the heady feeling of euphoria, the quest for the unknown of the new life as an adult, the total lack of sensible fear; spirits soaring as we fantasize. And because we can now do things our own way, Nothing can go Wrong.
Striking out, she sheds her own dull boyfriend, and in the course of becoming a broadway starlet, learns of a suitable job which just happens to be near a summer stock camp of wild and woolly repute, just the thing for an unsophisticated Jewish girl to attempt on her first flight out of nest. Here, of course, she meets a fascinating, blonde loser (although it takes awhile to recognize it) named Noel Airman - who is the director of the theatre and of it's entertainment. He is older but still in the prime of life; a golden God in a black turtleneck beneath the stage lights; a rebel whose real name - she learns much later - is actually Saul and the irony is lost on no one.
At the same time and place, she also meets a talented, but very young and very geeky aspiring writer named Wally, gangly and ungainly, who is immediately smitten with Marjorie and remains so for most of his life - she is "his" unattainable. But Marjorie, in pursuit of "her own" unattainable, Noel, does not even realize he is alive, and in fact, holds him slightly in contempt. These facts become the basis for the story, and for the ultimate twist of fate ending.
It takes us on an entertaining journey through the sleazy world of New York Theatrical circuits, through the angst and worry of Marjorie's despairing parents who try vainly to understand "the new ways" - who know that she will be hurt by it, but more importantly they fear that she will lose not only her morals, but her sense of who she is and where she comes from as well. The star burns brightly while immaturity and elusive dreams struggle against the gravity of the impending arrival of common sense as we truly arrive at our destination - or as close to it as we usually ever get.
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