In the 1990s – the tail end of the second millennium – it was widely feared that the Y2K software glitch would prove literally apocalyptic (much as it's now feared AI could). Levin had set Rosemary's Baby during the span of 1965-1966; that meant Andrew Woodhouse would turn 33 in 1999 — the same age at which Christ is believed to have died, and been resurrected.

This coinciding of the book's timeline with that of society's – as it hurtled towards a new millennium, and its possible demise – gave Levin a special impetus to write Son of Rosemary, and set it in 1999 – on the teetering cusp of humanity's collapse, or its emergence into a new era.

“Not a single reviewer of Son of Rosemary, Levin’s most recent novel, understood that it, too, satirized the excesses of its own supposed genre.”
    —Peter Straub (Foreword, The Stepford Wives, 2002)

Son of Rosemary picks up with Andy having established a Christ-like ministry of his own to the world – as Rosemary questions if her efforts at nurturing him have served to overcome his dark origins – or if he's truly his father's son.

SUGGESTED READING

• Opera News interview of Levin (1997)
• Afterword by Levin's son Nicholas (2024)
• Comments by British author Andrew Cartmel (2020)

FUN FACTS

• Levin dedicated Son of Rosemary to Mia Farrow, telling Opera News in 1997:“She played [Rosemary] so well. It's amazing. There are so many things in Rosemary that are so typical of Mia — her humor, her sensitivity, her Roman Catholic childhood.”


• Levin often hid references to his other works in the one at hand. Here, Gunpoint (mentioned in Guy's updated acting resume) is a fictional play referenced in Deathtrap. And Drat! The Cat! (twice-referenced) is Levin's one Broadway musical.