568
idly, it is quite probable that he
has burned his hand. There is the
synthetic name, the rejection of
Judaism,
the
psychoanalytic
double-talk, the cuteness, narcis–
sism and lint of Village beds, which
stigmata are meant to stand in in–
dictment of the man, and the
sophomoric philosophizing, in–
tended to take care of his intellec–
tual pretensions, to say nothing of
his withered arm which, by spe–
cial dispensation, may be supposed
to have Freudian significance. At
the same time he is so dazzling
and irresistible to women that he
qu~lifies
as an author's own wish–
fulfillment. Noel is handsome, wit–
ty, brilliant in dispute (or is sup–
posed to be; actually he talks like
a hairdresser), and endowed with
a fair amount of talent and excel–
lent insight into the Jewish middle
class from which he springs. All
in all, he appears to be worthy of
Marjorie's adoration, and some–
times even a little too good for
her. On the subject of Marjorie,
moreover, he does much better
than Wouk himself, for he is the
only one within miles to come up
with at least a workable definition
of the
girl.
He has her taped for
a "Shirley"-the kind who flutters
under a false nubility, only to
harden into the stone image of her
own frustrated mother and prove
herself inimical to all sweetness,
love, and art. No doubt, Wouk
gives this opinion to Airman as
a measure of the latter's infantil–
ism, but like many a child's re–
mark, it sticks.
Marjorie is the biggest
gyp
of
all. Let alone the fact that she
hasn't an idea in her head (the
only way in which Wouk has suc–
ceeded in characterizing her as an
actress) and that she seems to be
constructed of chewing gum, she
is made to function in a rather
dishonest way. It is up to Mar–
jorie to show the shortcomings of
sexuality as a principle of life. For
this purpose, Wouk sacrifices her
virginity and has her conduct an
affair with Airman; but he might
have saved the girl's honor because,
from all indications, she is not
qualified to speak. Wouk is so care–
ful to keep her a good Jewish
girl,
a "Shirley," that he does not
let her enjoy it; and it would be
a fair guess to say she is frigid . I
am aware that the establishment
of such charges does not lie within
the
province
of literary
criticism;
but
it
does lie within
fiction
to
give honest witness to life, and
this Wouk has, deliberately or
through
ignorance,
prevented
Marjorie from doing. Her exper–
ience on the night of page 417
consists in pain, shock, and
"in–
credible humiliation," and her gen–
eral
disposition
toward the subject
is summed up
in
her
view
that
love affairs give actresses reddish
eyes, lead them to drink and late
hours, coarsen their manners and
speech and undermine their reluc–
tance "to pose for underwear ad–
vertisements and nude pictures."
Needless to say, the opposition
of Marjorie and Noel fails to pro-
