Not this Baum. Asher Baum, the protagonist of Allen’s novel. Although the cover of Woody Allen’s novel What’s With Baum? riffs on Edvard Munch’s “The Scream,” the New York skyline in the background, a reference in the book to the famous painting has Asher asserting his unease not about Manhattan, Allen’s love, but the countryside – the Hamptons, Connecticut – their wealthy airs, tick-infested gardens, country chic. One could argue, however, that even if the cover’s a slip, it still applies –classic, anxious, dyspeptic
And because this book is by Woody Allen, it will be read at least by the curious. What will he allude to now, given the still persistent allegations relating to his former step-daughter, now wife of 28 years, Soon-Yi Previn, and questions about the paternity of Dylan Farrow?
As the protagonist of What’s With Baum says at one point, “In today’s culture, an accusal is as good as a conviction.”
And so Allen dedicates, proudly and enigmatically, What’s With Baum to his “amazing wife” with this added strange note: “Where did you learn that?” She is credited with the reflective photo of him on the back jacket.
What’s with Baum, a stream-of-self-consciousness romp, will also be read by Allen fans who admire his work as an essayist and as a writer, director and actor in films which, to date, have reportedly “grossed a total of more than $575 million.”
The novel, a 186-page, chapter-free rumination, features yet again another Allen alter ego, here 50-ish journalist Asher Baum, who acknowledges his New York neurosis and hypochondria, and demonstrates the usual self-denigration, and sarcastic wit, as he reviews his life and wonders what’s with it? He talks to himself, moving through memories and recent events, including his suspicions about his gorgeous wife Connie’s possible affair with his brother, and her over-the-top primary attachment to her brilliant, arrogant author son, whom Asher can’t stand.
Sympathy is intended for Asher, a misguided, misunderstood, and comical protagonist, who comes out all right in the end. In this case, not with a girl – he’s on his third marriage when the story opens – but with satisfaction that his way, though flawed, is the best way. Because Asher, like Allen’s cinematic heroes in a horrible world, is well meaning, funny, unpretentious. Or believes himself to be.
The problem with What’s With Baum is that there really IS no problem, though Asher asserts that the world may think otherwise. Highly intelligent, talented, Asher knows that he often appears to others as a loser, a Dostoyevski–Kafka wannabe. But is Asher – or Allen - aware of the inaccuracies of some of his literary comments? At one point, Asher quotes “To thine own self be true,” and says, “Shakespeare knew what he was talking about.” But that line belongs to the windbag and spy Polonius, who unknowingly violates his own advice. At another point, Asher quotes a line from Hamlet, though he doubts it’s from Shakespeare. He’s right - it’s from Kahil Gibran, though he doesn’t say so, and a reader may wonder why. At the end, reconciled with his brother, Asher talks vaguely again about writing a grand novel to capture the nothingness of the universe.
It won’t happen, but the striving is ostensibly admirable, the humor redemptive, and the fact that Woody Allen turned 90 this past November, worth noticing.
I’m JOAN Baum
