Marjorie Morningstar
by Herman Wouk
Nomination: National Book Finalist 1956
Date Read: February 23, 2021
Wouk does it again. First, he managed to make a mutiny aboard a submarine absolutely riveting and then make me feel guilty for my rah, rah sentiments. Now, he manages to not only entertain again, but to take the tendency towards a traditional life and actually argue their merits. Yet, what seems simply traditional is also beautiful, meaningful and inevitable for us all.
Marjorie is a spitfire, ready to conquer the theater world, at the misgivings of her parents. After several brief boyfriends, she ends up in the arms of Noel Airman, an undeniably talented songwriter she meets at a theater camp. Noel will prove to be the love of her life and, if she lets him, her total undoing.
Noel is hell-bent on living an unconventional life and, for the time being, so is Marjorie. She wants to succeed in the theater and is not interested in tying Noel down, particularly because it’s almost a personal challenge for her to remain the cool girl, not settling for what everyone around her is – marriage, kids and a house in the suburbs. Yet, Marjorie also clings to her Jewish beliefs, not eating pork or shellfish and clinging ever so strongly to her virginity. This is no simple feat considering Noel’s extensive history with the ladies.
Their love affair is beautiful, charmed by youth and the enchantment of the camp at South Winds. This spell is brought to an abrupt end when Marjorie’s uncle suddenly dies, who happens to be the dishwasher at South Winds in an effort to keep any eye on Marjorie.
And from here, their love is on-again/off-again like a yo-yo. And one of their on-agains, Marjorie finally does the deed. How many horrible marriages were stumbled into just because both parties really wanted to get laid and they sold out their entire futures for sex? And once they’d done it to their heart’s content, realized they were married to the entirely wrong person? For the rest of their life.
On the canoe trip at South Wind with her father, he asks her where they (her parents) went wrong considering Marjorie blatantly told her father she didn’t intend to marry Noel and was considering an affair with him. It’s the changing of the times happening right there and for once, I believe, taking marriage as seriously as it ought to be.
Through time and the vail of youth slowly being pulled from her eyes, Marjorie realizes that Noel is not the man for her. Constantly broke, unreliable and continually living a life like an early twenty-year old, a bleary-eyed wander through the streets of Montmartre in Paris made her pursuit crystal clear. She had finally outgrown her first true love.
Marjorie eventually does find and marry a perfectly decent soul. Although the fact that he never quite looked at her the same way after she revealed to him she wasn’t a virgin made me want to punch him in the wiener. And so Marjorie, the starry-eyed firebrand, becomes what Noel eventually predicted for her – a wife, a mother and a house in the suburbs. But after everything Marjorie has experienced, is that really such a bad thing?
Looking Back: The Caine Mutiny
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