Customer Reviews

Beautiful Wasps Having Sex

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Titles matter, and it is a great shame that Dori Carter went with this title for her book. The title is just too clever by half. It will mislead and misdirect readers. This book is about neither Beautiful WASPs nor sex.

Instead, what we have here is a wonderful novel about one of the most significant manifestations of the Jewish presence in America, namely the Jews who work in Hollywood as screenwriters, agents, and producers. It shows how they take their own experience of life (which is clearly drawn upon their own experiences as Jews in America, and more distantly on their knowledge of the history of the treatment of Jews within gentile cultures) and transform it into something understandable to the American public, especially that public between the two coasts which must be pleased to make a movie that is a success. To this end they create an idealized culture of the Beautiful WASP which they use in these movies as a mirror to reflect back onto the mainstream of American life not what is, but rather what is dreamed of. Dori Carter has written a book which is, I think, an insightful exploration of this aspect of the Jewish experience in America. She can be laugh-out-loud funny as she lampoons the utterly superficial world of Hollywood and its creations. And yet at the same time she has written a book which is a serious exploration of the question of how this unique group can and does relate to the broader American culture within which it dwells. I read in a review that this was a book about "self-hating Jews" presumably because these characters try so desperately hard to mask who they are. I do not agree with this statement. A closer reading of the novel shows the narrator coming to understand and appreciate the world she remains a part of, no matter what the superificial surroundings. I hope that both Jewish and non-Jewish readers will not be put off by the novel's awful title and will instead let themselves enter a fascinating world which is portrayed faithfully with humor, pathos, and great understanding.

BEAUTIFUL WASPS HAVING SEX manages to be both a very funny read about the travails of a Hollywood screenwriter, and a compelling look at what drives people in the movie business. It rises way above the usual Hollywood novel in that it considers both the Jewish psyche, and the roots of the entertainment business in explaining why, "No one's very surprised by bad behavior in Hollywood."

Frankie Jordan, the narrator is a forty-year-old writer whose marriage is ending and career is faltering when she meets her agent's secretary, Jonathan Prince, a twenty four-year-old whose career is just beginning. The story traces his rise to power as seen through her eyes. Jonathan, like his predecessor Sammy Glick, rises by stepping on the people who were stupid enough to trust him. But Dori Carter also guides us through the workings of the movie industry from a writer's point of view by following the struggle Frankie endures in trying to get her screenplay made with just a little bit of integrity intact. Agents, producers, development girls, studio executives...they're all here spouting dialog that made this reader laugh out loud.

Most of the characters are Jewish, with a few well-chosen token WASPs. Among the Jews,Yiddish is sprinkled in conversations both as a self-deprecating reference to their poor, politically incorrect forebears - "The shvartzeh comes tomorrow" - and as an acknowledgement that they all came from the same, fearful world. The title of the book has to do with one of the many ironies in the book: These Hollywood Jews wish they could feel as carefree and safe as the beautiful WASPS whose image they have done such a splendid job in packaging. As Jerry Slotnick, a schlock producer explains: "It's the jealousy love/hate thing that the Jews have for the WASPS. The WASPs don't have to be deep...They don't feel obliged to suffer. Their God isn't as demanding as our God. He doesn't make you get circumcised, command you to sacrifice your son, and then forbid you to eat spareribs on top of it."

This is one Hollywood book you will NOT be embarrassed to be seen reading on the beach.

it's rare to read a book that is both an insiders guide to an interesting subject matter, ie. hollywood movie scene, and at that same time provide such great entertainment to the on going relationship between the jewish world and that of the wasp. Sad, funny, entertaining, informative, etc. - all in one. A rarity and hopefully this writer has another one in the oven.

Hollywood insiders have always been smitten with movies and television shows about the downright mean business they work in. So it would be no surprise to me if many of those same people found this book a delightfully literary black comedy. Dori carter writes well, with the voice of her narrator, Frankie Jordan almost feeling like someone Sue Grafton or Susan Isaacs would have created.Unfortunately she's not someone I ever rooted for in the book. In fact I don't think there were any people in this book I even liked let alone rooted for.-Well, maybe her Grandmother who is not integral to the plot but at least had a heart. Overall the book left me confused;Was it a cautionary tale of the pitfalls in Hollywood or a meditation on how Jews perceive themselves versus the idealized world of the WASP they're perpetuating in the media? Maybe both, or neither one. Ultimately the only thing I learned was that Hollywood is full of hateful, unhappy people.

I absolutely loved Dori Carter's book, in fact, I forced myself to put it down, because it was so much fun to read, I didn't want to read it too fast. I always love reading Hollywood stories,especially the nitty gritty...what really goes on. At times, I was laughing so hard, I had tears in my eyes. Read it, you won't be sorry.

I so enjoyed reading this book, and had to write a review to thank Carter for making me laugh at so many points. This is an insightful, warm, hysterical read. I especially recommend it to readers interested in the following three topics:
1) Jews in Hollywood
2) Relations between Jews and WASPs
3) The Writing Life/Screenwriting Life
As an filmic accompaniment to this book, I recommend the devastating "Quiz Show," which makes similiar points in an equally engaging and provocative way (though Dori Carter's take is much funnier). This book would make a great movie!

It's too bad that a writer of such obvious talent chose to waste it on such trivial subject matter. Dori Carter is clearly writing about the entertainment industry from personal experience however, one can't help but wonder why she would choose to relive such a sordid and uninspiring tale of unmitigated woe. The thinly veiled, autobiographical character, Frankie Jordan, lurches from one heartbreaking rejection to another, whining all the way. Carter is quite adept at one-liners which, this reader suspects, are a mask for the pain she is feeling. The novel would have touched us much more deeply if she had allowed us into her head and into her heart rather than keeping us at an emotional distance with deadpan humour and an almost journalistic retelling of each fact and detail.

The character Frankie Jordan retells a story of hiking in Pacific Palisades with her friend, Miriam, also Jewish. The day is perfectly beautiful but Miriam can only think of what it would be like if the Nazi's were chasing them. Though she decries this kind of Jewish thinking, Carter herself cannot seem to escape it. As the former and current wife of two of Hollywood's most successful screenwriters, how else could one explain the impetus for this self-indulgent drivel? Wanting to get back at those who have hurt you is simply not a good enough reason to write something like this and call it a novel.Let's hope that Carter chooses to set her sights higher on her next foray into literature.

Beautiful Wasps Having Sex has been permanantly added to my bookshelf of great new discoveries. I happened to find the book a week after I'd quit my job, and at a time when I was struggling with my own Jonathan Prince. (Hollywood isn't the only place where people like Jonathan exist.) What a great pleasure to read this book, and to get lost in the humorous, touching excapades of a character I not only liked but related to. The novel abounds with humorous and dead on observations about the way we live today, and the increasingly small role creativity and originality play in Hollywood and the world at large. When I wasn't laughing at the trevails of Frankie Jordon, I was nodding in recognition.

Like Bud Shulberg's, WHAT MAKES SAMMY RUN?, Dori Carter has used her protagonist to narrate the cunning rise of a ruthless young man willing to do almost anything to climb to the top of the Hollywood heap. The two books are so close, that I wondered if Dori Carter modeled her story after Shulberg's -- a way Hollywood often develops "new" ideas.

I found the cover and title misleading. The book is not particularly sexy and there are very few WASPS. Carter's use of Jewish stereotypes is often humorous, but the story is over-all a sad if acurate depiction of how Hollywood thrives on mediocrity and the almight deal.

The novel is still an excellent read. And I look forward to more works by Dori Carter.

I decided that I had to SUFFER through the ENTIRE book before making an intelligent decision about the book itself. This book was DREADFUL and I embraced each moment as a ray of sunshine when I could put it down. Dori Carter uses too many CAPITALIZED words for my taste, in addition to words in italics that I just didn't understand. I thought this book was going to be fun, based on the title and the happy couple on the cover of the paperback edition. This is an EXAMPLE of a book that defines the cliché, you can't judge a book by its cover.