Woody Allen’s first novel has been worth the wait

In November, Woody Allen celebrates his 90th birthday. Of course, he is best known as a wonderful stand-up comic, screenwriter and film director in a career stretching back to the 1950s and including masterpieces like Annie Hall, Manhattan and Crimes and Misdemeanors. He has also written a number of books including two brilliant collections of short stories, Getting Even and Without Feathers, both published in the 1970s.

Now, amazingly, he has published his first novel, What’s with Baum? Asher Baum is 51, a middle-aged Jewish writer. He started out as a successful journalist and has tried – unsuccessfully – to become a novelist. Everyone, his wife, his stepson, his agent and his publisher, think he’s a failure. Even Baum admits, “I have not lived up to my potential.”

Baum also suffers from panic attacks and has begun talking to himself, obsessively and increasingly loudly. People stare at him. They walk into the toilet, hear him talking to himself and walk straight out again. “You were crying, he tells himself, because nothing works. … your life, your work, your marriage. … Everything’s unraveling.” His stepson tells Baum’s wife, “He’s a loser, Mother.”

Baum is married for the third time and this marriage is his worst. Connie is attractive but deeply unpleasant and completely obsessed with her son, Thane. Baum is convinced that Connie has had an affair with his brother Josh. As for Thane, he is as unpleasant as his mother and is about to publish his first novel. Unfortunately for Baum, Thane unlike his stepfather looks set for a brilliant literary career. There’s already a buzz about his novel and there are plans for a TV documentary about him to be made by an acclaimed director. Baum can’t stand his stepson, and the feelings are mutual. To make things even worse, Baum loves New York but has followed Connie to her grand house in the country. Needless to say, like any Woody Allen character, he can’t stand the countryside and pines for the big city.