The Lawgiver by Herman Wouk

I am a longtime lover of Herman Wouk’s books. Who didn’t love the sweeping saga of “The Winds of War”, “War and Remembrance” and “The Caine Mutiny” or the charm of “Marjorie Morningstar”?  So last week, when browsing at Barnes and Noble, I saw the name Herman Wouk, opened the cover to read the flap, and saw the name “Moses” I knew I had to read this book.

Mr. Wouk states that he always wanted to write a book about Moses, but it wasn’t until his 97^th year (last year) that he decided to write a book about how hard it was to write a book about Moses.  This is an epistolary novel containing email, memos, text messages and Skypes of a group of people making a movie about Moses.  The producer will not fund the movie without Mr. Wouk approving the screenplay.  So Mr. Wouk is a character in his own book (or a fictionalized version of himself).

It was an entertaining read.  I did like the way they spoke about Moses.  I certainly think they (or Mr. Wouk) had a better understanding of who Moses was than DeMille did.  I also loved the relationship between Mr. Wouk and his wife of 63 years.  I don’t think that part was fictionalized.

I am giving this book 5 stars, because of who the author is and the fact that he wrote it at 97.  Gotta applaud that!  

5 Stars (Rated PG)