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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
48 of 53 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Ultimate Coming-of-Age Book for Young Women,
By
This review is from: Marjorie Morningstar (Paperback)
Perhaps the best line of this novel comes in the final section as author Herman Wouk takes a satiric poke at himself and says of his title character, "You couldn't write a play about her that would run a week, or a novel that would sell a thousand copies. There's no angle." Of course, the angle is that Marjorie Morningstar is every girl who ever dreamed a dream, who aspired to a great career, and wanted to marry the love of her life. As a reader, I was caught up in her life when I first met her at age 17 till the book's closing when 39-year old Marjorie kisses life-long friend Wally goodbye. I was thrilled to be a part of her life at her graduation from Hunter College, at the hysterically funny yet religiously insightful Seder, at the thrilling summer stock camp known as Southwind, and at every step of her tumultuous love affair with Noel Airman. From the heights of Central Park West to the seedy walk-up apartment in Paris, the reader is swept into Marjorie's life as she chases her dream to become not only a Broadway star but also Noel's wife. Wouk has surrounded her with a remarkably well-drawn cast of supporting characters including her unforgettable Uncle Samson-Aaron, her sometimes friend Marsha, her loving but bewildered parents, and Mike Eden, the friend who forces her to look at her Jewish heritage. Beginning in Central Park West in the 30's and ending in the post-war 50's, "Marjorie Morningstar" is a classic coming-of-age book filled with backstage drama, family clashes, and a love affair you will never forget. You will be thoroughly engrossed in Marjorie's search for identity and her realization that the thing we often try hardest to avoid is that which we truly want most of all.
22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A must-read classic,
By A Customer
This review is from: Marjorie Morningstar (Paperback)
I first read Marjorie Morningstar five or six years ago, and have reread it several times since. In my opinion it's an all-time classic. Mr. Wouk does an excellent job on character development and also vividly describes American (or at least New York) values and aspirations from the 1930s to the post-war days of the 1950s. Mr. Wouk artfully manages to keep the plot flowing throughout the (large) book by covering a broad range of topics and scenes yet, at the same time, not wandering too far from the book's central theme.Marjorie Morningstar often seems to be thought of as a "woman's book" but it's not; I'm a male reader and was captivated with Mr. Wouk's work. Back in 1955 the book was THE publication of the year, resulting in a TIME Magazine cover story about the book's prominence. Also strongly recommended: Youngblood Hawke, another epic novel written several years later by Mr. Wouk.
30 of 33 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
My Sister Marjorie,
By Wendy Kaplan (Houston) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Marjorie Morningstar (Paperback)
My REAL sister has often remarked to me that I read "Marjorie Morningstar" so many times during my early years, I literally became her. Well...possibly, but I'll settle for the idea that, in some weird way, she became my role model. And that has to be a tribute to Herman Wouk, who tells a tale like no other. I had nothing in common with Marjorie, whose story takes place in the Thirties, and who is the product of a rigidly structured conservative Jewish life in New York City. I, on the other hand, grew up in California several decades later, Jewish in name only. But I too felt that I was chafing at the bit to get out and be "free."Marjorie, who is 17 when we meet her, is a spoiled-rotten beauty whose hard-working parents have lifted themselves from their Orthodox roots and become "upwardly mobile" in a time when that phrase was unknown. Uncomfortable in their new world, the parents enforce the same rigid rules upon Marjorie that they grew up with themselves. Paramount to this mind-set is the implacable requirement that a girl remain a strict virgin until marriage. And the corollary: marriage and a family are the only things to which a girl should aspire--all else is superfluous. But Marjorie wants to be an actress, and in her naivete, believes that she will become the diva of her dreams. As she sets out on her quest, she meets a number of people from what would later be known as the counterculture. And she sees life as it is outside her very structured and safe world, falls in love with it, and with the highly unsuitable man who represents all of her hopes and dreams: a bipolar song writer named Noel Airman. Marjorie's genuine and deep struggle to adopt her new world while unable to shed the old forms the crux of the story. I was rooting for her--every time I read the book, I wanted her to conquer Broadway, run away with Noel, and leave her upbringing behind. At the time, I was bitterly disappointed in the ending. In fact, I used to skip it! But now, with many years of some Marjorie-like adventures behind me, I see that Wouk could have ended it no other way. He remained true to his character, and true to his voice. I re-read this book with the idea of writing a glowing review. But time has worked its changes on my psyche. And what I considered perfectly normal in the days when I was a teen under the same sexual and marital restrictions as Marjorie, I now see from a modern perspective. There is a part in the book where the loss of a woman's virginity outside of marriage is described as a "deformity," never to be healed or overcome. That's strong stuff. It scared me to death as a girl, and angers me now. But that does not take away from Wouk's talent. Read it as a period piece, and rejoice that Marjorie turns out alright in the end.
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