TABLET
Herman Wouk, the American Jewish Writer who wrote huge best-sellers and wasn’t especially neurotic
by Adam Kirsch
January 7, 2016

…Why is it, then, that the American Jewish writers who were most successful, whom we now regard as classics, did not make success their theme? On the contrary, they generally wrote about failure, alienation, neurosis, and guilt—to the point that these subjects came to seem stereotypically Jewish in American culture. If the American Jewish story is, on balance, a very happy one, why are our books so miserable? Where are the well-adjusted Jewish writers? The answer is that such writers did exist, but the critics who dictate literary posterity had little use for them. Just look at Herman Wouk. If ever a man lived the American Dream, it was Wouk. Through the sheer power of his imagination, he became rich, famous, and beloved, while enjoying a loving marriage. READ MORE