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Don't Stop the Carnival

3.9 of 5 stars 3.90 · rating details · 1,275 ratings · 155 reviews

It's every parrothead's dream: to leave behind the rat race of the workaday world and start life all over again amidst the cool breezes, sun-drenched colors, and rum-laced drinks of a tropical paradise.

It's the story of Norman Paperman, a New York City press agent who, facing the onset of middle age, runs away to a Caribbean island to reinvent himself as a hotel keeper. (H...more

Paperback, 416 pages

Published May 15th 1992 by Back Bay Books (first published January 1st 1965)

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Jun 12, 2012 Rebecca rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites

I adore this book. I read it when I was probably 13 and found an old hard back copy in one of my parents stacks of books. Neither of them knew where it came from or had read it. I thought that was so odd but adored reading it and have gone back to it many times since. I own very few books though I am a voracious reader. If it isn't a book I really love and see reading multiple times it isn't worth it for me to have it on a shelf. This book makes me giggle and smile with it's eccentric characters...more

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Dec 06, 2012 Jeremy Proctor rated it 1 of 5 stars

This is a hateful, toxic book. Reading it felt like being beaten up. I cannot compass how it has earned so many positive reviews; I would rate it at less than zero if this site permitted negative numbers of stars. The main characters are so dissolute and debauched that it is impossible to care about them. Worse, the author has an egregious habit of "type-ing" every character, no matter how fleeting, in a most debasing manner: Negro, Jew, gentile, whore, Turk and just about every homophobic depre...more This is a hateful, toxic book. Reading it felt like being beaten up. I cannot compass how it has earned so many positive reviews; I would rate it at less than zero if this site permitted negative numbers of stars. The main characters are so dissolute and debauched that it is impossible to care about them. Worse, the author has an egregious habit of "type-ing" every character, no matter how fleeting, in a most debasing manner: Negro, Jew, gentile, whore, Turk and just about every homophobic deprecation he can think of. Whatever skill the author may have as a storyteller is completely undone by his bigoted, blighted world view. It would be charitable to say that this is a book written and published before conventions of political correctness could moderate Wouk's mordancy, or to say that the cruel callousness that suffuses the narrative belongs more to the protagonist than to the author. However, "Don't Stop the Carnival" is just too relentlessly and gratuitously crass to concede Wouk that courtesy: this book is utterly poisonous, and not nearly funny enough to palliate its venom. Moreover, as another reviewer here points out, the author imperiously assumes a White male (and very narrow-minded) reader -- and even that demographic must surely find many passages offensive. I was eager to read this book because I once lived in St. Croix, and know well the places, and the quirks of Caribbean life, that inspire the story. Instead of kindling my nostalgia for the Virgin Islands' natural beauty and the spirit of the Cruzan people, though, it brought back wince-worthy memories of the strident, gluttonous, piña colada-swilling scumbags who swanned around in sports cars and speedboats, indulging their Master-race status on the island to distract from midlife crises and sundry failures back in the States. Nothing redeeming in that exercise -- and yet the author somehow feels entitled to have us actually empathise with such boorish boozers. In his 1998 forward to "Don't Stop the Carnival" Wouk writes, "My métier is social portraiture." Spiteful caricature is more like it; peppered with snide stereotyping and imprecation that veers toward flat-out hate speech. He also states that while writing this novel he, "had in mind the feel of a Chaplin movie." Well, the slapstick is certainly there -- minus Chaplin's sparkling humanity. This one belongs in the dustbin. Or better still, the fireplace. My recommendation: Don't read the horrible "Don't Stop the Carnival".(less)

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Dec 13, 2010 Bob Arbogast rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Anyone who likes good books

Wow! Norman Paperman had a gigantic, mind-numbing, mid-life crisis and I’m glad I was allowed to witness it. This book had me howling with laughter throughout, but being a story populated with very real people, there were consequences and casualties. The end of the book was painful. Painful, because of what happens to the characters, but also because the story had ended and I wouldn’t get to spend more time all the people I had met.

The change in tone toward the end of the book, was initially sur...more

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Jun 23, 2011 TheTick rated it 4 of 5 stars

I read this a few years ago, after listing to Jimmy Buffett's concert CD of the play he made out of it. A fun cautionary tale about a middle-aged Broadway PR guy who has a mild heart attack and buys a hotel on a fictional Caribbean island. Very quickly Norman runs afoul of the trials and tribulations of building ownership in the tropics, such as a wonky water cistern, crazy employees, and his financial backer who managed to get one of those crazy employees mad enough to hunt him down with a mach...more

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Feb 05, 2010 Gayle rated it 3 of 5 stars

Carnival is about a middle-aged New York City producer burned out by the fast-paced life of the city. He falls in love with a Caribbean vacation spot and, with the help of a self-absorbed friend, decides to leave New York behind and purchase the hotel. You can feel the threads come unraveling for him from the start and soon enough he's juggling staffing issues and every possible problem associated with running an island hotel. If you keep in mind it's a comedy and simply enjoy the story, you'll...more

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Mar 02, 2009 Tami rated it 5 of 5 stars

The great comic drama - if it could go wrong, it did. Sometimes I found myself covering my eyes (makes it hard to read) knowing already what was going to befall poor Norman Paperman. As I read, some little gnome in the back of my mind kept poking me, asking "and you think you want to run away to the tropics and never come back? See what happens?" Well, yes, I still do (and the gnome can just shut UP already) - a fun look back at New York society of years gone by, and of island life that is proba...more

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Jan 18, 2013 Amy is currently reading it

Shelves: fiction, i-own

I've been meaning to read this for a while and saw a copy at a thrift store and finally picked it up. I've relegated it to my Dining In Restaurants Alone book, so I've been averaging about a chapter a month. Last night I had a dream about the island and realized it had been a while since I last left off, so I took myself to breakfast this morning just to get another chapter in. Wouk's writing style is very evocative, and the island and characters truly come to life. However, as other reviewers...more

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Oct 19, 2012 D rated it 3 of 5 stars

The book is a little dated as expected since it was written in 1965. But if you can get past what I'm sure was timely for the language of that time it is an interesting read.

I won't wreck the ending like someone else did in an earlier review but there was a suprise for me at the end and how it all wrapped up.

Colorful characters throughout the book puts a nice punctuation on the sense of place for the fictional island Norman Paperman decides to stake is future on.

I chose this book because I am...more

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Aug 01, 2011 Andrea added it

I picked this up because Jimmy Buffett wrote a musical based on the book, and that intrigued me. The main character, Norman Paperman, is a New Yorker who falls in love with the Caribbean, decides to chuck it all and buy a hotel on a small island called Amerigo. Hilarity and tragedy ensues as he tries to adjust to the peculiar, laid-back lifestyle of the islands. Problems surface that would be unimaginable on the mainland. Like running out of water. I'm grateful for the map of the imaginary Ameri...more

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Apr 05, 2012 Matt rated it 4 of 5 stars

Have you ever sat at your desk wondering if you owned the place how great life would be? Or have you ever gone on vacation and wondered what it would be to pick up from a 9 to 5 routine and move to the islands. Norman Paperman takes you on both these adventures at the same time. Don’t stop the carnival is a great island read. The characters in the book are memorable and very relatable. I have read many books about Caribbean island living and this is one of my favorites. It is one of those novels...more

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Oct 15, 2012 614(life) rated it 4 of 5 stars

Wouk's account of an American businessman who backs his way into buying a hotel on a fictional Caribbean island is well-written, entertaining and in the best way possible, "of a bygone era." The vocabulary and some of his characters fit well into the 50s and 60s (when the book was written and takes place). His assessments of the Caribbean and the way time functions, along with other subtle cultural commentary that he almost hides in the text makes one realize that perhaps great authors can say t...more

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Jul 26, 2012 the other courtney rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorite-re-reads

I often daydream about running away from home. Packing it in and slipping away to some Red-and-Andy-Dufresne tropical island and starting anew. I could do it! I could just GO. I could get one of those ‘island’ jobs (hotel manager, coconut picker, hippie bead necklace maker). I don’t need to be less than 10 miles from a Target and just thinking about the great tan I’d get makes the fantasy so much more appealing.
That’s the fantasy of Don’t Stop the Carnival, by Herman Wouk. Set in the 60’s, DSTC...more I often daydream about running away from home. Packing it in and slipping away to some Red-and-Andy-Dufresne tropical island and starting anew. I could do it! I could just GO. I could get one of those ‘island’ jobs (hotel manager, coconut picker, hippie bead necklace maker). I don’t need to be less than 10 miles from a Target and just thinking about the great tan I’d get makes the fantasy so much more appealing.
That’s the fantasy of Don’t Stop the Carnival, by Herman Wouk. Set in the 60’s, DSTC takes us through the mid-life crisis of one Norman Paperman. Norman is an agent in New York and through a series of manipulations and his own desire to start anew, he ends up chucking it all and purchasing a hotel on the island of Amerigo. He was the first Parrothead.
A New Yorker through and through, Norman suddenly finds himself on what might as well be a different planet. When reality sets in, when the vacation gloss wears off and he finds himself having to function and make a living as a new hotel owner, the story really takes off. A fantastic cast of supporting characters walk poor Norman through mishaps, heartbreak, soap-opera antics, Caribbean social politics and a cornucopia of absurdities. They could have easily become two-dimensional cartoon characters but Wouk gives them personalities and histories and life. Your heart breaks for some, you cheer and jeer and roll your eyes for others because they don’t exist to make Norman’s story: they would be there doing their crazy regardless of whether this book was ever written or not.
Wouk also did an incredible job of creating a sense of place. You feel the bitter NY winter, bask in the island sun; you grind your teeth along with Norman as he relays between utter frustration and a fleeting sense of peace. Your share that pit in his stomach when he stares at his mounting debt and laugh when he eventually concedes that maybe, just maybe, he’s in over his head.

Full disclosure: I know the island Wouk writes about. I grew up there. Fictionalized in his book, I learned through my mother that Wouk spent time there in the early 60’s. He was perceived by the locals as a “gringo hippie writer” and they just humored him. When I first read the book, I laughed myself silly because I KNEW THESE PEOPLE. I knew that you have to have a full cistern; that sometimes you have to go retrieve your receptionist from her home and remind her to come to work; that the world doesn’t end if the power goes out but you better have kerosene in your lanterns and candles readily-accessible. I’ve met these aging pirates, recluses and retirees; wannabe sailors and those marooned on a stretch of sand, not entirely sure how they got there in the first place. The Caribbean, the real Caribbean, is a parenthesis on this planet. It’s the exception to the rule. Regular laws don’t apply and God help you if you think it will adapt to you instead of the other way around. You either succumb to it, or pack it up and head back to where you came from. Regardless, it will still be there when you change your mind.
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Jul 29, 2009 Carol rated it 4 of 5 stars

Wouk published this lighter-than-his-usual story more than 40 years ago, but it is not dated and is still in print. A New York agent, recovering from a heart attack, visits a small (fictional) Caribbean island, is swept away by its beauty and apparent tranquility and buys a resort, to run himself. And then the fun begins. All kinds of problems with building maintenance in the tropics and with eccentric local employees and government officials underlie the image of paradise. Wouk is a masterful s...more

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Oct 16, 2012 Christine Thomas rated it 3 of 5 stars

I really loved this book, but I'd only recommend it for those people that have been to the Caribbean for an extended vacation, or have lived there. The story is basically a comedy of errors that one man experiences upon moving from New York City to the islands to become the owner/manager of a hotel. This book was published in the 60s, but it rings surprisingly true to date. It's funny, romantic and a pretty accurate account of life in the Caribbean. Just like living in the islands, this book isn...more

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Mar 16, 2013 John Beck rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: reviewed, fiction

http://andalittlewine.blogspot.com/2013/01/dont-stop-carnival-by-herman-wouk.htm...

I struggled to finish Herman Wouk's Don't Stop the Carnival, not because it was hard to read, but because it was too familiar. In fact, a couple years ago it went into the Did Not Finish pile, and only recently was re-exposed to the light of day.

Listen: I grew with a father who was an incorrigible Jimmy Buffett fan. So, yes, of course I knew Buffett's musical adaptation of Don't Stop the Carnival long before I kne...more http://andalittlewine.blogspot.com/2013/01/dont-stop-carnival-by-herman-wouk.htm...

I struggled to finish Herman Wouk's Don't Stop the Carnival, not because it was hard to read, but because it was too familiar. In fact, a couple years ago it went into the Did Not Finish pile, and only recently was re-exposed to the light of day.

Listen: I grew with a father who was an incorrigible Jimmy Buffett fan. So, yes, of course I knew Buffett's musical adaptation of Don't Stop the Carnival long before I knew that it was based on a book. And the adaptation is faithful; Wouk even worked with Buffett to produce the musical.

Listen: while it may have been a scathing, and daring, critique of American business culture, involvement in the Caribbean, and race relations in 1965- fifty years will take the edge off most anything.

Norman Paperman is a workaholic, a philanderer and emotionally vacuous. And when he can't have his life the way he's always imagined it, he packs up his toys and goes home. I suppose I should feel either pity or satisfaction that he gets his come-uppance, but I've seen it coming- and I think I would have seen it coming even if I hadn't known the Buffett version. I'm indifferent to his struggles.

I think of Graham Greene's The Heart of the Matter, about a British soldier in colonial Africa torn between his love for his wife and his feelings for a native girl. Published nearly twenty years before Don't Stop the Carnival, Greene's novel has maintained its urgency because it is built around a central character who is tragically flawed, and whose desires are as sincere as they are irreconcilable.

Much of Don't Stop the Carnival is satirical: the shiftless natives, the Byzantine labor laws, the island's incestuous internal politics. But the institutions being satirized are so long gone, I need to do serious research to see much more than the joke.

Is it about the moral vacillations of white people who say they want social change, but please not too much and don't let it disrupt my life... ? Is it about the arrogance of a business man to think he can be successful at any endeavor... ?

I've heard these jokes before, and I've heard better ones, too.(less)

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Aug 09, 2010 Adam rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, caribbean

Wouk really brings the Caribbean alive in this wet and wild island adventure!

For years I've read about 'Don't Stop the Carnival' in varying places, most commonly when it was noted as a book of caution for anyone with the harebrained idea to pack up and run away to the Caribbean. Having harbored just such a desire since childhood, I figure I might as well learn what I'm up against!

The protagonist, Norman Paperman, a Jewish New York publicist, falls in love with a small Caribbean island, Amerigo,...more

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Sep 22, 2010 Kaethe rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: humor, fiction

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I’m going to finish this, but more out of grim determination than anything else. There are so many isms that seem to come so naturally to the period. I don’t know why they shock me so. It isn’t as if I never read older works. I think one of the things I find most distressing is his casual assumption that it’s perfectly okay for men to have affairs, but not women. He divides his characters along strict moral and gender lines, and it never occurs to him to do differently. There are good women and...more I’m going to finish this, but more out of grim determination than anything else. There are so many isms that seem to come so naturally to the period. I don’t know why they shock me so. It isn’t as if I never read older works. I think one of the things I find most distressing is his casual assumption that it’s perfectly okay for men to have affairs, but not women. He divides his characters along strict moral and gender lines, and it never occurs to him to do differently. There are good women and bad women and sluts everywhere. When someone like Siddons writes about the period it is with the understanding that good girls would like to be doing it, —no, that isn’t it. Siddons doesn’t assume that some girls are good and some are bad. She has characters who play by the rules and others who don’t but she takes the time to explain why and how. A character may be shocked if another one has sex, but Siddons isn’t shocked. Someone may call someone else a slut, but Siddons doesn’t. Wouk on the other hand keeps letting his male characters sleep with girls and discard them like used Kleenex, and neither the characters, nor Wouk think that’s wrong. He agrees with the stereotypes, and he’s lazy about it, and that I do not approve of.

***

I finally finished it. It was a chore, I didn’t really want to. When I was done I wished I hadn’t made myself do it. Do you know how he ends the thing? I’m infuriated. Night of the big party Hyppolite the murderous one comes for Atlas, and after a week or so of heavy drinking and no food, Janet/Iris dresses up and comes to the party. Nothing happens. Hyppolite frightens Esmé and she goes into labor, but manages to have her baby in the hospital and all. Janet/Iris falls down and scratches up her face and her dog is slashed by Hyppolite. That’s all. Essentially everything goes off without a hitch. And then the next day a policeman comes to get the facts on Hyppolite and ends up shooting Hassim and killing him. No good reason, just a stupid thing. And then Janet/Iris borrows Norman’s car to go pick up her dog at the vet, and she has an accident and dies. She’s not drunk or anything. A cab driver stops in the middle of the road to talk to a girl, and she comes up and runs into him, and goes flying out the windshield. Stupid. Far all the concern about her drinking herself to death, she dies in a perfectly normal car accident. For all the fear of the murderous Hyppolite, he doesn’t harm anyone. There are two other big expectations: that Norman will go broke and that his wife will leave him if he has another affair. Norman pulls out of the island hotel business at least even, maybe ahead a little, and when Henny realizes that he slept with Janet/Iris (after she’s dead) not only does she not leave him, she ends up comforting him.
The worst thing about it all is that Wouk hasn’t set up these expectations in order to fulfill them in an unexpected way, nor has he set it all up to make a joke of how the things we worry about never come true. It’s as if he’d worked on this novel, painstakingly crafted it, and someone else came along and wrote the last chapter using the same characters. The characterizations are so poor that I can’t figure out who Norman all of a sudden decides to leave. It’s crazy. One of the most frustrating books I’ve ever read.(less)

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Oct 16, 2011 J.M. rated it 3 of 5 stars

I picked this up on the clearance shelf, probably for no other reason than the cover attracted my attention. I had no clue Jimmy Buffet had helped the author write a musical based on this book.

The blurb calls the book a non-stop, rip-roaring comedy. I admit the story is non-stop, but it wasn't exactly laugh-out-loud funny. I found it humorous and enjoyed the writing, but it wasn't the funniest thing I've ever read.

Also, I was a little put out by the narrator's prejudices against both blacks and...more

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Jun 02, 2008 Elizabeth rated it 4 of 5 stars

I enjoyed this book. It was very a lovely, well-written comedy that made me want to spend some time on a tropical island. The book was supposedly born from an amusing story told over cocktails, then fleshed out by the experiences of the author and some acquaintances... and that's what it felt like. There are several distinct feelings in the book: There are times when it is a terrific comedy of errors, where you are routing for the hero, but terrified of what next challenge he's going to have to...more

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May 05, 2008 Noah Rosenthal rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2000-2005-post-college

I read this book either right before or right after I got out of college. I dare say that this is actually a great time to read a book about a midlife crisis dealt with through wanderlust. At the time, I felt an interesting confluence of wanderlust and responsibility, and that's precisely what DStC is about.

DStC is a clever book, with good dialogue, great dialect and a cute story and cute characters. I haven't read War and Remembrance, but everybody I know who has says it's long-winded and bor...more

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Sep 06, 2007 Tracey rated it 2 of 5 stars

I saw Don't Stop the Carnival on the sale table at the local bookstore a few weeks ago. Planning a visit to Florida and being a fan of Jimmy Buffett's musical adaptation, I decided to pick it up.

While definitely of its time (1959), I found it to be a fascinating glimpse of the culture of the Carribean, as well as an amusing "fish out of water" story. Norman Paperman (what a great name!) was a sympathetic, if occasionally bone-headed character; and Iris Tramm an engaging, mysterious lady with a p...more

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Mar 18, 2010 Susan rated it 3 of 5 stars

Boy have things changed since the '50s! This story of a New Yorker (Norm Paperman) buying & managing a hotel on a fictional Carribbean Island had a bit of everything. Poor Norm! Everything that could go wrong did. It was painful to read about his misfortunes, but hilarious at the same time.

The shenanigans of the money man remind me of the things that led to our current financial mess. I'm so glad the racial & other mores of that time are behind us.

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Mar 22, 2012 Ziaguy rated it 5 of 5 stars

The book has gotten much attention because of Buffett's attention to it but should be read on it's own merits. Truly timeless, it only rarely requires the reader to think 1960 as a time frame for the events to make sense (such as "float time" for bank checks to NY). The characters are real, and the humor is wonderful, but there is a serious note throughout that becomes most apparent at the end.

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Sep 10, 2010 Spencer Morris rated it 4 of 5 stars

I would like one of my friends to read this book because I can't tell how I really feel about it. The plot is exhausting as misforunes are heaped on the protagonist. Then there is an apparent climax followed by a complete dismantling of the conventional storyline arc. Even that fits with the overall theme of the book. Read it and tell me how I really feel.

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Jul 02, 2012 Elisa rated it 3 of 5 stars

I am glad I read this, but I just didn't see it as a comedy, and our bookclub didn't really either. We all felt sorry for Norman Paperman, working his hardest and seeing the island throw everything back in his face, wet and dripping. He is a man who isn't handy, can't do the books, can't fix things, can't run around because of his heart and he buys a hotel on an island and ends up doing it all and more, sink or swim style. Nothing worked out easily but Norman ran around, made good friends and so...more

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Jul 07, 2012 John rated it 5 of 5 stars

Perfect read for trip to Caribbean. Excellent character development, and island quirks described in the book were easily recognizable on Virgin Gorda, despite 40 years that have passed. Definitely some 60's period elements with dress, speech, and culture....but not overwhelmingly so. Funny, entertaining, insightful, and sad...very well done!

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Aug 26, 2012 Doctor Sax rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: el-caribe, fiction-classic-literature

Exceptional read! Story runs the gamut of human emotions told in a poingnant yet comical way. Many characters to root for, loathe, and laugh at, sometimes all at the same time. Norman Paperman takes on WAY more than he could ever imagine, but adapts to Carribean law, politics & culture to make things work out....often in a comical manner.

I REALLY enjoyed this fictional gem from Herman Wouk!

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Feb 26, 2012 Jenaya rated it 5 of 5 stars

Blowing my mind - nearly 40 years later, this is a pitch-perfect satire of "continental" living in the Caribbean. If this fictional island wasn't based on St. Croix - and the Hotel on the Cay, in particular - I will eat my flip-flop. I wish this book would never end, or at least not until I've finished this three month vacation.

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Aug 06, 2012 Courtney rated it 4 of 5 stars

While he tends to be a bit verbose, this is the classic novel of what it is like to grow up on an island as a Continental and the tongue-in-cheek irritations of day to day life. Essential for understanding a world outside of being international or American, I really like this book, almost love.

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Jul 25, 2011 Lisa rated it 3 of 5 stars

I liked this book but didn't love it. It did make me want to head to the Islands though. And it along with another book about owning a Inn in a foreign country have made me think that it probably isn't all it's cracked up to be. Paradise may only be paradise if you don't own a piece of it. : )

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About Herman Wouk

Herman Wouk is a bestselling, Pulitzer Prize-winning Jewish American author with a number of notable novels to his credit, including The Caine Mutiny, The Winds of War, and War and Remembrance.

Herman Wouk was born in New York City into a Jewish family that had emigrated from Russia. After a childhood and adolescence in the Bronx and a high school diploma from Townsend Harris High School, he earned...more Herman Wouk is a bestselling, Pulitzer Prize-winning Jewish American author with a number of notable novels to his credit, including The Caine Mutiny, The Winds of War, and War and Remembrance.

Herman Wouk was born in New York City into a Jewish family that had emigrated from Russia. After a childhood and adolescence in the Bronx and a high school diploma from Townsend Harris High School, he earned a B.A. from Columbia University in 1934, where he was a member of the Pi Lambda Phi fraternity and studied under philosopher Irwin Edman. Soon thereafter, he became a radio dramatist, working in David Freedman's "Joke Factory" and later with Fred Allen for five years and then, in 1941, for the United States government, writing radio spots to sell war bonds. He lived a fairly secular lifestyle in his early 20s before deciding to return to a more traditional Jewish way of life, modeled after that of his grandfather, in his mid-20s.

Wouk joined the United States Navy and served in the Pacific Theater, an experience he later characterized as educational; "I learned about machinery, I learned how men behaved under pressure, and I learned about Americans." Wouk served as an officer aboard two destroyer minesweepers (DMS), the USS Zane and USS Southard, becoming executive officer of the latter. He started writing a novel, Aurora Dawn, during off-duty hours aboard ship. Wouk sent a copy of the opening chapters to Irwin Edman who quoted a few pages verbatim to a New York editor. The result was a publisher's contract sent to Wouk's ship, then off the coast of Okinawa. The novel was published in 1947 and became a Book of the Month Club main selection. His second novel, City Boy, proved to be a commercial disappointment at the time of its initial publication in 1948.

While writing his next novel, Wouk read each chapter as it was completed to his wife, who remarked at one point that if they didn't like this one, he'd better take up another line of work (a line he would give to the character of the editor Jeannie Fry in his 1962 novel Youngblood Hawke). The novel, The Caine Mutiny (1951), went on to win the Pulitzer Prize. A huge best-seller, drawing from his wartime experiences aboard minesweepers during World War II, The Caine Mutiny was adapted by the author into a Broadway play called The Caine Mutiny Court Martial, and was later made into a film, with Humphrey Bogart portraying Lt. Commander Philip Francis Queeg, captain of the fictional USS Caine. Some Navy personnel complained at the time that Wouk had taken every twitch of every commanding officer in the Navy and put them all into one character, but Captain Queeg has endured as one of the great characters in American fiction.

He married Betty Sarah Brown in 1945, with whom he had three sons: Abraham, Nathanial, and Joseph. He became a fulltime writer in 1946 to support his growing family. His first-born son, Abraham Isaac Wouk, died in a tragic accident as a child; Wouk later dedicated War and Remembrance (1978) to him with the Biblical words, "He will destroy death forever."

In 1998, Wouk received the Guardian of Zion Award.

Wouk is still alive as of May 2012 and living in California.
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Quotes from Don't Stop the Carnival

“Look at us. We build giant highways and murderously fast cars for killing each other and committing suicide. Instead of bomb shelters we construct gigantic frail glass buildings all over Manhattan at Ground Zero, a thousand feet high, open to the sky, life a woman undressing before an intruder and provoking him to rape her. We ring Russia's borders with missile-launching pads, and then scream that she's threatening us. In all history there's never been a more lurid mass example of the sadist-masochist expression of the thanatos instinct than the present conduct of the United States. The Nazis by comparison were Eagle Scouts.” — 5 people liked it

“The West Indian is not exactly hostile to change, but he is not much inclined to believe in it. This comes from a piece of wisdom that his climate of eternal summer teaches him. It is that, under all the parade of human effort and noise, today is like yesterday, and tomorrow will be like today; that existence is a wheel of recurring patterns from which no one escapes; that all anybody does in this life is live for a while and then die for good, without finding out much; and that therefore the idea is to take things easy and enjoy the passing time under the sun. The white people charging hopefully around the islands these days in the noon glare, making deals, bulldozing airstrips, hammering up hotels, laying out marinas, opening new banks, night clubs, and gift shops, are to him merely a passing plague. They have come before and gone before.” — 4 people liked it

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BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/42988.Don_t_Stop_the_Carnival?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1344269736l/42988.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/42988.Don_t_Stop_the_Carnival?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]Don't Stop the Carnival by Herman Wouk[/url]

Don't Stop the Carnival

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