566
motion studies of Miss Morgen–
stern's
demi-vierge
days are not
without topical interest.
Marjorie
Morningstar
is, in short, like any
other successful object or product
of popular culture; it is a com–
mercial concoction, but a careful
one, made not only to withstand
but to thrive on disparagement.
Over and over again we find our–
selves enjoying things which we
hold in utter contempt; our re–
pugnance, in some strange way,
provides sauce to our pleasure.
All the same, there
is
an extra–
ordinary amount of faking in this
novel. It comes in three varieties:
fictional, wherein the two main
characters, Marjorie and Noel, are
rigged; sociological, in which Mr.
Wouk lays down reflections on the
position of the Jews in American
society without having a thing to
say; and ideological, in which the
ideas place a greater burden on
the reader's imagination than his
understanding: the trick is to see
what bearing they have on the
story. These three aspects of the
novel keep colliding with one
another and produce a lively,
though not always charming, con–
fusion. The confusion is twofold:
one part in Wouk's mind, the other
in the novel. Still another diffi–
culty is provided by the gamut of
tone, which changes with the oc–
casion, and runs from love-in–
bloom, to cynicism, con, satire, bur–
lesque,
haute monde,
and pastrami.
Wouk's sociological study is con-
cerned with two generations of a
Jewish family on the rise and a
hint of the third. When the novel
opens, the Morgensterns are liv–
ing on Central Park West, where
they have moved from the Bronx.
Setbacks during the depression–
Marjorie's father is in the feather–
importing business-force them
down a peg and they move to West
End Avenue, to a smaller apart–
ment, but close enough to the
class standard. They have brought
with them from the Bronx a good
many of their original values, and
these are now undergoing refine–
ment at Mrs. Morgenstern's direc–
tion. The latter is ruthlessly parve–
nu, and opposes Marjorie on ev–
ery issue that carries the least
threat of her daughter's departure
from the pattern of rise and res–
pectability. Marjorie wins, but her
victories are no cause for exulting;
Mom is always right.
The vindication of Mrs. Mor–
genstern's judgment is the most
fundamental operation of the
book, everything contributing to
this end, but it's hard
to
under–
stand why Wouk should seek it. He
seems to see her for what she is–
a shallow, narrow, conventional
woman, enemy of spirit, who fears
life and uses her convictions not
so much for the welfare of her
daughter and family as for their
defensive value against experience.
Yet Mrs. Morgenstern is always
right! Much of her credo is ex–
posed to ridicule, but the alterna–
tive systems receive even rougher
