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