Word: wouk
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...Inside, Outside, Wouk...
Israel David Goodkind, the late-middle-aged narrator of Wouk's latest novel, is smarter than Marjorie. He is exceptionally adept at having it both ways: ordering consomme but enjoying chicken soup. On the "inside" he is deeply religious, privy to the spiritual riches of an ancient tradition. On the "outside" he is a famous tax lawyer with a reputation for creative thinking, which lands him in a consultant's chair during the last days of the Nixon Administration. His jobs: contributing "ethical touches" to the President's Watergate speeches and acting as a messenger between his old friend Golda...
...Talmudic scholar in charge of Nixonian ethics, Goodkind has little to do except write his memoirs. This device allows Wouk to play his own inside- outside game: the surreptitious satisfaction of the autobiographical urge through a fictional character. Presidents and Prime Ministers aside, the novel is patterned on the life and times of Herman Wouk, 69, the author of The Caine Mutiny, The Winds of War and War and Remembrance. Wouk and Goodkind were born in the same year in The Bronx. Both are sons of laundry owners. Both share Russian-Jewish ancestry and religious orthodoxy. Both author and character...
...Like Wouk, Goodkind is reader friendly, operating under the frequently patronizing assumption that his audience has had a hard day. For example: "The problem with elites, which in our topsy-turvy times has got people all churned up is this: who defines the elite? And then, who decides that you or I do or don't meet those superior requirements? Such queries can drift us into minefields like racism and genocide, which this easygoing amusement will bypass, thank...
...Wouk knows all the storytelling tricks and uses them freely. His minichapters seem calculated for attention spans shrunk by 40 years of television; he has increased his quotient of scatological humor; he injects sermonettes on foreign policy and domestic relations; and he provides walk-on parts for celebrities. Should there be any confusion, Marlene Dietrich is the "woman with beautiful crossed legs," and Ernest Hemingway is the burly guy with the mustache who says, "Hammering out a style takes work." He might have added that if you hammer too long, you get pulp...