Me and Orson Welles: A Novel

(...) Robert Kaplow's Me and Orson Welles is not a coming of age story. It's a Manhattan tale of an age that slipped through our fingers. A Times Square that only exists in the memory of old Broadway troopers, colored in with characters straight from the files of a dozen or so New York newspapers that have met their own expiration dates. But this book, the story of how Richard Samuels, a New Jersey teenager manages to brass his way into Orson Welles' avant garde 1937 production of Julius Caesar and then survive for seven full days is every bit the Broadway tale. Come along and listen to Kaplow's lullaby of Broadway as seen through Richie Samuels's eyes. This is the Broadway that Damon Runyon wrote about in "Guys and Dolls". And while Richie is working his bit part with the great Orson Welles, you can be sure that not far away, Sammy Glick from Budd Shulberg's What Makes Sammy Run? is conning his way from copyboy to Hollywood. It might seem a bit unorthodox to mention Runyon or Shulberg's classics but author Robert Kaplow has recreated the Manhattan they described so superbly and then dropped Richie Samuels right into it. This author is masters of subtext because you know what the major characters like Orson Welles, Joseph Cotton and John Houseman will go on to do in later years. We, the readers, know the secret and we relish in it every bit as much as Walter Winchell might bark, "Wynta gimmee a few words?" This is young Richie Samuels, who knows everything there is to know about the theatre, names of all the greats and the shows in which they appeared as well as the songs they sang. This is young Richie Samuels slickly conning his way out of high school classes to be at rehearsals where Welles thunders across the stage, raging at John Houseman who is slowly losing his mind to keep the star happy and productive. And as much as Richie Samuels believes he can learn from Orson Welles, we can forsee the future that he can't possibly know. We can see Welles frightening the country with his 1938 radio broadcast of "War of the Worlds" while further down the career path, "Citizen Kane" is just dying to be lifted from the dark heart of William Randolph Hearst. We can almost imagine Richie, many years later, turning on his television set to find a much heavier Welles in his famed wine commercials.With all that said, this is Richie Samuels's week. The seven days in his life where he coldly makes the decisions that place him onto a career path. That's one reason this is not a coming of age story. Richie knows exactly what he is going to do. He never blunders into it. He is determined to stay on the stage with Welles and if that means lying to his parents, getting other kids at school to lie for him so he can cut classes and generally just obscure his Manhattan melodrama until he's ready to spring it on friends and family, he's very up to the challenge. Naturally, Richie's momentum stumbles a bit when falls in love with Sonja, an enigmatic beauty that every ma

I've read a lot of books recently, but I don't think there's one that can top "Me and Orson Welles" for the sheer pleasure it provided. This is a classic, wonderful, coming-of-age story, set in the New York City of 1937. Richard Samuels is a 17-year-old high school student with a big heart and big dreams. Through lucky happenstance, he lands a small part in "Julius Caesar," the opening Broadway production for the Mercury Theatre and its star, 22-year-old Orson Welles. I'm not a Welles scholar by any means, but have read several biographies of the man, and would say the outsized figure who strides through these pages rings true. Yet for all his manic genius, Welles never steals center stage from our hero, Richard, who we quickly learn has a greater soul, if perhaps a lesser talent. Joseph Cotten, John Houseman, Norman Lloyd and the other famous Mercury names come to life in the story as well. You will feel yourself in their midst, feel the great tensions leading up to that all-so-important opening night, revel in their triumphs, share in their disappointments. This will sound like a cliché, I know...but I laughed out loud (a lot); I came close to crying a couple of times; and I closed the book with a real sense of disappointment that it was over, but grateful to have recaptured a wonderful feel for that time in life when everything seems magical and new and anything seems to be possible.--William C. Hall

I bought this novel after reading the excellent review in Entertainment Weekly last week. It really deserves it. The book is quirky, absorbing, and totally original. It puts you right into the heart of a moment in history. That whole world of New York in the 1930's comes alive: the neon signs, the slang, the tempo. And by the time the story's done, you feel as if you've lived through it all yourself. The feeling is exhilarating and terrifying and hilarious.

I just read that this title was selected by BOOKSENSE for their November/December top-ten recommendations, and I completely agree with their selection. I've been teaching JULIUS CAESAR for more than a decade, and I think I've been waiting for a novel like this for a decade. I'm ordering a class-set to go along with my unit on CAESAR. It makes the play come alive. More than that, it makes theater come alive. It is also funny as hell. And I think it shows that being young and ambitious and dreaming of glory is timeless.

I read the starred review this novel got from Kirkus Reviews ("Joyful and alive, crackling with wonder.") and, as a fan of All Things Orson, I've been waiting for it with great expectations. I'm pleased to report it's wonderful! It's most brilliant device, I think, is that Welles is a secondary character, not the lead. This lets the narrator, as well as the reader, take an objective and wide-eyed view of the tale. And what a tale it is! I was reading this book, which is really a long countdown to opening night of the Mercury Theatre, and I found my heart was beating faster. Really! My pulse was racing; I was nervous, and this was for a production that opened sixty-six years ago! That's the magic of this novel. You are really there! You befriend Orson Welles. And you share this funny, funny and occasionally poignant rollercoaster ride. And what a damn great movie this would make!