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Posted on 05/27/2015 10:26:24 AM PDT by EveningStar
On May 27, the American novelist Herman Wouk will attain the prodigious age of 100. Over his long career, Wouk has achieved all the wealth and fame a writer could desire, or even imagine. His first great success, The Caine Mutiny (1951), occupied bestseller lists for two consecutive years, sold millions of copies, and inspired a film adaptation that became the second highest-grossing movie of 1954. Wouk’s grand pair of novels, The Winds of War and War and Remembrance, likewise found a global audience, both in print, and then as two television miniseries in the 1980s.
Wouk won a Pulitzer for The Caine Mutiny. From then on, however, critical accolades eluded him. Reviews of the two “War” novels proved mostly dismissive—sometimes even savage. Critics assigned the proudly Jewish Wouk to the category that included Leon Uris and Chaim Potok rather than Saul Bellow and Philip Roth.
(Excerpt) Read more at theatlantic.com ...
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Both Winds of War and War + Remembrance should not be missed. Great reads and provide insight where much seems to have been lost.
Wrote some good stuff.
Happy Birthday!
I agree, totally! Those two books should be read more than once. We cannot afford to forget, but looking at the world around us, today. we obviously have!
My wife and I read these two books to each other.
Question most often asked by either of us..."Where's Natalie?"
If he was forgotten, it was because of the left-wing peaceniks, book reviewers, and academics who shoveled him out of sight.
Never read his Winds of War and War and Remembrance, but if the miniseries on youtube is supposed to follow these two books, the story line comes across mainly soap opera, with WW2 fill in.
A lot of historical inaccuracies in them also. For instance, one would gather from the miniseries that it was only Jews that were killed in the concentration camps. Not so, there were at least as many non-Jews in the camps, if not more.
The focus of the mini-series seemed to be certain Jewish characters, such as Jastrow, a writer in Italy famed for writing “The Jewish Jesus” (and his niece), born Jewish, converted to Christian, then switching to a Talmudic lecturer, then taken to Auschhitz and killed.
Except for Robert Mitchum, the Christian main characters in the mini-series were the biggest bunch of adulterers you’ve ever seen. This sharply contrasted with the sterling Jastrow. It seems Wouk wanted to depict Christians in this light.
Wouk’s novels may not have been as overt as the mini-series, don’t know, never read them.
That is because we all remember Fred MacMurray from My Three Sons, Flubber, and the Shaggy Dog!
He’s seen as more of a popular writer (non literary). I don’t think it was political since someone like Saul Bellow is still held in high regard and he was a conservative too.
A great man. A religious Jew.
He was one of my favorite authors when I was in my 30s and I have great memories of reading his books.
We visited Pearl Harbor for the first time last Sunday and went to the Arizona memorial, so now would be a great time to re-read WOW.
Yes - good idea - I will look to see if I can get those into my Kindle for summer reading.
Fred McMurray playing in Double Indemnity as
a man who lets himself into a murder and insurance
fraud scheme is a bit darker Fred than My Three Sons.
Great film by the way.
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