Book Preview: Youngblood Hawke by Herman Wouk

Youngblood Hawke
by
Herman Wouk

In case you don’t know this, Youngblood Hawke is my all-time, number-one favorite book…ever. Maybe you have read The Caine Mutiny, The Winds of War, War and Remembrance or Marjorie Morningstar. I’ve read a few of these too, and he’s written many more. At nearly 100 years old, Wouk is still writing! His latest book, The Lawgiver, was pubished in 2012.

Herman Wouk Still writing! — Herman Wouk
Still writing!

Youngblood Hawke is about the rise and fall of a fictional American novelist. It’s set in New York in the 1940s and 1950s and has a great cast of characters and plotlines. Wouk based the book on the life of the real novelist, Thomas Wolfe. It was published at the beginning of the summer of 1961 and my mother tells me she read this on the beach when I was a baby.

I’m not at the beach right now, but in the spirit of summer, I’m going to re-read this favorite!

Here’s a list of Wouk’s work, taken from his website, cited below:

Bibliography (Fiction and Non-Fiction)
The Lawgiver (2012)
The Language God Talks (2010)
A Hole in Texas (2004)
The Will to Live on: The Resurgence of Jewish Heritage (2000)
The Glory (1994)
The Hope (1993)
Inside, Outside (1985)
War and Remembrance (1978)
The Winds of War (1971)
The Lomokome Papers (1968)
Don’t Stop the Carnival (1965)
Youngblood Hawke (1961)
This is My God: The Jewish Way of Life (1959, revised ed. 1973)
Slattery’s Hurricane (1956)
Marjorie Morningstar (1955)
The Caine Mutiny (1951)
City Boy: The Adventures of Herbie Bookbinder (1948)
Aurora Dawn (1947)