Don't Stop the Carnival: A Novel: Amazon.ca: Herman Wouk: Books

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Product Description

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. (Hilarity and disaster -- of a sort peculiar to the tropics -- ensue.)

It's the novel in which the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of such acclaimed and bestselling novels as The Caine Mutiny and War and Remembrance draws on his own experience (Wouk and his family lived for seven years on an island in the sun) to tell a story at once brilliantly comic and deeply moving.

About the Author

Herman Wouk (born May 27, 1915) is an bestselling American author, with a number of notable novels to his credit, including The Caine Mutiny, The Winds of War, and War and Remembrance. He was born in New York City, into a Jewish family that had immigrated from Russia, and received an A.B. from Columbia University. He was first a radio scriptwriter, and worked with Fred Allen, then in 1941 worked for the US government on radio spots selling war bonds. Wouk then 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." His first ship was the USS Zane, then he was second-in-command on the Southard. He started his writing career onboard, working on a novel during his off-duty hours. He married Betty Sarah Brown in 1945, with whom he had three sons, became a fulltime writer in 1946, and published his debut novel, Aurora Dawn in 1947. In 1952, The Caine Mutiny received the Pulitzer Prize. In 1998, he received the Guardian of Zion Award.

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Customer Reviews

57 Reviews

5 star:		(37)
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3 star:		(4)
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Average Customer Review

4.4 out of 5 stars (57 customer reviews)

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Classic From 1965 Still Best of the Beach Books, July 19 2004

By

Antoinette Klein (Hoover, Alabama USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

This review is from: Don't Stop the Carnival (Paperback)

You'll be humming "Carn-nee-val is very sweet, Please don't stop de Car-nee-Val" as you eagerly read this most enjoyable Herman Wouk novel. The amusing tale of New York public relations man Norman Paperman centers on a universal dream---quitting the rat race, escaping to the sunny Caribbean to loll about in the sunshine amidst scantily-clad beauties, and be the King of one's own alcohol-induced domain.

Norman is swept into the realization of his mid-life crisis when exuberant Lester Atlas presents him with a fait accompli---money to become an island innkeeper, supervising one of the most charming money-makers on the fictional island of Amerigo. Norman soon discovers being an innkeeper is fraught with peril, but his misadventures will leave you laughing and longing for a quick trip to sunny Paradise.

Many characters propel this book, each charmingly depicted as only a great storyteller like Wouk can. From the reclusive Iris Tramm, to the all-forgiving Henny Paperman and her nubile daughter Hazel, to the outrageous Hippolyte, and most especially the native Kinjans who give this novel a charm most realistic yet alarming, the reader is swept into life on an island paradise that is at once heaven and hell.

Can Norman forget his successful New York career and make the transition to a change in latitude and attitude? Will phrases like "We be jammin', mon" erase the bitter cold of a New York winter and the thousand indignities a pr man must suffer? Will his penchant for extra-marital affairs be his undoing? Will a long-ago girlfriend's dark secret shock him? Put on the suntan oil and read while you bake for an experience everyone should have at least once.

By the way, the book is not complete until you also listen to the CD from the musical that Jimmy Buffett and Herman Wouk collaborated on. It may not have been the toast of Broadway but it is the perfect accompaniment to a reading of this book.

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars "Don't Stop The Carnival" - Comedy With A Message, Jun 20 2004

By

Donato (La Verne, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Don't Stop the Carnival: A Novel (Paperback)

I read this book as a teenager when it first came out in 1965, and then picked up a copy of it a while ago and reread it. Amazing what a few decades can do to one's perspective. How many mid-life crises have many of us gone through in which we dreamed of leaving big city stress to find the perfect, ideal life in some remote, exotic place? (This book, if you will, turns up the lights at closing time and lets you see what people really look like!) So, Carnival's Norman Paperman goes though his mid-life fantasy on a Caribbean island, and, predictably, things are not as perfect or as ideal as expected. That's why this book holds up so well after 40 years: it's entertaining and has a message. At nearly 400 pages, it moves amazingly fast, thanks to Herman Wouk's skill as a writer. Definitely worth the time, especially if you harbor any of the main character's desires for the perfect escape.

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Margaritaville Is Real, April 23 2004

By

Greg Railey (Millbrook, AL USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Don't Stop the Carnival: A Novel (Paperback)

Outstanding book for any Jimmy Buffet fan or simply a fan of the carribean. Wouk uses his own brand of humor to keep your interest level up through out this book. One of the BEST fictional reads available!

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Most recent customer reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars Good but not great
Unlike many, I found this book not quite living up to expectations. It's ongoing comments about coloreds and whites mingling date the material (ok, it was written a while back)... Read more

Published on Jan 31 2004 by PJY

5.0 out of 5 stars My Favorite Author
For a book that had its first printing about 40 years ago, DON'T STOP THE CARNIVAL remains both fresh and plausible. Read more

Published on July 16 2003 by HeyJudy