So he wanted to write something more like Herbert Tarr's "my wacky first congregation" (if that's the correct term) 1969 novel "Heaven Help Us!"? I think that actually sold pretty well at the time.
According to Amazon, the first Rabbi Smalls book, "Friday the Rabbi Slept Late," came out in 1964. So possibly the problem was that Kemelman's original idea was ahead of its time. Or maybe Kemelman's agent's insistence that the book needed something more than just slice of life had something to do with the fact that Herbert Tarr's book is much funnier than anything the Rabbi Smalls books suggest Harry Kemelman was capable of writing. Assuming Kemelman was even interested in writing anything more comedy-adjacent.
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According to Amazon, the first Rabbi Smalls book, "Friday the Rabbi Slept Late," came out in 1964. So possibly the problem was that Kemelman's original idea was ahead of its time. Or maybe Kemelman's agent's insistence that the book needed something more than just slice of life had something to do with the fact that Herbert Tarr's book is much funnier than anything the Rabbi Smalls books suggest Harry Kemelman was capable of writing. Assuming Kemelman was even interested in writing anything more comedy-adjacent.