My first exposure to the great American writer Herman Wouk was when I was in intermediate school and we read excerpts from The City Boy. It was the right introduction for the right person at the right age. I was chubby and nerdy like the book's character, Herbie Bookbinder, and suffered a lot of the same struggles (although living in California and not New York I couldn't partake of some of Bookbinder's salves, like walking a mere block to get a frappe shake). For my book report I rigged up a cheap diorama out of a shoe box that captured the scene in the book where Herbie assembles a sort of roller coaster that does down the side of a hill at his summer camp (I think...it's been a while, maybe he just found an existing one and put up the marketing around it as an attraction for a camp event). Looking back, I don't think it was the best of my attempts at dioramas, but the one hook that made it different from the other projects was that my father helped put a few battery operated LED lights on it so that it looked like a sign Bookbinder put up to showcase the ride. Keep in mind this must have been around 1979, so LED lights weren't the ubiquitous thing they are now. My father being an electrical engineer was a great boon to this particular book project.
I left that piece of Wouk in the rear view mirror and never really came back to him. I knew he was a respected writer but my only interaction with his work for years after that was when I got a copy of The City Boy. The years between high school and young adulthood were mostly filled with the writings of Harlan Ellison, Marv Wolfman, Paul Chadwick, Stephen Coonts, Barrett Tillman, Bob Hall, and yes, damn it, Tom Clancy.
Then a couple years ago I ran across a sale at Amazon on a bunch of Wouk's work, and I figured it was time to pick up some ebooks and audiobooks of his. I finally tackled Youngblood Hawk a couple months ago, and what a ride it was.
Wouk's writing is very good, there's no issue with his choice of vocabulary or style, though I'm not the stickler on that sort of thing that more pretentious critics are. I just want a writer to respect my time; have a decent story to tell and be competent in the telling. Bonus points are awarded if: the work manages to be both educational and entertaining, it sticks with me a bit and makes me think, and the author's not an asshole if I ever meet the person in real life. If your style can makes gods weep, if you've scoured the text ten times over to remove any instance of passive voice, if you scrutinized it ten more times to make sure you "show don't tell," and if you've taken pains to ensure at least ten percent of the characters are homosexual minorities...well maybe bonus points for that too but not at the expense of the more important items.
Youngblood Hawke is a tremendous work. It's a massive book and between a mixture of listening to the audiobook twice a week on commutes, and reading bits of the ebook, it took me two months to finish. The story of the smart but naive young man that enters and navigates the world of New York publishing as he becomes a bestselling writer is a big non-stop sprawling tour through a tumultuous life. I've read some critics say it's one of the best books for explaining the financial side of writing, and it certainly does give the reader an eyeful of it. In fact I'm not sure this is the book for everyone. I think a lot of people today would be quite bored with Hawke, despite the presence of plenty of sex (mostly G-rated in the proceedings), tons of dialog, lengthy descriptions, and a detour to a couple court cases (one a red scare communist hearing, and the other over land rights). The book is really long, and though it's buoyed by well developed characters, intrigue, drama, and humor, I think a modern movie rendition would look nothing like Wouk's work. I can't say anything about the existing 1964 movie; I haven't seen it and don't have a particular interest in seeing it, given my poor faith in Hollywood's ability to respect the printed word, though I'll take a look if it ever crosses my path in one of the many streaming services I currently use.
Most of the reviewers on Goodreads put Hawke at four to five stars. I'm ok with that. It's a bit of a writer's fantasy, but it is interesting and educational. The writing profession, I think, doesn't hold the same allure as it did in 1960. I know from experience how little it pays and how difficult it can be to succeed, although it's still respected and we still need writers. But prior to the invention of the damned internet and proliferation of videos as the new literature, writers were giants and their works were and still are inspiration for other media (plays, movies) and I can see how Youngblood Hawke was a glimpse into the fantasy of that life. I believe I will read more Wouk in the future.
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