48 | OCTOBER 26 • 2023 J
N

ARTS&LIFE
BOOKS

A 

staff writer for the New Yorker 
magazine came up with a 
new book on the history 
of Hollywood’s Oscars, and he has 
something in common with a rabbi-
lawyer who developed feminine midrash 
for a new book analyzing the Bible. 
What they have in common, besides 
being authors of new books, is that they 
are both appearing among some 30 
authors, with a range of subjects and from 
various places, at this year’s 72nd Detroit 
Jewish Book Fair, running Nov. 1-12 and 
based at the Jewish Community Center in 
West Bloomfield. Most sessions are free.
Michael Schulman spent four years 
researching and writing Oscar Wars: A 
History of Hollywood in Gold, Sweat and 
Tears, and he will be questioned at 7:30 
p.m. Thursday, Nov. 2, by Elliot Wilhelm, 
known as curator of film at the Detroit 
Film Theatre in the Detroit Institute of 
Arts.
Right after the author presentation, 
there will be a musical presentation titled 
“Oscar Wars Underscored.” It will feature 
the singing of film musical numbers by 
Cantor Neil and Stephanie Michaels with 
John Bogdan at the piano.
Rabbi Marla Feldman, who has worked 
in Michigan, will have two sessions to 

discuss her book Biblical Women Speak: 
Hearing Their Voices Through New and 
Ancient Midrash. Her sessions will be at 
10 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. Sunday, Nov. 5, 
with brunch at the first session.
“It was like rowing a huge boulder up 
a hill and, hopefully, on its roll down the 
hill, it’s fun to read,” 
Schulman said about 
his second book, 
which comes after one 
written about Meryl 
Streep. “It’s the book 
I wanted to write, and 
I hope that it makes a 
case for the Oscars as 
a meaningful cultural 
event while also telling 
a lot of fun stories in the 
process.”
Schulman’s Oscar 
book is not a year-
by-year history of the 
Oscars. Instead, it’s 11 
chapters, and each takes a close-up view 
of one particular year or conflict or 
category that tells a larger story about an 
era. 
“What made writing this book really 
challenging was that I also had a full-
time job writing for the New Yorker,” 

Schulman said. “I was working on this 
book, which required mountains of 
research, at the same time I was writing 
features large and small for the magazine.
“When I was able to steal time away 
from my New Yorker job, sit down and 
focus on whatever era I was researching 
for the book, such as 
studying the blacklist of 
the 1950s or the Weinstein 
times, it was just trying 
to transport myself and 
immerse myself.”
Schulman reveals 
dramatic Hollywood 
segments that haven’t 
received much attention. 
For instance, he relates 
the correspondence 
between Gregory Peck 
and a young Candace 
Bergen, who promoted 
the need for bringing 
younger performers into 
the workings of the Academy of Motion 
Picture Arts and Sciences, which sponsors 
the Oscars. 
Comparing writing a book to deep-
sea diving and writing an article to 
swimming the lap of a pool, Schulman, 
42 and a Yale English graduate, also has 

Detroit Jewish Book Fair 
runs Nov. 1-12.

People 
of the 
Book

SUZANNE CHESSLER CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Michael 
Schulman

