Marjorie Morningstar

Summary

I read it and I thought, 'Oh, God, this is me.' - Scarlet Johansson

Now hailed as a proto-feminist classic (Vulture), Pulitzer Prize winner Herman Wouk's powerful coming-of-age novel about an ambitious young woman pursuing her artistic dreams in New York City has been a perennial favourite since it was first a bestseller in the 1950s.

Sixteen-year-old Marjorie Morgenstern lives a quiet life in New York City. Her mother hopes for a glittering marriage to a good man, but Marjorie has other ideas.

When she falls desperately in love with Noel Airman, a musician as reckless as he is talented, Marjorie dreams of defying her destiny as a wife and mother to become a star of the stage. Why should she settle with being just another Mrs Morgenstern if she can succeed as Marjorie Morningstar?

Rich with humour and poignancy, Marjorie Morningstar is a classic love story, one that spans two continents and two decades in the life of its heroine.

A proto-feminist classic. - Boris Kachka, Vulture

To me, it's a unicorn of a book - a so-called women's novel, written by a man, that takes its heroine very seriously . . . A serious book that finds a big, sprawling story in what seems like a small, narrow life. - Laura Lippman, author of The Lady in the Lake

Very good reading indeed. - Maxwell Geismar, New York Times