Review Copyright (c) 1995 by TheatreNet Enterprises
In the novel, subsequent Broadway play and subsequent feature film "Enter Laughing" actor-writer-director Carl Reiner told the semi-autobiographical tale of David Kokolovitz, who struggles in the early 40s to be an actor, against all odds, including his nice Jewish parents.
Now, well over thirty years since the original book saw print Reiner has written the warm, funny, sentimental sequel, "Continue Laughing". This one picks up right where the last one left off, and sees David leaving New York to accept a real paying job with a travelling Shakespeare company in the Deep South. But his tenure with the troupe is cut short by World War II, when key personnel in the company are drafted, forcing it to disband. And shortly thereafter, David is himself drafted. Fortunately, though, he gets himself assigned to Special Services -- to become part of as unit that entertains the troops in the Pacific.
As prose, Reiner's book is compulsively readable, written in a style that is effortlessly humorous and affectionate. It doesn't take much more than one sitting to devour it.
As theatrical history, refracted through the prism of fiction, it's fascinating: Reiner details unfamiliar and forgotten environments in such a way as to bring them back to vivid, and evocative, life, albeit only in the mind of the reader. In addition, he pulls off the very neat trick of getting you reacquainted with the universe of the first novel without ever letting you feel he's backtracking. Nor will you feel out of the loop if you haven't read "Enter Laughing"; Mr. Reiner has seen to it that the second volume is utterly, and satisfyingly, self-sufficient.
As a novel per se ... There "Continue Laughing" is uneven and imperfect. The first half, about David's misadventures with the Avon Shakespeare Company, is better, because it feels like a more cohesive story. Once David enters the army, the structure becomes more anedotal and meanders into that of a somewhat different kind of book than it has been previously. And the end is inconclusive: one gets the feeling that Reiner is setting up yet a third volume about his alter-ego.
That the flaws are so apparent, though, might well have to do with the general high level of the rest, which tends to throw them into relief. Let's just say that Mr. Reiner, with his third book in as many decades (the second one, "All Kinds of Love" was released last year) is still, in a way, a novelist in training. But one who amply rewards the reader, even as he expands the mastery of his craft.
Jameson Baker is a free-lance theatre journalist. He has written CD liner notes and articles for several magazines and newspapers, among them Vanity Fair.