Rosemary and Guy Woodhouse have been looking for an apartment and
finally there is good news. They are going to be able to move into
the Bramford. The Bramford is an old gothic building, which is
generally considered to be based on the Dakota, the apartment
building where John Lennon lived when he was shot. Rosemary and Guy
will lease 7A, four rooms, two baths, and more than a little
malevolence.
Guy is an up and coming actor. Rosemary looks forward to starting
a family. They have found their little nest and Rosemary is about
embark on a trip similar to Alice's journey through Wonderland,
where the line between normal and bizarre is almost
indistinguishable.
The Bramford has a long history of unsavory tenants, people who
practiced witchcraft, some who ate little children. Those sort of
things add color to a place if they are just quaint legends, but
what if the legends have a basis in reality?
And what if the kindly old couple that befriend the Woodhouses,
Roman and Minnie Castevet, are not quite as kindly as they seem?
Rosemary is from Omaha, Nebraska and Levin describes Omaha,
particularly South Omaha where I grew up, with great accuracy. I
was certain that he must have spent some time there. I had the
privilege talking to Mr. Levin in March of 2003 and was very
surprised when he told me that he hadn't been to Omaha. He wanted
a midwestern town for Rosemary's home and he picked one out of
the air. He did recall reading something about the meat packing
plants there, but, other than that, everything was pure
imagination. Having grown up in South Omaha, I really felt that
Levin described the area with flawless detail. Some things are
wild coincidence and others I have to ascribe to a master writer
observing what must be a common midwestern mindset.
Much of the great beauty of this novel is that Levin continually
gives little bits of daily life in the foreground, but in the
background, almost unobserved, Levin is weaving a sinister web.
Little insignificant things began to coalesce, like the first
malignant cells of a cancer tumor.
Rosemary becomes pregnant and Guy's acting career begins to take
off. Everything is going so well for them. The new dwelling seem to
agree with them. But...
Its Rosemary's first pregnancy and she's not really sure what's
normal and what isn't. She is about to have a pregnancy like no
other in history and the results will be absolutely terrifying.
The anticipation, the guessing what's coming next; that's the pure
joy of it. Its like having the back of your neck tickled slightly
by a scalpel. There's a sort static electricity in Levin's
writing.
All great fiction is about trust and faith. They are the bonds
that hold lovers, families, and societies together. And Rosemary
begins to wonder if there is anyone she can trust and anything she
can have faith in. There is no greater fear than to live in a world
where you can't be sure of anything.
Levin leads us, step by step, from the world of the normal to the
underworld of hades itself. One of the most beautiful things about
this book is that the graduation takes place almost entirely in the
background. The story that is on the front burner is pretty much
one of everyday life. Levin purposely went back through the news
events of the time period in which the story takes place to see
what was happening in the world at the time. The Pope was visiting
New York. Time Magazine did an issue
with a cover that read, 'Is God
Dead?'. Etc.
There are those who say these little details date the story. Yes,
they do, but this is a story that took place in a specific time.
It is Levin's attention to detail that makes its far-out premise
believable. While the foreground is precise, the scary part of
the plot is in the background which creeps in to surround us like
a fog.
This is story telling at its finest. This is Levin's
masterpiece.
The most acclaimed movie based on a Levin story was, of course,
Rosemary's Baby in 1968.
Produced by shock master, William Castle, and directed by Roman
Polanski, it starred Mia Farrow, John Cassavetes, Ruth Gordon,
Maurice Evans, Sidney Blackmer, and Elisha Cook Jr. The movie, in
my opinion, wasn't nearly as good as the book. Mia Farrow was very
beautiful, very talented, and perfect for the part of Rosemary and
Levin dedicated the sequel, Son of Rosemary, to her. But
John Cassavetes was far too menacing from the beginning as Guy
Woodhouse and the movie seemed to telegraph its punches. In the
book Rosemary is an intelligent, reasonable person surrounded by
very sneaky, hard-to-detect evil. In the movie the evil seems so
over-powering that one can hardly miss it and the shock value
that should come when the truth is revealed just isn't as
strong.
Ruth Gordon won the academy award for best supporting actress and
Roman Polanski was nominated for best adapted screen play. The
Dakota Apartment Building filled in for the Bramford in the
movie. The Dakota was home to many celebrities, including Mia
Farrow, Woody Allen, and of course John Lennon.
There was a sequel, which Levin had nothing to do with, called
Look What's Happened to Rosemary's
Baby. At other times it dares to call itself Rosemary's Baby II. It
starred Stephen McHattie as Adrian, Patty Duke and George Maharis
as Rosemary and Guy Woodhouse, and Ruth Gordon and Ray Milland as
the Castevets. Tina Louise and Donna Mills were also in the cast.
It was generally considered weak and not very faithful to the
original.
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LEVIN DIRECTORY |
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