Started: April 10, 2024 | Finished: June 11, 2024
Youngblood Hawke
Youngblood Hawke is about a writer from the American South who goes to New York to temp the fates and find fame and fortune through his craft. What makes Arthur Hawke an exception to the many writers who - I am presuming - followed this path without success is that he has the raw talent to pull it off. His novels really do sell, significantly, and these pages tell the rags to riches story of a bestselling author.
I wasn't very keen on Youngblood Hawke, the character, at the outset because because Wouk seems to be simply showering him with victory. Literary success, money, fame, women, more women. I started to become irritated with Youngblood Hawke who seemed to be getting away with stealing another man's wife and pretty much behaving like an uncouth boor; and he's just allowed to do that.
But as I read on and Wouk unfolded the full tale I realized I was reading a well-crafted, deep, and, ultimately, satisfying story. This book shows Youngblood Hawke as a man of great gifts, and, yes, at core a good gu,y but also greedy and foolish. And as for him getting away with adultery, no he does not.
It's an entertaining read but also an instructive one for topics such as money and love.
The backdrop for this doorstopper of a book is late forties, early fifties Kentucky, New York, and Europe - plus a quick side trip to Peru. I like comparing this tale to that other book about a writer that I've read, George Gissing's New Grub Street. That was about the British writing scene during the late nineteenth century. This is about the what it was like to be a writer and publisher in post-World War II America.
The book is long but I can't say enough good things about Herman Wouk as a writer. I've never encountered this kind of writing before. During the best part of my read the writing just got out of the way. I didn't notice the writing, whether it was flowing or lyrical or whatever quality it had. The writing just disappeared in some strange and wonderful way and all I had in front of me was the unfolding story. Quite a magical experience.
This is a great book for readers who like reading about literature and writers - lots of famous authors and works get mentioned and talked about. It's also a great showcase for the prose of Herman Wouk. If you've never read him you've really got to - this guy is a master writer.
P.F. Albano (these.realms@gmail.com)