Don't Stop the Carnival
A Novel
Published on 11. June 2024
370 pages
978-1-5040-9659-1 (ISBN)
Description
The basis for the Herman Wouk-Jimmy Buffett musical: A middle-aged New Yorker buys a Caribbean hotel and learns that paradise has its drawbacks in this novel that "moves as fast as a Marx Brothers movie" (
The New York Times Book Review).
Broadway press agent Norman Paperman is pushing fifty with one heart attack already under his belt. So he decides to chuck the stressful Manhattan life and bring his wife and teenage daughter to a lush green island. With the help of a wheeler-dealer friend, he winds up buying a small hotel. How hard could running one be?
Pretty hard, actually, when you throw in an earthquake, plumbing problems, rampaging ants, and a few more unexpected developments at the Gull Reef Club. Before long, Norman's spirit is as drained as his bank account, his marriage is on the brink, and he's desperately searching for a way out of this beautiful nightmare...
Don't Stop the Carnival is a clever comic departure for the Pulitzer Prize-winning, #1 New York Times-bestselling author of such classics as Marjorie Morningstar, The Winds of War, and The Caine Mutiny-and eventually served as the basis for the celebrated Jimmy Buffett album and stage musical.
"Funny [and] continuously entertaining.... Norman Paperman, although hardly an admirable person, is exceedingly human and entirely believable. One cringes with sympathy for him." - The New York Times
"His sandy beaches are alive with stinging sand flies... farce laced with tears." - Time
Broadway press agent Norman Paperman is pushing fifty with one heart attack already under his belt. So he decides to chuck the stressful Manhattan life and bring his wife and teenage daughter to a lush green island. With the help of a wheeler-dealer friend, he winds up buying a small hotel. How hard could running one be?
Pretty hard, actually, when you throw in an earthquake, plumbing problems, rampaging ants, and a few more unexpected developments at the Gull Reef Club. Before long, Norman's spirit is as drained as his bank account, his marriage is on the brink, and he's desperately searching for a way out of this beautiful nightmare...
Don't Stop the Carnival is a clever comic departure for the Pulitzer Prize-winning, #1 New York Times-bestselling author of such classics as Marjorie Morningstar, The Winds of War, and The Caine Mutiny-and eventually served as the basis for the celebrated Jimmy Buffett album and stage musical.
"Funny [and] continuously entertaining.... Norman Paperman, although hardly an admirable person, is exceedingly human and entirely believable. One cringes with sympathy for him." - The New York Times
"His sandy beaches are alive with stinging sand flies... farce laced with tears." - Time
More details
Person
Herman Wouk (1915-2019) was a Pulitzer Prize-winning author of fiction and nonfiction. His works include
The Caine Mutiny,
Marjorie Morningstar,
The Hope, and
The Glory. Several of his books have been adapted into films and miniseries. Wouk's early career as a radio comedy writer included a stint on the Fred Allen Show. He later became a naval officer after the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. The son of Russian Jewish immigrants, Wouk's novels
The Winds of War and
War and Remembrance delve into Jewish peoples experiences during World War II. In 1999, he received the Jewish Book Council Lifetime Achievement Award.
