The Lawgiver: A Novel
The Lawgiver: A Novel book cover

The Lawgiver: A Novel

Hardcover – November 13, 2012

by
Price
$22.97
Format
Hardcover
Pages
240
Publisher
Simon & Schuster
Publication Date
ISBN-13
978-1451699388
Dimensions
6.75 x 0.75 x 9.75 inches
Weight
1.1 pounds

Description

From Booklist *Starred Review* Wouk has been trying to come up with a way to write a novel about Moses ever since he wrote The Caine Mutiny, for which he won the Pulitzer Prize in 1952. At age 97, the venerated author of panoramic best-sellers finally takes on the challenge of portraying the biblical lawgiver. But with a twist: this witty and wise epistolary novel is about a writer named Herman Wouk, who is having a devil of a time starting his novel about Moses. Herman’s struggle with this confounding project is interrupted by “the red-hot moviemaker of the hour,” who pesters him to write a screenplay instead. Through a barrage of e-mails, faxes, letters, and text messages, Herman, guided by his skeptical wife, Betty Sarah, agrees only to consult. So it is up to a bold young director, Margo Solovei, to write the anti–Cecil B. DeMille Moses screenplay. Margo has turned her back on her Orthodox upbringing and the mensch of a lawyer who stubbornly loves her, but she soon finds herself reconsidering her Jewish heritage and being single. Brisk, funny, and incisive, Wouk’s romantic comedy of art versus love slyly updates the story of the beloved star of his indelible novel Marjorie Morningstar (1955), while nimbly (at last!) retelling the story of Moses. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: This smart, playful novel, along with Wouk’s remarkably sustained literary exuberance, will garner major media attention and avid reader interest. --Donna Seaman “A lighthearted and delightful tour de force.” -- The Washington Times "The Lawgiver is an unadulterated delight, a compelling, old-fashioned story in sleek new-fashioned clothes. How fortunate it is for readers that Mr. Wouk, who published The Caine Mutiny when I was but four years old, has not lost an iota of his storytelling genius. The Lawgiver is fast, funny, romantic, and moving." -- Stephen King"An engaging comedy/love story about present-day Hollywood." -- USA Today"Mr. Wouk’s satirical (and accurate) depiction of Hollywood’s bizarre ins and outs is merciless." -- The New York Times“Wouk makes commanding use of the epistolary form, and what emerges is an entertaining addition to his literary canon. It's clever without being too cutesy, revealing a writer who - at 96 - shows little sign of slowing down.” -- Courier-Journal (Louisville, KY)“[I] n some essential way, this book about a movie about a book is also about the very act of writing books. Wouk reminds us of the eternal value of storytelling while he shows 30- and 50- and 80-year-old whippersnappers how it’s done.” ― Washington Post "“Read this one. You’ll smile all the way through.” -- Hudson Valley News (NY)“Readers will undoubtedly marvel at the ability of a ninety-seven year old author to produce a book with such an unusual format. Regardless of their opinion about the book’s design, anything written by Herman Wouk is worth reading and The Lawgiver is no exception.” -- The Jerusalem Post“Honest, highly readable, entertaining." -- Moment magazine“… The Lawgiver is a combination of sweet romantic comedy and sly Hollywood satire, and it is as much fun to read as it seems to have been to write….Wouk excels in channeling distinctive voices." -- The Columbus Dispatch (OH) Herman Wouk wasxa0the author of such classics as The Caine Mutiny (1951), Marjorie Morningstar (1955), Youngblood Hawke (1961), Don’t Stop the Carnival (1965), The Winds of War (1971), War and Remembrance (1978), and Inside, Outside (1985). His later works include The Hope (1993), The Glory (1994), A Hole in Texas (2004) and The Lawgiver (2012). Among Mr. Wouk’s laurels are the 1952 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for The Caine Mutiny ; the cover of Time magazine for Marjorie Morningstar , the bestselling novel of that year; and the cultural phenomenon of The Winds of War and War and Remembrance , which he wrote over a fourteen-year period and which went on to become two of the most popular novels and TV miniseries events of the 1970s and 1980s. In 1998, he received the Guardian of Zion Award for support of Israel. In 2008, Mr. Wouk was honored with the first Library of Congressxa0Lifetime Achievement for the Writing of Fiction. He died in 2019 at the age of 103. Read more

Features & Highlights

  • For more than fifty years, legendary author Herman Wouk has dreamed of writing a novel about the life of Moses. Finally, at age ninety-seven, he has found an ingeniously witty way to tell the tale in
  • The Lawgiver,
  • a romantic and suspenseful epistolary novel about a group of people trying to make a movie about Moses in the present day. The story emerges from letters, memos, e-mails, journals, news articles, recorded talk, Skype transcripts, and text messages. At the center of
  • The Lawgiver
  • is Margo Solovei, a brilliant young writer-director who has rejected her rabbinical father’s strict Jewish upbringing to pursue a career in the arts. When an Australian multibillionaire promises to finance a movie about Moses if the script meets certain standards, Margo does everything she can to land the job, including a reunion with her estranged first love, an influential lawyer with whom she still has unfinished business. Two other key characters in the novel are Herman Wouk himself and his wife of more than sixty years, Betty Sarah, who, almost against their will, find themselves entangled in the Moses movie when the Australian billionaire insists on Wouk’s stamp of approval. As Wouk and his characters contend with Moses and marriage, and the force of tradition, rebellion, and reunion,
  • The Lawgiver
  • reflects the wisdom of a lifetime. Inspired by the great nineteenth-century novelists, one of America’s most beloved twentieth-century authors has now written a remarkable twenty-first-century work of fiction.

Customer Reviews

Rating Breakdown

★★★★★
30%
(79)
★★★★
20%
(53)
★★★
15%
(40)
★★
7%
(18)
★
28%
(74)

Most Helpful Reviews

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Hollywood, Jews, & Hollywood Jews

Ninety-seven-year-old Herman Wouk (or a fictionalized version of him) is minding his own business. And his business, as you know, is writing novels. He's finally tackling the ambitious project he's wanted to write for decades, the story of Moses. It is a huge coincidence, therefore, when a hot Hollywood producer finagles a meeting insisting that he's the only man for the job of writing a Moses screenplay.

Well, Mr. Wouk wants nothing to do with this. Meetings are refused until a rabbi intervenes. Ultimately, it is revealed that the epic film's funding--through unconventional sources--rests upon Wouk's participation. Under duress, he agrees to act as a consultant to the film, with final script approval. A screenwriter for this all-but-unwritable film must be found. Enter Margo Solovei, a young, independent film auteur who has eschewed her orthodox Jewish upbringing. And it is actually Margo who is at the novel's heart, as she pursues this project while dealing with producers, directors, actors, Herman Wouk, and any number of people tying her to her roots.

I doubt I can express how much I loved this novel! Oh, how I laughed! It's true that I am Jewish, and that I have worked in the film industry, so it's possible that the tale "spoke" to me more than it might to some, but Wouk's satire is dead on. Not just of an industry, but of human nature. I guess nearly a century of life gives a man some perspective. Also, as the Booklist reviewer astutely pointed out, there are subtle reflections of Wouk's classic 1955 coming of age novel, Marjorie Morningstar, adding an additional layer of pleasure for fans such as myself. It's really quite amazing the various themes and commentaries that Mr. Wouk manages to work into this slender novel. It's playful as hell, but still whip smart.

Oh, yeah, I should mention that this is an epistolary novel, always a fun and inventive way to tell a tale. It's comprised of letters, emails, faxes, IMs, Skypes, transcripts, voicemails, and so forth. Through the correspondence of the characters' personal and professional lives, a web of connections is formed. And in the end, The Lawgiver is a romantic comedy. I rooted for lovers to find their way. I rooted for unsavory characters to get their comeuppance. And I rooted for Mr. Wouk, who has proved that at 97 he is as sharp as he ever was.
85 people found this helpful
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Surprisingly good

I have to admit that I expected to just kind of tolerate this book, thinking "it's cute that this old guy is still writing." And it is not anything like his WWII novels, to be sure, but it's a darn good book. What a sharp mind Mr. Wouk still has. And the epistolary approach to tell the story of the making of a film works very well. Having it be "autobiographical" in the sense that Wouk makes himself (and his late wife) characters in the story gives the whole thing a feeling of authenticity. As was true the first time I read one of his books 40 years ago, the glimpse at Jewish life is a fascinating draw for me, and the even more alien world (to me) of Hollywood falderal was fun to watch. Kind of amazing to think that the man who wrote about the radio business in "Aurora Dawn" has now made a book based almost entirely on digital communication methods of the 21st century! I hope he lives to be 120 and finishes that Moses novel.
11 people found this helpful
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A fun look at Moses...and the movies.

Author Herman Wouk is age 97 and is still writing novels. Famous for "Marjorie Morningstar", "The Caine Mutiny", "Winds of War", and "War and Remembrance", among many others, Wouk still has things he wants to say in print. He told his late wife and literary manager, Betty Sarah, before she died in 2011, that he had "three books still to write". Well, "The Lawgiver" is the first of those books.

"The Lawgiver" is a mish-mash of a novel. It is essentially the story of making a movie and writing a book about Moses. Rather than using straight narrative, Wouk advances his novel by use of faxes, Skype calls, emails, love letters, and other methods of communication. It's a terrifically clever way to write a novel and all-the-more remarkable because Wouk is 97 years old. Wouk also uses real characters - himself and wife Betty Sarah - as well as fictional ones. Among his fictional characters are Margolit Solovei, a clever young Jewish woman who has cast off the trappings of her ultra-Orthodox upbringing and gone out into the secular world, making movies her rebbe father would never see. She's joined by some normal Hollywood-types, fairly venal in nature, but Wouk softens their venality and makes them likable enough. He takes the reader through the process of making a movie, from the screenwriter's and deal maker's perspectives. It's an interesting view of Hollywood and its "players".

Almost everyone in the book is Jewish; some are more observant than others. Jewish culture and history does play a large part in the story, but I don't think the reader has to be Jewish to appreciate Wouk's book. It's a fun book to read and has a very sweet way about it. It's almost as if Herman Wouk wanted to write a love story about "Hollywood" and it's "players". Oh, and about his late beloved wife, Betty Sarah and their six-plus decade marriage.
11 people found this helpful
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HUMOR ABOUNDS IN WOUK'S SHORT NOVEL

That anyone could write a wonderful novel when he is fast approaching the century mark is itself amazing. That the great writer Herman Wouk could create a story in, for him at least, a new style, and succeed by keeping a smile on your face from beginning to end is beyond explanation. Yet, the author of epic novels like The Caine Mutiny and The Winds of War manages to do both with an epistolary novel about the creation of a movie centering on Moses, putting himself square in the middle of all its quirky madness.

An Australian billionaire, a Jew, wishes to finance a movie about Moses. It will have to depart from the legendary but flawed DeMille box office smash of the 1950's. The idea is originally to have Wouk write the script. Having problems writing his own novel about Moses, Wouk declines but agrees to a proposition that he must approve the script before the plan goes forward. A young screenwriter and director, Margo Solovei gets the assignment, daughter of an Orthodox Rabbi, but herself a lapsed Jew. The trials of the project are endless. The relationships between and among people linked by either a desire to get the project done and done accurately, as well as between schemers, friends,lovers and kin, are fodder for Wouk's knowing and insightful look at human nature. He has said that his real focus has been about being Jewish in America. But his real understanding is his insight into people, their wants, needs and fears and joys.

The Lawgiver makes no pretense to being anything more than it is, 240 pages of gentle fun. That is a plentiful gift from an old man willing and still able to dispense it to his readers.
5 people found this helpful
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Ingenuous Story Telling

I’ve only made it to chapter 4 in the audio book version, but I am instantly taken by Mr. Wouk’s technique. It hearkens back to his Lomokome Papers. It’s amazing to see how somebody his age can stay abrest of modern technology. He’s still writing about the modern world. I’m 47 and don’t even own a cell phone or have satellite/cable TV.

As for the 1 star negative reviews and complaints that the book isn’t really about Moses, how foolish can people be? Why would you expect a fictional/autobiographical novel to be about Moses? You are rejecting this novel out of hand, but how many of you will ever write a fraction of what Mr. Wouk has?

If you want to read about Moses there’s this wonderful Book about him- The Holy Bible. Read that and maybe you’ll see the irony in Mr. Wouk’s book- Hollywood is one of the most coniving, morally decripit and anti-Israel industires known to human history. This industry is dominated by a quarter or so of the Israelite People (all Jews are Israelites, but not every Israelite is a Jew- Read the Book!) and most them utterly reject Mosaic Law as a moral code by which to live their lives and make their business deals.

The Christian New Testament explains how Mosaic Law is used to illustrate human nature and show us just how morally corrupt humans are when left to their own devices. Hollyweird rejects Mosaic Law and between the movies the place puts out and the sleepiing around and drugging and back-stabbing that the people who put these movies out do, it shows.

Maybe when the one-stars grow up some they will see that this Wouk novel is like his previous efforts- layered with meaning.
3 people found this helpful
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Tour de Force! Clever and very funny

Wouk has pulled off a wonderful spoof of Hollywood, Biblical history and human creativity. The variety of fonts is part of the fun.
3 people found this helpful
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Herman Wouk (The Caine Mutiny) has done it again, this time in his 90s!

Cleverly done--Herman Wouk and his wife star in this delightful novel about the difficulty of making a movie about Moses in contemporary Hollywood. Wouk has wanted to write the novel of Moses' life for over 50 years and finally came to the conclusion that it couldn't be done! So he documents the trials of working with a novice script writer, an Australian backer, and the usual Hollywood types (with which Wouk is familiar due to the movies made from his best-selling novels). The novel is written entirely in epistolary form--emails, voice mails, texts, faxes, letters, tweets--anything but straight prose. I thought it would be difficult to follow, but not at all. Another satisfying book by an American master.
3 people found this helpful
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The Lawgiver, a review

Should have read the synopsis more closely, but just jumped at a Wouk novel I assumed was about Moses. Mr Wouk's previous works were sweeping historical novels, this was a huge disappointment, almost seems like he took the notes he'd jotted down as ideas came to him, then just stuck them between a cover & called it a novel.
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Herman Wouk's Moses as Hollywood satire

Imagine: You are Herman Wouk, celebrated author of such superb fiction as MARJORIE MORNINGSTAR, THE CAINE MUTINY, WINDS OF WAR and WAR AND REMEMBRANCE. You are in your late 90s, time is running out, and you still haven't written a novel you've wanted to write, about the Biblical Moses.

So what do you do? You write about yourself, Herman Wouk, struggling to write a novel about Moses. But wait - that's really not the main subject. To add some drama, you give it a fictional twist, portraying him as being pressured by a Hollywood production company that has been approached by an insanely wealthy eccentric Australian uranium tycoon willing to invest HUNDREDS of MILLIONS of dollars into a film production of Moses, provided of course that Wouk is the primary consultant.

And you add some humor, satirizing the Hollywood bigwigs and their coterie who charge $800/hour for travel, not to mention the lawyers who demand $10 million for terminating a contract. You also include as two of your main characters a female scriptwriter raised as a Hasidic Jew who has left the fold, and a little-known actor that she insists play Moses, who has given up acting to become an Australian sheep farmer (and live with his fold). It gets better - his name is Perry Pines, but his previous Italian director pronounced his last name as Penis, so he is already known in Hollywood as Mr. Penis.

Given that we're in the 21st century, and most people have lost their capacity to read a whole linear book due to the Internet, email and texting (and perhaps you fear losing your capacity to write a whole linear book due to the approach of your 97th birthday), you assemble your novel in the form of a chronological hodgepodge of emails, actual letters (do the Hollywood honchos actually write letters on paper anymore?), memos and transcripts of audio recordings from a dozen or so major characters and a few peripheral ones.

The result, inevitably, is Herman Wouk's THE LAWGIVER.

Do I recommend it? Yes and no. A quick and breezy read, THE LAWGIVER is not in the same class as Wouk's other novels. The characters are flat, mostly stereotypes. The prose has that short-sentence, unlyrical, rushed quality of most emails - and unfortunately, most of the characters write in the same sentence structure.

The structure of the book itself is choppy, jumping from person to person as if from link to link, with a few not-very-engaging subplots that detract from the main focus - the hocus pocus around the very Jewish AND very Hollywood production of the actual Biblical Moses - which according to scriptwriter Margolit Solovei must be portrayed as the insecure, self-doubting, humble mensch he was initially rather than the larger than life Cecil de Mille/Charlton Heston superhero.

Despite all its faults, the book is enjoyable. You will probably, like me, read it in two sittings at most, not wanting to put it down. Likewise, you'll find yourself rolling your eyes at the madness of this Hollywood hullabaloo which threatens to drown out the voice character Herman Wouk, if not author Herman Wouk.

Read it, smiling, and be grateful that Herman Wouk is still alive, well and writing. Just don't expect to learn very much about Moses in the process. You won't.
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Reading a Herman Wouk book is a great way to spend time out of your daily life demands!

I enjoy reading anything written by Herman Wouk. His writing style makes you want to continue reading even if you know you should turn out the light and go to sleep.
2 people found this helpful

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