Fight Club is an excellent movie from a less-than-excellent book. And Tristram Shandy: A Cock And Bull Story is an excellent movie made from a book nobody's even read, so that might count as well.

Little Children: "wow, the movie was so much BETTER than the book!"

It'd have to be spectacular, since it's an excellent book by one of my favorite authors. (I've met Tom Perrotta and signings, he was a great guy, and I've been a fan ever since Bad Haircut.) (I haven't seen the movie yet, in the spirit of full disclosure)

I was disappointed in the novel, given its great reviews (and comparisons to Cheever, Updike, etc) -- the story is certainly compelling, but the characters seemed so much more like cardboard cutouts than in the movie, Perrota's prose and dialogue are awfully uneven (to me), and the resolution just sort of fizzles out compared to the movie (I won't go into details, since you haven't seen the film yet). But I found the the movie to be just electrifyingly thought-provoking and surprisingly tense/thrilling, maybe because it contains a greater measure of ambiguity in terms of its characters, and is plotted more tightly.

However, I actually read the book after I saw the movie (my friend and I were so jazzed by the film that we walked straight into a bookstore and each bought the novel), so it's hard to say what I would have thought of it had I read it first. I dunno. After seeing the film, the book read almost like one of those after-the-fact novelizations of the movie I used to read sometimes as a kid (I remember E.T. and Poltergeist in particular). What's interesting to me is that Perrotta is, of course, the cowriter on the film -- so I feel like he vastly improved his own novel by writing the script.

BP, it's interesting you should say Fight Club -- I've neither read nor seen it (I am possibly the only person on the planet who never saw it), but I was always under the impression that the book was supposed to be very good.

I liked Fight Club (book) and most of other Palahniuk's other stuff. Perrotta reminds me of the really bad writer wannabes in the creative writing classes I took in college.

The movie sounds good, though.

I was disappointed in the novel, given its great reviews (and comparisons to Cheever, Updike, etc)

Oh, and it occurs to me that most novels about Suburbia and the people who inhabit it will be compared to Cheever and Updike since a) they're the gold standard, and b) reviewers like to prove that they've read the modern "classics."

I was afraid to click on the post, because I didn't know what movie the little children were praising and didn't want to read the spoilers. D'oh.

Heh, Eid, I thought the same thing. And I've read the novel.

I completely agree with scody's review of the novel; I thought it was enjoyably mindless but fairly flat overall. (I have, however, liked other Perotta novels.) Good to know I should still seek out the film.

And on an only slightly related note, Perotta actually was my college roommate's creative writing teacher, so I also associate him with college creative writing classes. :-)

I thought Stir of Echoes was a pretty good adaptation of Matheson's novel; not better, just different.

Then again I liked Kotzwinkle's novelization of E.T., so there you go. Prisoner of conscience I am no longer! Although the scene where Eliott begins to discover his own manhood was definitely not in the film.

Anyone else disquieted by the audibook of the novelization of the movie based on the graphic novel? I'm concerned it might actually be good.

Oh, and it occurs to me that most novels about Suburbia and the people who inhabit it will be compared to Cheever and Updike since a) they're the gold standard, and b) reviewers like to prove that they've read the modern "classics."

I dunno. Cheever and updike tend to distance themselves from the characters they write about and use them as a glib shorthand for 'bland' and 'repressed.' Perrotta grew up in prosaic suburban New Jersey and approaches the charcters more sympathetically and treats them as truly human, I feel.

I thought it was enjoyably mindless but fairly flat overall.

Really? I found it to be the darkest of Perrotta's works thus far. The Wishbones is still my favorite; just like Clerks, it echoed the world I know so well. Every character reminded me of someone I knew. (grain of salt: Perrotta ranks just behind Richard Price and Tim Sandlin among my favorite contemporary novelists)

I thought that about Circle of Friends and Bridges of Madison County--although ANYTHING would have been better than that steaming turd of prose. I LOVED Election, but I didn't think the book was better than the movie--although the lesbian sister didn't find a permanent SO in the book.

I bought the book to read a while back but haven't gotten to it yet. Didn't know until a few days ago that it had been made into a movie.

scody, you're not the only one. I haven't seen or read Fight Club either. Or Donnie Darko for that matter, although that's neither here nor there. They're just somehow connected in my mind.

And, at the risk of lowering my standing in this community *snort*, I like both the movie and book versions of The Bridges of Madison County. Both versions are quiet, simple and spare and that appeals to me.

Gone With the Wind
The Wizard of Oz
Godfather 1/2
and ...







Valley of the Dolls
Wait, does "with even more delicious crap" equal "better"?

> I thought it was enjoyably mindless but fairly flat overall.

Really? I found it to be the darkest of Perrotta's works thus far.

It's mostly just that it's so plot-driven, which, to me at least, makes it an easy read. It's something I can easily read while having dinner -- which is more or less my criteria for an "enjoyably mindless" book. I don't have to hold vast quantities of information in my mind while reading, or really linger over the prose, it's just a straightforward, enjoyable book, and one that's unlikely to stay with me for a long time but one that I wouldn't mind reading again.

Oh, and I actually meant to comment to agree with the Godfather comment. Another enjoyably mindless book, but just about the best movie ever.