What’s with Baum? is Woody Allen’s first novel, but since it involves a morbidly introspective Jewish man whose natural habitat is New York — and who is obsessed by the futility of life and has the hots for much younger women — it’s patently more of a fictional take on Woody Allen than an actual work of fiction.
Our hero Asher Baum has two failed marriages behind him and one failing marriage in progress. Insensitive critics have harsh things to say about his plays and books for being pointlessly bleak about life’s great questions, but he maintains it’s the critics who are shallow. He has made an imprudent pass at a young Asian interviewer and there’ll be hell to pay. His bitterness is all the greater because Thane, the stepson he dislikes (it’s mutual), is turning into a celebrity on the back of his new novel.
The point of this mercifully slim book is it is a Woody Allen film, only in writing
So far, so Woody Allen. And so on, so Woody Allen, for the point of this mercifully slim book is it is a Woody Allen film, only in writing.
The dialogue could be a problem as it all revolves around a neurotic Jewish writer. He gets round it by making Baum argue constantly with himself out loud from two perspectives. Sometimes he even views his character from a movie’s perspective: “in a film, this would be a fade-out as the troopers patiently tried to calm Baum down. Go to black and then fade up weeks later and Baum is talking to his brother at a very lovely rehab centre.”
What’s with Baum? might work better as a film. A genius film-maker might be able to get round the plot’s implausibility, the thinness of characters and occasional discordant political correctness with good acting and cinematic technique. But as a novel, these things matter.
Baum’s serendipitous encounter with just the person who can nail his stepson’s fraud stretches credulity beyond what can decently be asked of a reader. On the bright side, as a portrait of Woody Allen by Woody Allen, it’s a classic.
Melanie McDonagh is Books Editor for The London Standard
What’s with Baum? by Woody Allen is out September 25 (Swift Press, £19.99)
