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Que se passa com o Baum?
Baum, um jornalista judeu de meia-idade que se tornou romancista e dramaturgo, vive consumido de ansiedade por tudo o que mexe. Os seus livros densamente filosóficos recebem críticas mornas, e a sua prestigiada editora nova iorquina deu-lhe com os pés. O seu terceiro casamento está por um fio, e ele desconfia de que o seu irmão mais novo seduziu a sua mulher. Sente-se desconfortável com a relação próxima desta com o filho, um autor mais bem-sucedido do que ele, e suspeita da proximidade dela com o vizinho. Para piorar a situação, num impulso irracional, tentou beijar uma jovem e bonita jornalista durante uma entrevista - o que ela está prestes a divulgar.
"Que Se Passa com o Baum?" é o primeiro romance de Woody Allen e é tudo o que se poderia esperar - e mais ainda. O retrato de um intelectual paralisado por preocupações neuróticas sobre a futilidade e o vazio da vida; um vislumbre divertido do meio editorial nova-iorquino; e, acima de tudo, uma obra de ficção altamente estimulante e que promete abalar o mundo literário.
"Que Se Passa com o Baum?" é o primeiro romance de Woody Allen e é tudo o que se poderia esperar - e mais ainda. O retrato de um intelectual paralisado por preocupações neuróticas sobre a futilidade e o vazio da vida; um vislumbre divertido do meio editorial nova-iorquino; e, acima de tudo, uma obra de ficção altamente estimulante e que promete abalar o mundo literário.
204 pages, Paperback
First published September 23, 2025
169 people are currently reading
676 people want to read
About the author
Woody Allen
284 books3,120 followersNoted American actor, screenwriter, and filmmaker Woody Allen, originally Allen Stewart Konigsberg explored the neuroses of the urban middle class in comedies of manners, such as
Annie Hall
(1977) and
Deconstructing Harry
(1997).
This director, jazz musician, and playwright thrice won Academy Award. His large body of work mixes satire, wit and humor in the most respected and prolific cerebral style in the modern era. Allen directs also in the majority of his movies. For inspiration, Allen draws heavily on literature, philosophy, psychology, Judaism, European cinema, and city of New York, where he lives.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woody_A...
This director, jazz musician, and playwright thrice won Academy Award. His large body of work mixes satire, wit and humor in the most respected and prolific cerebral style in the modern era. Allen directs also in the majority of his movies. For inspiration, Allen draws heavily on literature, philosophy, psychology, Judaism, European cinema, and city of New York, where he lives.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woody_A...
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 77 reviews
September 28, 2025
3.5
This would be so much easier to review if it was crap.
Whenever a celebrity writes a novel - especially one with such a scandalous reputation as Woody Allen - there are questions to be answered...
First, would this have been published if it wasn't authored by Allen? I think the answer is yes, it's a very solid first novel, with good characters and tight writing. There are some funny lines and plenty of insightful and relatable bits.
Second, can you escape into the book enough that you forget it's Woody Allen. This is much more difficult. It is, in many ways, classic Allen, full of typical one-liners and nods to camera. But there are some lines, particularly when the Baum discusses young women when your brain is screaming at you, 'Woody Allen wrote that line! Fucking gross!'
Overall it's a good novel and worth the read. But it is kind of a shame it was written by him.
This would be so much easier to review if it was crap.
Whenever a celebrity writes a novel - especially one with such a scandalous reputation as Woody Allen - there are questions to be answered...
First, would this have been published if it wasn't authored by Allen? I think the answer is yes, it's a very solid first novel, with good characters and tight writing. There are some funny lines and plenty of insightful and relatable bits.
Second, can you escape into the book enough that you forget it's Woody Allen. This is much more difficult. It is, in many ways, classic Allen, full of typical one-liners and nods to camera. But there are some lines, particularly when the Baum discusses young women when your brain is screaming at you, 'Woody Allen wrote that line! Fucking gross!'
Overall it's a good novel and worth the read. But it is kind of a shame it was written by him.
September 25, 2025
Leer ¿Qué pasa con Baum?, primera novela de Woody Allen, publicada a sus 89 años, es como reunirte con un viejo amigo, o un amigo viejo, que te cuenta las mismas historias una y otra vez, pero no hay problema porque a ti te encanta escucharlas.
Miserias morales, anhelos de grandeza, relaciones marchitas, ilusiones adolescentes y neuras, muchas neuras. La carta por la que siempre vuelves a esta cafetería. Si no te reconforta el aroma, ni te acerques. El café viene bien cargado.
Una obra breve y pequeña, acerca de un cretino atormentado por no ser grande y contundente. No ha dudado Allen en utilizar la voz en off cuando lo ha necesitado en sus películas, pero en esta novela el recurso del monólogo interior se torna en un descacharrante diálogo desdoblado, en el que los neuróticos podemos reconocernos fácilmente tras las risas.
Una anécdota que tu viejo amigo viejo todavía no te había relatado y, aunque no es de las más memorables (quizá porque "no va de nada", quizá porque le falta esa esperanza tan característica suya), escuchas/lees con fruición porque sabes que le quedan pocas por contar.
Miserias morales, anhelos de grandeza, relaciones marchitas, ilusiones adolescentes y neuras, muchas neuras. La carta por la que siempre vuelves a esta cafetería. Si no te reconforta el aroma, ni te acerques. El café viene bien cargado.
Una obra breve y pequeña, acerca de un cretino atormentado por no ser grande y contundente. No ha dudado Allen en utilizar la voz en off cuando lo ha necesitado en sus películas, pero en esta novela el recurso del monólogo interior se torna en un descacharrante diálogo desdoblado, en el que los neuróticos podemos reconocernos fácilmente tras las risas.
Una anécdota que tu viejo amigo viejo todavía no te había relatado y, aunque no es de las más memorables (quizá porque "no va de nada", quizá porque le falta esa esperanza tan característica suya), escuchas/lees con fruición porque sabes que le quedan pocas por contar.
Read
September 27, 2025Admirably structured as steady gush of narrative, freely and naturally transitioning between past, present, exposition, action. The main conceit, of the protagonist talking to himself, is also natural and admirably rendered.
Plot can be clumsy at times. No worse than his films, honestly. It’s dealing with more great ideas than its page length can justify, so if it naturally fumbles a few of them, we can at least rightly call them noble fumbles. But the characterization is rich and given ample room, and the writing is consistently enjoyable. A note on the writing: on a few occasions I found his phrasing clumsy, or unnatural, but on a quick second pass through I universally discovered he was merely writing as one talks. Again—admirable!
Plenty of quotables, but here are a few at random that tickled me:
“The sexual signal goes round and round endlessly like radar on a ship.”
“He put his hand in his pocket and pulled out a huge wad of fresh Kleenex. He raged against a universe where they promised you when you took a Kleenex a fresh one would pop up but whenever the box became half full the Kleenex stopped popping up and he had to grasp them manually and inevitably took fat stacks of them because it was too hard to just take one. This was a betrayal and he raged against it as vehemently as the fate of mankind.”
“What the crafty schemers never realize is that you may be able to fool the brilliant people, the educated, but the world is full of nerds and roach men and them, you won't fool.”
“Baum loved art and thought of all the young artists struggling to emerge in a world that loved art, was moved by art, needed art, and paradoxically gave artists such a hard time.”
“When the poet Robert Burns wrote ‘the best-laid plans of mice and men gang aft a-gley’ he didn’t know how goddamned a-gley they could actually gang.”
Plot can be clumsy at times. No worse than his films, honestly. It’s dealing with more great ideas than its page length can justify, so if it naturally fumbles a few of them, we can at least rightly call them noble fumbles. But the characterization is rich and given ample room, and the writing is consistently enjoyable. A note on the writing: on a few occasions I found his phrasing clumsy, or unnatural, but on a quick second pass through I universally discovered he was merely writing as one talks. Again—admirable!
Plenty of quotables, but here are a few at random that tickled me:
“The sexual signal goes round and round endlessly like radar on a ship.”
“He put his hand in his pocket and pulled out a huge wad of fresh Kleenex. He raged against a universe where they promised you when you took a Kleenex a fresh one would pop up but whenever the box became half full the Kleenex stopped popping up and he had to grasp them manually and inevitably took fat stacks of them because it was too hard to just take one. This was a betrayal and he raged against it as vehemently as the fate of mankind.”
“What the crafty schemers never realize is that you may be able to fool the brilliant people, the educated, but the world is full of nerds and roach men and them, you won't fool.”
“Baum loved art and thought of all the young artists struggling to emerge in a world that loved art, was moved by art, needed art, and paradoxically gave artists such a hard time.”
“When the poet Robert Burns wrote ‘the best-laid plans of mice and men gang aft a-gley’ he didn’t know how goddamned a-gley they could actually gang.”
October 23, 2025
“𝘐𝘴 𝘪𝘵 𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘸𝘰𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝘐 𝘵𝘢𝘭𝘬 𝘵𝘰 𝘮𝘺𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘧? 𝘉𝘢𝘶𝘮 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩𝘵. 𝘐𝘵 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘴𝘦𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘩𝘪𝘮 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘺𝘦𝘵 𝘢𝘯𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘪𝘯𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘮𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘤𝘪𝘰𝘶𝘴 𝘦𝘹𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘧𝘰𝘣𝘣𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘵𝘴 𝘮𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘤𝘦 𝘰𝘧𝘧 𝘢𝘴 𝘪𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘧𝘧𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦.”
B-grade Woody Allen reworking Blue Jasmine in self-indulgence of the voice with his mediocre setups from the early 2000’s, I’m thinking Anything Else and Whatever Works.
About a man who talks to himself, and, honestly, only 1 Woody Allen is manageable for his own films, but when you have two? I think this could’ve been done a lot better where Baum’s other self materializes, and would make for an interesting story around identity, the self, and duality of man à la Kurosawa’s Doppelganger.
But here, it seems his concern is trying to poke fun or offer minute perspective on the other side of “cancel culture”, but it soon slips into a scandal around plagiarism and saving the self and flattens out quite quickly.
Definitely fan service and surprised to see this be his first fleshed-out novel. A lot of the one-liners pack punches in the first half, but fizzle out in the end, as if he got tired writing the story himself.
But the man hasn’t put out a good film since god knows when. I mean, Coup de Chance was okay, but the plot threads have loosened up, jumbled up into repeats of other films and the writing itself is tiring itself out. Fine by all means. Best read in an afternoon when you’re up in the country missing New Yorkers and the city itself.
B-grade Woody Allen reworking Blue Jasmine in self-indulgence of the voice with his mediocre setups from the early 2000’s, I’m thinking Anything Else and Whatever Works.
About a man who talks to himself, and, honestly, only 1 Woody Allen is manageable for his own films, but when you have two? I think this could’ve been done a lot better where Baum’s other self materializes, and would make for an interesting story around identity, the self, and duality of man à la Kurosawa’s Doppelganger.
But here, it seems his concern is trying to poke fun or offer minute perspective on the other side of “cancel culture”, but it soon slips into a scandal around plagiarism and saving the self and flattens out quite quickly.
Definitely fan service and surprised to see this be his first fleshed-out novel. A lot of the one-liners pack punches in the first half, but fizzle out in the end, as if he got tired writing the story himself.
But the man hasn’t put out a good film since god knows when. I mean, Coup de Chance was okay, but the plot threads have loosened up, jumbled up into repeats of other films and the writing itself is tiring itself out. Fine by all means. Best read in an afternoon when you’re up in the country missing New Yorkers and the city itself.
October 1, 2025
Many reviewers have pointed out that there’s not much new here — meaning, this Woody Allen novel feels much like a Woody Allen film. Others have emphasized that they refused to pay money for this book, that they rented it from their local library, found a used copy lying in a gutter, etc. — their moral codes not allowing them to give money to this reprobate.
Regarding the second point, okay, fine, people gotta do what they gotta do. I respect that, even though I did pay money for the book. There’s probably a good argument opposing my purchase and probably a good argument defending it, but I don’t feel like getting into all that.
About the first point, yes, the novel definitely feels like certain Woody Allen films, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. I’ve been in the mood for a Woody Allen film, and this book does the things that many of his films do — giving us a quirky, likeable-enough protagonist, some genuinely funny quips, and a plot that keeps chugging along.
What’s with Baum? rises to the level of Manhattan Murder Mystery and Bullets Over Broadway. In other words, it’s good, it’s fun, a nice way to spend a Saturday afternoon. Of course, it’s no The Purple Rose of Cairo or Crimes and Misdemeanors.
The protagonist is familiar and mostly amusing, although at times I found myself wanting to shake him. I actually wanted to shake Woody Allen, hoping such violence might jolt loose a new thought. He’s already given us this character, many times over — the hypochondriac shlimazel, so obsessed with death and meaninglessness that he can’t function, wandering around worrying that every new liver spot might be skin cancer. Camus imagined Sisyphus smiling. Allen can only imagine his characters fretting.
And yet I felt gripped by this novel, continuing to read even though I had real-life demands pressing on me. My heart literally quickened — with dread and a feeling I can only describe as ick — when Baum fell in love with a much younger woman. I found myself hoping he would resist his impulses. Short of that, I hoped that Allen would resist giving the younger woman reciprocal impulses. As the final chapter began, I felt even more compelled to keep reading, again hoping that Baum would do the right thing — this time not with his love interest but with his nemesis-stepson.
Spoilers coming...
This became the novel’s emotional pull for me, as I found myself cheering that Baum would extricate himself, not from some external danger, but from his own smallness. Sadly, he cannot overcome his jealousy and pettiness and ends up exposing his stepson, providing a moral justification that, well, falls far short of his own professed Kantian standards.
Of course, if the universe is devoid of meaning and value, as Baum insists, then his pettiness is no more blameworthy than nobility would have been admirable. Similarly, if the universe contains no higher order, then the novel’s loose ends — we never learn, for instance, what comes of Cindy Tanaka’s allegations — cannot be deemed narrative failings but rather reflections of a meaningless world.
This seems to be Allen’s point. If there’s no ultimate point to life, then even our most noble sacrifices and most beautifully told sagas are mere “sound and fury, signifying nothing.” Life is a riddle that cannot be solved. No, life is absolute gibberish, incapable of offering anything as meaningful as a riddle.
Regarding the second point, okay, fine, people gotta do what they gotta do. I respect that, even though I did pay money for the book. There’s probably a good argument opposing my purchase and probably a good argument defending it, but I don’t feel like getting into all that.
About the first point, yes, the novel definitely feels like certain Woody Allen films, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. I’ve been in the mood for a Woody Allen film, and this book does the things that many of his films do — giving us a quirky, likeable-enough protagonist, some genuinely funny quips, and a plot that keeps chugging along.
What’s with Baum? rises to the level of Manhattan Murder Mystery and Bullets Over Broadway. In other words, it’s good, it’s fun, a nice way to spend a Saturday afternoon. Of course, it’s no The Purple Rose of Cairo or Crimes and Misdemeanors.
The protagonist is familiar and mostly amusing, although at times I found myself wanting to shake him. I actually wanted to shake Woody Allen, hoping such violence might jolt loose a new thought. He’s already given us this character, many times over — the hypochondriac shlimazel, so obsessed with death and meaninglessness that he can’t function, wandering around worrying that every new liver spot might be skin cancer. Camus imagined Sisyphus smiling. Allen can only imagine his characters fretting.
And yet I felt gripped by this novel, continuing to read even though I had real-life demands pressing on me. My heart literally quickened — with dread and a feeling I can only describe as ick — when Baum fell in love with a much younger woman. I found myself hoping he would resist his impulses. Short of that, I hoped that Allen would resist giving the younger woman reciprocal impulses. As the final chapter began, I felt even more compelled to keep reading, again hoping that Baum would do the right thing — this time not with his love interest but with his nemesis-stepson.
Spoilers coming...
This became the novel’s emotional pull for me, as I found myself cheering that Baum would extricate himself, not from some external danger, but from his own smallness. Sadly, he cannot overcome his jealousy and pettiness and ends up exposing his stepson, providing a moral justification that, well, falls far short of his own professed Kantian standards.
Of course, if the universe is devoid of meaning and value, as Baum insists, then his pettiness is no more blameworthy than nobility would have been admirable. Similarly, if the universe contains no higher order, then the novel’s loose ends — we never learn, for instance, what comes of Cindy Tanaka’s allegations — cannot be deemed narrative failings but rather reflections of a meaningless world.
This seems to be Allen’s point. If there’s no ultimate point to life, then even our most noble sacrifices and most beautifully told sagas are mere “sound and fury, signifying nothing.” Life is a riddle that cannot be solved. No, life is absolute gibberish, incapable of offering anything as meaningful as a riddle.
October 5, 2025
Crecí con Woody Allen y sus puntadas y su humor y sus pelìculas y sus metidas de pata y su jazz. Y su autobiografía que me gustó mucho.
Es imposible leer su primera novela y no esperar por un lado una genialidad y por el otro, compasión. Tiene casi 90 años y busca escribir su primera novela.
Me entretiene y me divierte, pero me sentí en ocasiones como obligada a reírme por ser èl.
El clásico: si no fuera escrita por Woody Allen se hubiera publicado? Yo que sè!
Me gustan más las últimas 50 pàginas.
Vale porque es de él. Eso creo.
Harè podcast.
Eso creo.
Es imposible leer su primera novela y no esperar por un lado una genialidad y por el otro, compasión. Tiene casi 90 años y busca escribir su primera novela.
Me entretiene y me divierte, pero me sentí en ocasiones como obligada a reírme por ser èl.
El clásico: si no fuera escrita por Woody Allen se hubiera publicado? Yo que sè!
Me gustan más las últimas 50 pàginas.
Vale porque es de él. Eso creo.
Harè podcast.
Eso creo.
September 29, 2025
Armond White was not wrong in suggesting that Woody should do his DECONSTRUCTING HARRY for 2025 as CANCELLING WOODY. This first novel by Woodrow lacks the acrid taste of HARRY (I still chuckle to recall Manohla Dargis lamenting that Woody used the word “cunt” more frequently than Henry Miller). But it has the warm feel of a conversation with an old—and I mean old— friend, and there are some nasty chuckles for anyone familiar with the Woody narrative. The hero’s wife has a blonde, simpering, overly impressed-with-self son who may recall a certain Me Too icon who might have been sired by Frank Sinatra. (Woody must be pretty sure of Ronan’s parentage—one can’t imagine him savaging his own blood like this.) Asher Baum, the hero, has his own brush with cancellation via a journalist who claims he furtively groped her—and Woody is an astute enough dramatist to make it feel quite possible he actually did. In brief, it’s as if Woody took Armond’s advice but what came out was as soft and personable and as “boulevard” as, oh, MANHATTAN MURDER MYSTERY—but in this day and age, a moment spent with Woody is the closest thing to being near Astaire, Noel Coward, even Lubitsch.
October 6, 2025
I didn’t want it to end. I feel like I just walked out of a movie theater. Thanks for existing Woody Allen.
October 3, 2025
Lo mismo de siempre, es decir, nada nuevo, pero nada malo; puritito Woody. Podría escribir otros 60 años la misma historia, que ahí estaría yo para beberla.
October 5, 2025
Nunca he sido mucho del woody allen director pero sí del escritor. Es imposible a veces no compararlo, aunque siempre sale mal parado en la comparación, con Groucho. Ambos son dos frasólogos (no se si existe la palabra, pero si existe sí tengo claro que esdrújula y va acentuada). Este libro me ha parecido insufrible, me lo he terminado por el que dirán ya que leer a Woody es como leer a Kant: da cierta dignidad en la pose. No tengo mejor forma de describir este libro que parafrasear al mismo personaje de esta novela, la cual no tengo claro si está escrita en primera o tercera persona y el por qué de no usar los guiones para señalar los diálogos si es el código que todos nos hemos impuesto para entendernos. Pero bueno, para no parecer a Baum terminaré como he dicho con una cita de libro que describe a la perfección el mismo, aunque en él sea un indio quien lo dice, y claro si lo dice un indio parece que tiene como más autoridad: “No digo que no tengas tus virtudes, más bien modestas, con destellos ocasionales de imaginación e ingenio.
Pues eso dos estrellas.
Pues eso dos estrellas.
November 4, 2025
The Woodman has had his first novel published at the age of 90. Gives us all hope, mind you he has written something like 50 screenplays and books of prose.
What's With Baum? is like a 3 hour Woody Allen movie, instead of 93 pages we have 186. It's about Asher Baum and his failing marriages and failed literary career and his envy over his step-son Thane who has gained much praise for his first novel. The thing is Baum finds out Thane plagiarized his novel from an obscure text that the Roachman told Asher about in the stacks of The Strand Bookstore in New York.
The prose is clear and true, as Hemmingway would have said, and the bottom line is What's With Baum? is wonderfully entertaining. Which is ironic because Asher says a great book needs to be more than just entertaining. But Woody is no Dostoevsky. It's Woody giving us his take on life and love and fulfilment; which is always funny and sad and poignant; with the gaping maw of death waiting just under the surface.
What's With Baum? is like a 3 hour Woody Allen movie, instead of 93 pages we have 186. It's about Asher Baum and his failing marriages and failed literary career and his envy over his step-son Thane who has gained much praise for his first novel. The thing is Baum finds out Thane plagiarized his novel from an obscure text that the Roachman told Asher about in the stacks of The Strand Bookstore in New York.
The prose is clear and true, as Hemmingway would have said, and the bottom line is What's With Baum? is wonderfully entertaining. Which is ironic because Asher says a great book needs to be more than just entertaining. But Woody is no Dostoevsky. It's Woody giving us his take on life and love and fulfilment; which is always funny and sad and poignant; with the gaping maw of death waiting just under the surface.
October 3, 2025
Probably the best thing the Woodman has put out in the last 15 years. Really scratches that itch for a comfy dark comic Woody caper, feels very akin to Deconstructing Harry and a lot of his post-divorce 90s stuff. Am already hard at work mentally casting who would play some of the characters in a film adaptation: for the moment I’ve settled on Jude Law as Baum, Elle Fanning or Sophie Thatcher as Sam, Rebecca Hall as Connie (if Anne Hathaway turns down the part first) and probably Jacob Elordi as Thane (Chalamet probably slightly too old for the part now)
September 28, 2025
Like watching a Woody Allen movie - pure comfort food. An entertaining and quick read.
October 20, 2025
Cine.
Woody Allen añade un nuevo capítulo a su Comedia Humana. En cada gracia, en cada referencia, hay una verdad sencilla que desnuda el nihilismo imperante.
Desde Aristofanes no ha habido nadie tan grande.
Woody Allen añade un nuevo capítulo a su Comedia Humana. En cada gracia, en cada referencia, hay una verdad sencilla que desnuda el nihilismo imperante.
Desde Aristofanes no ha habido nadie tan grande.
October 21, 2025
Quiero más novelas de Woody Allen.
November 5, 2025
Entretenido, como una película medians de el
October 29, 2025
Woody's first novel is brilliant!
Another brilliant first from Mr. Allen! "What's with Baum?" is wonderful, and difficult to put down. More, please, Woody! This is great.
Another brilliant first from Mr. Allen! "What's with Baum?" is wonderful, and difficult to put down. More, please, Woody! This is great.
October 3, 2025
hilarious, but too short
This has got to be made into a movie! Let’s see: Timothy Chalamet as Thane, Scarlett Johansson as Sam, Bette Midler as Connie and of course Woody as Baum.
This has got to be made into a movie! Let’s see: Timothy Chalamet as Thane, Scarlett Johansson as Sam, Bette Midler as Connie and of course Woody as Baum.
October 5, 2025
A Woody le perdono hasta sus malas películas así que también le perdono y busco las pequeñas virtudes cómicas en esta novela mediocre con un protagonista mezquino y repulsivo que parece una parodia malintencionada del alter ego habitual de su cine.
October 6, 2025
What’s With Baum? is quintessential Woody Alan - far from perfect, but it succeeds way more than it fails. It’s a thoughtful, bittersweet work from an artist confronting his sense of legacy and relevance. While it sometimes feels like Woody Allen trying to wrestle with his own demons, there is a lot of heart here — in the shame, the longing, the comparisons to younger, more successful people, the desperate need to be taken seriously. I was very happy to read it
October 9, 2025
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Baum is a terrific pleasure to read and some of his best fiction, flowing like the new Woody picture we have been waiting for. His first novel at the age of 89 is intelligent and laugh-out-loud funny, with surprising tension.
"Lately, Asher Baum has been talking to himself."
After all, who else should he talk to? A spry fifty-one, it's not dementia or delusion, but a rut he is in. Does anyone care that he is constantly pushing a rock up a hill - "and if I ever get up there, what have I got? A rock on a hill." He wants his books to have an impact, but the last two were panned as turgid. At the country house of his wife, Connie, he wanders the woods wishing he were back in New York, preferring the lights of Broadway to the stars. Connie grew up a spoiled Hollywood child and now puts her son Thane above all else. Baum always avoids the refined little putz, with his vintage suits and blond hair, looking like a Hitler Youth. Thane openly regards Baum a loser. After years of mediocrity, Thane has written a sensational bestselling book, film rights sold, while Baum just found out his publisher is dumping him over complaints from a journalist. Thane is bringing his new girlfriend Sam, who works for his publisher, and Connie is thrilled they are engaged. When Baum meets Sam, he is instantly smitten by her intelligence and beauty. She reminds him of his first wife, Nina, a Barnard student whom he left after falling for her twin sister—also, his beautiful third wife, Tyler, whom he never got over. Sam seems to be on Baum's side, and they hit it off—how can she desire that pretentious narcissist? Back in New York, Baum meets with his writer friends and discovers a slight problem with the spoiled little prince's renowned book. No matter what he does now, that Pandora's bookshelf is illuminated, and there is no way to stop the fallout, even if Baum wanted to.
For fans of Woody's films, there are countless endearing tropes revisited here: Autumn is the best month; the country offers little, especially when you get a tick; beautiful intelligent sisters; Manhattan still holds him in its grip; a writer falls for the star of his Broadway show; a talentless writer becomes a Hollywood millionaire; a woman falls for the artist and not the man —and if Thane was inspired in any vague way by Mia's son Ronan, celebrated author of a successful book, there is plenty of delicious revenge. Baum has a romantic cynicism, and as a fan, this exceeded my wishes.
I read it twice.
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Baum is a terrific pleasure to read and some of his best fiction, flowing like the new Woody picture we have been waiting for. His first novel at the age of 89 is intelligent and laugh-out-loud funny, with surprising tension.
"Lately, Asher Baum has been talking to himself."
After all, who else should he talk to? A spry fifty-one, it's not dementia or delusion, but a rut he is in. Does anyone care that he is constantly pushing a rock up a hill - "and if I ever get up there, what have I got? A rock on a hill." He wants his books to have an impact, but the last two were panned as turgid. At the country house of his wife, Connie, he wanders the woods wishing he were back in New York, preferring the lights of Broadway to the stars. Connie grew up a spoiled Hollywood child and now puts her son Thane above all else. Baum always avoids the refined little putz, with his vintage suits and blond hair, looking like a Hitler Youth. Thane openly regards Baum a loser. After years of mediocrity, Thane has written a sensational bestselling book, film rights sold, while Baum just found out his publisher is dumping him over complaints from a journalist. Thane is bringing his new girlfriend Sam, who works for his publisher, and Connie is thrilled they are engaged. When Baum meets Sam, he is instantly smitten by her intelligence and beauty. She reminds him of his first wife, Nina, a Barnard student whom he left after falling for her twin sister—also, his beautiful third wife, Tyler, whom he never got over. Sam seems to be on Baum's side, and they hit it off—how can she desire that pretentious narcissist? Back in New York, Baum meets with his writer friends and discovers a slight problem with the spoiled little prince's renowned book. No matter what he does now, that Pandora's bookshelf is illuminated, and there is no way to stop the fallout, even if Baum wanted to.
For fans of Woody's films, there are countless endearing tropes revisited here: Autumn is the best month; the country offers little, especially when you get a tick; beautiful intelligent sisters; Manhattan still holds him in its grip; a writer falls for the star of his Broadway show; a talentless writer becomes a Hollywood millionaire; a woman falls for the artist and not the man —and if Thane was inspired in any vague way by Mia's son Ronan, celebrated author of a successful book, there is plenty of delicious revenge. Baum has a romantic cynicism, and as a fan, this exceeded my wishes.
I read it twice.
November 4, 2025
The Mirror and the Monologue
Woody Allen’s first novel, What’s with Baum?, arrives not as a late-career reinvention but as a refined distillation of a lifelong aesthetic. The book is a keenly observed and interior portrait of Asher Baum, a middle-aged Jewish writer whose turgid philosophical books are meeting an increasingly indifferent world. The novel’s central, clever device is that Baum has begun talking to himself, full conversational volleys that articulate his anxieties, resentments, and philosophical despondency. This is not a sign of dementia, the reader is assured, but rather the logical outcome of a mind fiercely and endlessly wrestling with itself.
The prose is fluent and possesses a comic timing that feels native to the page, suggesting this form may suit Allen’s voice as well as, if not better than, his recent cinematic efforts. The novel functions as an amusing glimpse into the New York publishing establishment, but its true focus remains firmly on the protagonist's internal landscape. Baum is a man beset by modern irritants, a struggling career, a rocky third marriage, and the looming threat of public shaming after an ill-advised encounter with a journalist. Yet these are merely the triggers for his deeper, more existential ruminations on the futility and emptiness of life.
Allen slyly engages with the novel as a form. There is a self-referential awareness to the narrative, which at one point notes that "in a film, this would be a fade-out," acknowledging the different muscles being flexed here. The story is tightly plotted, and despite the neurotic maelstrom at its center, it moves with a purpose that feels both literary and engaging. For those who appreciate Allen’s particular brand of humor, the book offers a steady supply of finely crafted gags and witty lines that emerge naturally from Baum’s predicament.
What’s with Baum? is a cerebral and highly entertaining piece of fiction. It is a portrait of an intellectual crippled by his own acuity, a man for whom every thought carries the weight of the world. It does not break new ground for its creator so much as it cultivates a familiar garden with a fresh and effective tool. The result is a beautifully wrought masterwork that confirms the enduring sharpness of Allen’s literary talents.
Woody Allen’s first novel, What’s with Baum?, arrives not as a late-career reinvention but as a refined distillation of a lifelong aesthetic. The book is a keenly observed and interior portrait of Asher Baum, a middle-aged Jewish writer whose turgid philosophical books are meeting an increasingly indifferent world. The novel’s central, clever device is that Baum has begun talking to himself, full conversational volleys that articulate his anxieties, resentments, and philosophical despondency. This is not a sign of dementia, the reader is assured, but rather the logical outcome of a mind fiercely and endlessly wrestling with itself.
The prose is fluent and possesses a comic timing that feels native to the page, suggesting this form may suit Allen’s voice as well as, if not better than, his recent cinematic efforts. The novel functions as an amusing glimpse into the New York publishing establishment, but its true focus remains firmly on the protagonist's internal landscape. Baum is a man beset by modern irritants, a struggling career, a rocky third marriage, and the looming threat of public shaming after an ill-advised encounter with a journalist. Yet these are merely the triggers for his deeper, more existential ruminations on the futility and emptiness of life.
Allen slyly engages with the novel as a form. There is a self-referential awareness to the narrative, which at one point notes that "in a film, this would be a fade-out," acknowledging the different muscles being flexed here. The story is tightly plotted, and despite the neurotic maelstrom at its center, it moves with a purpose that feels both literary and engaging. For those who appreciate Allen’s particular brand of humor, the book offers a steady supply of finely crafted gags and witty lines that emerge naturally from Baum’s predicament.
What’s with Baum? is a cerebral and highly entertaining piece of fiction. It is a portrait of an intellectual crippled by his own acuity, a man for whom every thought carries the weight of the world. It does not break new ground for its creator so much as it cultivates a familiar garden with a fresh and effective tool. The result is a beautifully wrought masterwork that confirms the enduring sharpness of Allen’s literary talents.
October 25, 2025
Hay que ser muy fan de Woody Allen para que te guste esta novela, y ni así. Es mi caso, me ha costado acabarla. En primer lugar, entre otras muchas objeciones que irán saliendo, porque ¿Qué pasa con Baum? no es una novela, sino el guion transformado de una película que ya no se va a rodar. Desde las acusaciones del #metoo, nadie quiere producir el cine del autor de Annie Hall y, como las gallinas, que ponen un huevo diario, así Allen, una película por año. Cuando quedó vetado en los EE.UU., Europa lo acogió: Midnight in Paris, Match point, Vicky Cristina Barcelona, To Rome with love..., pero ese ponedero quedó saturado. Y a todo eso, la edad, a pique de los noventa... Pero escribir es una inercia irrenunciable.
· Las evidencias de que ¿Qué pasa con Baum? nace como guion, a mi parecer, son muchas: no hay ambientación, las descripciones son tremendamente escuetas, los diálogos extensos y sin apostillas ni matices, pendientes, quizá, de la impronta que les imprima el actor de turno. El relato es continuo, sin cortes ni secciones, algo que en la pantalla se entiende bien por los cambios de secuencia, ubicación o vestuario, pero que exige otro detalle en el relato escrito para que se entienda y el lector no se pierda. También los personajes están poco y mal definidos, en la pantalla uno los ve y se queda con la cara y el papel que juegan en la trama, una familiaridad que en la novela tiene otro tratamiento más descriptivo. No, no tiene maneras de novela esta novela.
· En cuanto a ¿Qué pasa con Baum?, pues pasan, unos detrás de otros, todos los temas recurrentes de Woddy Allen: las mismas neuras hipocondríacas, los mismos amoríos cruzados, el judaísmo, por supuesto, Nueva York, asuntos matrimoniales, envidias profesionales, algún recadito al #metoo, y ese etcétera habitual con las mismas cavilaciones existencialistas y pseudofilosóficas que dan en los mismos chistes ya conocidos.
· Había que leerla por consideración al maestro, pero, ojo, si no le gustan a rabiar las películas de Woody, ahórresela. Y si le gustan, casi también.
· Las evidencias de que ¿Qué pasa con Baum? nace como guion, a mi parecer, son muchas: no hay ambientación, las descripciones son tremendamente escuetas, los diálogos extensos y sin apostillas ni matices, pendientes, quizá, de la impronta que les imprima el actor de turno. El relato es continuo, sin cortes ni secciones, algo que en la pantalla se entiende bien por los cambios de secuencia, ubicación o vestuario, pero que exige otro detalle en el relato escrito para que se entienda y el lector no se pierda. También los personajes están poco y mal definidos, en la pantalla uno los ve y se queda con la cara y el papel que juegan en la trama, una familiaridad que en la novela tiene otro tratamiento más descriptivo. No, no tiene maneras de novela esta novela.
· En cuanto a ¿Qué pasa con Baum?, pues pasan, unos detrás de otros, todos los temas recurrentes de Woddy Allen: las mismas neuras hipocondríacas, los mismos amoríos cruzados, el judaísmo, por supuesto, Nueva York, asuntos matrimoniales, envidias profesionales, algún recadito al #metoo, y ese etcétera habitual con las mismas cavilaciones existencialistas y pseudofilosóficas que dan en los mismos chistes ya conocidos.
· Había que leerla por consideración al maestro, pero, ojo, si no le gustan a rabiar las películas de Woody, ahórresela. Y si le gustan, casi también.
October 15, 2025
Woody Allen creates a fictional East Coast universe which has plenty of characters and goings on which are familiar to us from his films. However, there is one other element and it appears to be the whole purpose of the novel. That element is that the two main characters are an older man and his stepson who try being polite to one another in daily life but clearly hate one another. Each feels emotionally betrayed and eviscerated by the other. This has gone on for many years.
They are Baum (Woody Allen) and Thane, like MacBeth, (Ronan Farrow). Since this is a novel, the surface details of these two characters are different from the real people. But there is no doubt who they are. The other characters are in just broad strokes and aren't anyone in particular. They are just necessary to keep the whole thing moving. There are some funny parts to it, as usual. But those are brief as it is the core feelings between these two which dominates everything else.
I have come to one more conclusion. Baum (Woody) gets all het up because he thinks Thane (Ronan) is a plagiarist. He presents this as simply lifting someone else's material and calling it his own. I don't think that is what he really means though. And I expect that he knows people will ridicule him for the very idea. After all, Ronan is hugely bright and surely the Pulitzer People, the New Yorker and the NY Times would have noticed such a failing in Ronan by now. We all know this.
What Woody is really het up about is that he feels Ronan has stolen FROM HIM, HIS LITERARY TALENT. The DNA Mia Farrow and Ronan took off of him is what has made all of Ronan's talents and honors possible. And Woody is furious about it. Woody also gives us the icing on the cake as he glares at Ronan's book cover picture. He compares his good looks on the cover to Truman Capote's initial flouting of himself on book covers. Yes, Ronan also got Mia's dna for looks on top of Woody's literary talent. And why did Woody pick Capote? So he could snark at Ronan for being gay. Really, he hopes you believe the silly plagiarism accusation and don't notice the real punches he's delivering. There is no doubt that Ronan will hear the real fury and that may be all Woody wants from this novel.
They are Baum (Woody Allen) and Thane, like MacBeth, (Ronan Farrow). Since this is a novel, the surface details of these two characters are different from the real people. But there is no doubt who they are. The other characters are in just broad strokes and aren't anyone in particular. They are just necessary to keep the whole thing moving. There are some funny parts to it, as usual. But those are brief as it is the core feelings between these two which dominates everything else.
I have come to one more conclusion. Baum (Woody) gets all het up because he thinks Thane (Ronan) is a plagiarist. He presents this as simply lifting someone else's material and calling it his own. I don't think that is what he really means though. And I expect that he knows people will ridicule him for the very idea. After all, Ronan is hugely bright and surely the Pulitzer People, the New Yorker and the NY Times would have noticed such a failing in Ronan by now. We all know this.
What Woody is really het up about is that he feels Ronan has stolen FROM HIM, HIS LITERARY TALENT. The DNA Mia Farrow and Ronan took off of him is what has made all of Ronan's talents and honors possible. And Woody is furious about it. Woody also gives us the icing on the cake as he glares at Ronan's book cover picture. He compares his good looks on the cover to Truman Capote's initial flouting of himself on book covers. Yes, Ronan also got Mia's dna for looks on top of Woody's literary talent. And why did Woody pick Capote? So he could snark at Ronan for being gay. Really, he hopes you believe the silly plagiarism accusation and don't notice the real punches he's delivering. There is no doubt that Ronan will hear the real fury and that may be all Woody wants from this novel.
October 20, 2025
Hard to believe that for a writer so prolific, this is Allen’s first novel – the filmmaker’s previous literary work being an autobiography and collections of short stories and comic essays. That said, it reads more like a novella and could easily have been edited further down to a longer form short story. The book has no chapters, suggesting it should be read through in one sitting (like watching a film), something that is possible with its 186-page length. The book offers nothing new for Allen fans familiar with the writer’s hang-ups and sometimes convenient narrative twists. The story delves into the psyche of Baum, a journalist turned novelist, undergoing something of a midlife crisis as well as a crisis of confidence. Baum has taken to self-analysing his motivations as his writing career and marriage have reached something of a crossroads. Jealous of the commercial success of his son-in-law and fellow writer, Baum discovers a secret that threatens to turn the lives of all involved upside down. The book opens slowly as Allen gives us the background to Baum and the supporting characters. Little happens until the final third of the book, when the secret is discovered. Allen has not strayed from his tried and trusted approach here, and whilst the story is slight and contrived, it still contains much of Allen’s trademark humour. The book will therefore largely appeal to his fan base, but it is unlikely to attract new readers.
October 1, 2025
I cannot imagine who would give Woody Allen's WHAT'S WITH BAUM? more than one star, especially fans of his films and earlier short plays. The character in his first novel seems to possibly have memory issues, even early onset dementia, because he continually mutters to himself about his life and insecurities, failures. The trouble is, poor Allen seems to be suffering from the same malady, literally repeating the same jokes he told so much more successfully when they were new in ANNIE HALL.
I mean, LITERALLY THE SAME JOKES.
I'm not a man who ever judged Allen's work based on accusations about his personal life. Art should be judged separately from the artist, and ANNIE HALL, MANHATTAN, and HANNAH AND HER SISTERS are three of my favorite problematic but sophisticated comedies. LOVE AND DEATH is one of the funniest screwball comedies/farces ever filmed. So it's especially distressing that Allen's friends and/or publishers allowed him to publish a novel that literally has nothing new in it, and also leads us provocatively to almost believe the worst of him as a human being. Yes, it's fiction, but not unlike an aging Alvy Singer, one stuck in a loop of his tired self-deprecating jokes, we don't laugh with Baum; we feel very sorry for him, and that makes for poor comedy.
I mean, LITERALLY THE SAME JOKES.
I'm not a man who ever judged Allen's work based on accusations about his personal life. Art should be judged separately from the artist, and ANNIE HALL, MANHATTAN, and HANNAH AND HER SISTERS are three of my favorite problematic but sophisticated comedies. LOVE AND DEATH is one of the funniest screwball comedies/farces ever filmed. So it's especially distressing that Allen's friends and/or publishers allowed him to publish a novel that literally has nothing new in it, and also leads us provocatively to almost believe the worst of him as a human being. Yes, it's fiction, but not unlike an aging Alvy Singer, one stuck in a loop of his tired self-deprecating jokes, we don't laugh with Baum; we feel very sorry for him, and that makes for poor comedy.
October 7, 2025
Allen's first three books of short stories from the '70s are masterpieces of humor writing. His two later collections from the 2000's were disappointing. When his opportunities for funding and distributing his films dried up I hoped he would finally write a novel, so I was eager to read this.
My first impression was that at least he had dropped the ostentatious vocabulary that had marred his last two story collections, but at the same time I had a couple complaints. First, Baum is too much a rehashing of the familiar tropes from Allen's movies. And second, the book takes place in the present with young and middle aged characters and Allen is way out of his depth. His next novel really ought to be a period piece. Allen is just too out of touch with contemporary life.
But, despite those complaints (and despite some subplots about men behaving like creeps which will turn off nearly every reader) the second half was quite enjoyable. There were a few classic one-liners, and the plot picked up momentum in a way that made it hard to put down. But, then the ending was a little too abrupt, and didn't fully resolve all the threads of the plot or respectfully address the issues and emotions raised by the story.
My first impression was that at least he had dropped the ostentatious vocabulary that had marred his last two story collections, but at the same time I had a couple complaints. First, Baum is too much a rehashing of the familiar tropes from Allen's movies. And second, the book takes place in the present with young and middle aged characters and Allen is way out of his depth. His next novel really ought to be a period piece. Allen is just too out of touch with contemporary life.
But, despite those complaints (and despite some subplots about men behaving like creeps which will turn off nearly every reader) the second half was quite enjoyable. There were a few classic one-liners, and the plot picked up momentum in a way that made it hard to put down. But, then the ending was a little too abrupt, and didn't fully resolve all the threads of the plot or respectfully address the issues and emotions raised by the story.
October 21, 2025
Reading this book was like watching one of Allen’s movies – and I think it would have been a good one had he made a movie of this script, some scenes surely would have looked better in in action than in reading. But indeed Woody can write well and there is his whole world in this first novel, as much as much of himself and his personal life: New York, upper class, cultural/literary world, philosophical questions, hypochondria. Archer Baum is going through a crisis, he cannot relate and connect with anybody around him anymore, so much that he now can only speak with himself – aloud and causing several funny situations. He is a sort of failed writer, his standards are too high as he refuses to bend to entertainment and commercialization of his work, everything he does seems to have disastrous effects. He is jealous of his successful stepson (a spoiled little prince) and has a crush in his young girlfriend, he is jealous of his wife, he misses his previous one. He is clumsy – gets misunderstood by a journalist who presses charges for sexual harassment, reports his stepson ruining his career and ends up being hated by everyone. He is a lonely man facing fate and case, until he breaks apart. He is indeed Woody and for this, I simply loved it.
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