What's with Baum?

Woody Allen’s wonderful novel reads like one of his films' The Telegraph

'As a portrait of Woody Allen by Woody Allen, it’s a classic' The Standard

'Good gags abound in this tale of a bespectacled Jewish writer caught up in a #MeToo takedown' Guardian

Asher Baum is quietly losing his mind. Can you blame him?

'Maybe what I really want is to make sense of all people’s lives. Of everything, the whole shebang'

A middle-aged Jewish journalist turned novelist and playwright, consumed with anxiety about everything under the sun, Baum's turgid philosophical books receive tepid reviews and his prestigious New York publisher has dropped him. His third marriage is on the rocks and he suspects his handsome and successful younger brother may have seduced his Harvard-educated wife. He is uneasy with her close relationship with her son, a more successful author than he, and suspicious of her closeness with their neighbour in Connecticut. And in a moment of irrationality, he has impulsively tried to kiss a pretty young journalist during an interview that she is about to go public with.