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Don't Stop the Carnival

Published
May 1973
Main Genre
General Fiction General Fiction
Rating
Pages
408

About This Book

The basis for the Herman Wouk–Jimmy Buffett musical: A middle-aged New Yorker buys a Caribbean hotel and learns that paradise has its drawbacks in this novel that "moves as fast as a Marx Brothers movie" (The New York Times Book Review).

Broadway press agent Norman Paperman is pushing fifty with one heart attack already under his belt. So he decides to chuck the stressful Manhattan life and bring his wife and teenage daughter to a lush green island. With the help of a wheeler-dealer friend, he winds up buying a small hotel. How hard could running one be?


Pretty hard, actually, when you throw in an earthquake, plumbing problems, rampaging ants, and a few more unexpected developments at the Gull Reef Club. Before long, Norman's spirit is as drained as his bank account, his marriage is on the brink, and he's desperately searching for a way out of this beautiful nightmare . . .

Don't Stop the Carnival is a clever comic departure for the Pulitzer Prize–winning, #1 New York Times–bestselling author of such classics as Marjorie Morningstar, The Winds of War, and The Caine Mutiny—and eventually served as the basis for the celebrated Jimmy Buffett album and stage musical.


"Funny [and] continuously entertaining. . . . Norman Paperman, although hardly an admirable person, is exceedingly human and entirely believable. One cringes with sympathy for him." —The New York Times

"His sandy beaches are alive with stinging sand flies . . . farce laced with tears." —Time

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Paperback

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Mass Market Paperback
Mar 1983 Pocket ISBN 0671460145
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Jun 1985 Pocket ISBN 0671605445
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Jul 1987 Pocket ISBN 0671656783
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May 1992 Back Bay ISBN 0316955124
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Jan 1999 Little, Brown ISBN 0316955345
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Hardcover

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First Edition May 1973 Doubleday ISBN 0385020031
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Apr 1999 Yestermorrow ISBN 1567231748
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eBook

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Aug 2018 Hodder & Stoughton (UK) ISBN 1444779338
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Jun 2024 -- Not Selected ISBN B0D54FD496
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Jun 2024 Open Road Publishing ISBN 1504096592
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Audio

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Aug 2018 Audible Studios ISBN B07G5GCZVR
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Oct 2018 Brilliance Audio ISBN 1721354581
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