Books with a Movie Tie-In

Baldacci, David. Absolute Power. Warner Books, 1996. Baldacci's first novel, Absolute Power, is a gripping tale of greed, sex, ambition, and murder. Luther Whitney is a career break-in artist who finds himself in the wrong place at the wrong time. Alan Richmond is the charismatic U.S. President with the power to commit any crime and get away with it. Jack Graham is a young attorney caught in the middle between the absolute truth and absolute power. Seth Frank is the senior homicide detective for Middleton County, Virginia. Kate Whitney is the estranged daughter of Luther and former girlfriend of Jack. Walter Sullivan is the ultra-rich friend of the President whose wife is killed by two devoted Secret Service agents. Gloria Russell is Richmond's Chief of Staff and his most ardent admirer. This highly suspenseful thriller may change the way you think about Washington, Secret Service agents, and the power of the President forever. The Movie: The 1997 motion picture is directed by and stars Clint Eastwood as Luther Whitney. Gene Hackman fills the role of President Alan Richmond and Ed Harris portrays Seth Frank. Jack Graham, the book's most well-liked character is omitted from the movie. Leonard Maltin describes the movie as a "barely credible and fatally diluted adaptation (William Goldman) of David Baldacci's best-seller." The movie is entertaining, but, for those who have read the book, the absence of a major character is a definite detraction. Watch the movie or read the book, but don't do both. For the most enjoyment, read the book.

Brewer, Gene. K-Pax. St. Martin’s Press, 1995. The narrator of this novel, a psychiatrist named Gene Brewer, has quite a story to tell, one whose implications the reader is well aware Brewer the character, not the author, has not completely accepted at book's end. Character Brewer undertakes the treatment of prot (rhymes with boat), a white male in his early thirties who claims to be from a planet K-Pax whose inhabitants live lives that sound like the world in the John Lennon’s "Imagine." K-Paxians have no government, laws, monetary system, religion, families, formal address, and find sex painful--indeed, and for valid reasons, revolting-- and like crime even less. Ostensibly more than 300 years old, prot likes fruit, travels in space at speeds faster than light, and has a good sense of humor. Brewer, naturally, does not accept prot's extraterrestrial origin and finally diagnoses his patient as having multiple personality disorder. Although Dr. Brewer believes prot is mentally ill, he can never explain prot's disappearances, or his ability to diagnose and cure people. Nevertheless, prot helps improve the mental health of many of his fellow patients and shocks an astronomer with his intergalactic knowledge. It is a fascinating story that leaves the reader, as well as the moviegoer, wondering if prot really is an alien. Highly recommended in all formats: book, audiobook, video. All are excellent & uplifting!

Choderlos de Laclos, Pierre. Les Liaisons Dangereuses (Dangerous Liaisons). This remarkable novel, recounted in the form of letters that pass between the characters, is set in France shortly before the revolution and recounts the schemes and sexual escapades of the Marquise de Merteuil and the Vicomte de Valmont. Merteuil and Valmont are both heartless philanderers who regard other human beings as so many pieces in an ongoing game of social manipulation. When the novel opens, Merteuil is plotting revenge against a former lover who deserted her--her plan for revenge is that Valmont should seduce his fiancée, so he will not be getting the virginal convent-educated bride he anticipates. Valmont, meanwhile, is making his plans to seduce Madame deTourvel, a gentle and truly pious woman who deeply loves her husband. The way Valmont looks at the situation, if he can overcome the obstacles of her piety and her love for her husband, it will be his greatest triumph as a seducer. But he had not counted on the danger of falling in love with his intended victim. Film versions of this novel include Dangerous Liaisons with John Malkovich and Glenn Close; Valmont, with Colin Firth, and Cruel Intentions, a modernized version with Ryan Phillipe and Sarah Michelle Gellar. There has also been a Broadway play with a script adaptation by Christopher Hampton; this had a long and successful run with Alan Rickman and Lindsay Duncan as the villainous pair (and formed the basis for the Malkovich film). Each of these adaptations has its merits, but none can equal reading the entire novel and seeing these characters developed at length. Even the notably strong-minded French poet Charles Baudelaire was shaken by Les Liaisons Dangereuses--so read if you dare.

Connelly, Michael. Blood Work. Little, Brown, 1998. Terry McCaleb, played in the movie by Clint Eastwood, was a crack FBI agent when he was at the top of his game. Forced into early retirement by a heart ailment, he plans to live quietly on his boat which he is restoring. His world is turned upside down by the entry of Graciela Rivers into his life. It so happens that the heart of her murdered sister, Gloria, is the new heart beating in Terry ‘s chest. Terry embarks on an "unofficial" investigation of Gloria’s murder and thus encounters turf battles with law enforcement officials who don’t appreciate the interference of a former FBI official or the resulting implication that there may just be something that they missed. Both in the book and in the movie, there is indeed something they overlooked. Terry’s growing emotional attachment to Graciela Rivers and her son adds romantic interest to the plot. The doctor, played in the movie by Angelica Huston, was one of the film’s more interesting characters. The plot was suspenseful, both in the book and movie. There were, however, glaring differences as the plot in each genre developed. The depth of character development and detailed plot in the book are highly recommended. The slow moving, at sometimes plodding, development of the movie’s plot left the viewer with a "let’s get on with the story" attitude about the film. If the viewer is accustomed to the rough, tough, indestructible "Dirty Harry" type character that Clint Eastwood is well known for playing, he/she will be disappointed in his character in this film. The story necessitates Terry’s character being ill and slow moving, always aware of the potential damage his actions may cause to his health. All in all, the book by Michael Connelly is a much better story and preferable to the movie version. Do not read the book and expect to see the same story on screen.

Dinesen, Isak. Babette's Feast and Other Anecdotes of Destiny. Vintage Books Edition, 1988. (Originally published as Anecdotes of Destiny, Random House , 1958.) One of a selection of Dinesen's short stories. Babette, a superb French chef, lives an anonymous life among a pious congregation on the desolate coast of Denmark. As housekeeper and cook to two elderly, religious women who have given up their youth and romantic inclinations to help their minister father, she's never called on to prepare anything very exciting. And then, one day, she wins 10,000 francs and decides to spend it all by creating the most memorable meal ever consumed, even though her guests will have no idea what they're eating.*****Karen Blixen's Babette's gaestebud (video recording) Babette's Feast. Orion Home Video, [1989], c1987. In Danish and French with English subtitles. Starring Stephane Audran, Bodil Kjer, Birgitte Federspiel, Jarl Kulle, Jean-Phillipe Lafont and Bibi Andersson. A descriptive little story, a feast for the imagination transformed into a visual feast for watching.

Doctorow, E.L. Billy Bathgate. Random House, 1989. In 1930's New York, Billy Bathgate, a fifteen-year-old high school dropout, has captured the attention of infamous gangster Dutch Schultz, who lures the boy into his world of racketeering. The product of an East Bronx upbringing by his half-crazy Irish Catholic mother, after his Jewish father left them long ago, Billy is captivated by the world of money, sex, and high society the charismatic Schultz has to offer. But it is also a world of extortion, brutality, and murder, where Billy finds himself involved in a dangerous affair with Schultz's girlfriend. Converging mythology and history, Doctorow has captured the romance of gangsters and criminal enterprise that continues to fascinate the American psyche today. Dustin Hoffman is Dutch Schultz and Nicole Kidman is Dutch’s girlfriend in this faithful rendering of the Doctorow book.

Doctorow, E.L. Ragtime. Random House, 1997. Published in 1975, Ragtime changed the very concept of what a novel could be. An extraordinary tapestry, Ragtime captures the spirit of America in the era between the turn of the century and the First World War. The story opens in 1906 in New Rochelle, New York, at the home of an affluent American family. One lazy Sunday afternoon, the famous escape artist Harry Houdini swerves his car into a telephone pole outside their house. And almost magically, the line between fantasy and historical fact, between real and imaginary characters, disappears. Henry Ford, Emma Goldman, J. P. Morgan, Evelyn Nesbit, Sigmund Freud, and Emiliano Zapata slip in including an immigrant peddler and a ragtime musician from Harlem whose insistence on a point of justice drives him to murder and mayhem. The movie is one of my favorites. It stars James Cagney in his last screen performance. Other members of the cast are Howard Rollins (in his screen debut) and Mary Steenbergen and out of the tale, crossing paths with Doctorow's imagined family and other fictional characters,

Esquivel, Laura. Like water for chocolate : a novel in monthly installments, with recipes, romances, and home remedies. Translated by Carol Christensen and Thomas Christensen. Doubleday, 1992. A woman blocked from being with her true love pours all of her passion into her cooking with results spicy enough to cause you to break into a sweat. Delicious! ***** The film is by Arau Films International. Como agua para chocolate is in Spanish with English subtitles. Screenplay by Laura Esquivel. Starring Marco Leonardi, Lumi Cavazos, Regina Torne. Romantic fantasy set in the early 20th century about a young couple blocked from marrying by the demands of her cold and selfish mother. To be near his love the young man marries her sister, and she expresses her passion for him through her cooking. This is hot stuff! I liked the movie equally as well or better than the book.

Evans, Nicholas. The Horse Whisperer. Delacorte Press, 1995. The Horse Whisperer is a story made in Hollywood heaven. The novel was written by a first-time author, and the film option was snapped up by aging heartthrob Robert Redford for 3 million smackers. Why take such risks on a brand-spanking-new author? The answer becomes clear upon reading (or listening, as I did to Recorded Books version, read by veteran narrator Frank Muller, here at his very best ….yes, folks, the audiobook that got me hooked!!) the touching tale. One morning while teenage Grace Maclean is riding Pilgrim, her loveable pony, she has a horrendous glass-shattering, bone-splintering, ligament-lynching meeting with a megaton truck that leaves her and her four-legged friend damaged in mind, body, and spirit. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, her jaded, brilliant, bitchy mom, Annie Graves (Kristin Scott Thomas, in the 1998 film) is working out a wrinkle in her self-absorbed existence when she gets a call at her plush, Manhattan office about Grace's accident. Racked with guilt, Graves makes it her calling to find the mythical horse whisperer, an equine Zen master who has the ability to heal horses (and broken souls) with soothing words and a gentle touch. Just when it seems he can't be found, what do you know, she finds him. He arrives in the form of Tom Booker-- a rugged, sensitive, dreamy cowboy who helps Pilgrim and Grace repair their fractured selves. To add more mesquite to fire, Booker has a way with not-so-injured, attractive, married women--like Annie. As the plot thickens, so does the familial strife, which threatens to undo Booker's healing work. Like an expert cinematographer, Evans deftly crafts each scene with precision and clarity, sprinkling in ominous signs and foreboding images. However sentimental, The Horse Whisperer is an engaging read, sort of like a finely tuned, well-edited film. Too bad you can’t say the same thing about the Redford film. After a highly anticipated wait, I came away extremely disappointed with the movie. I am fairly sure Redford never read more than half the book. The film had an entirely new ending, which in greatly diminished the impact of the story. I loved, loved, loved the book & hated the movie!

Fitzgerald, F. Scott . The Great Gatsby. Scribner, 1925. Fitzgerald's masterpiece, this is a story about the American Dream, the romantic ideal that in America a person can become anything he wants to be. Set in the 1920's (Jazz Age, post World War I), the tale is about fabulously wealthy Jay Gatsby and his love for self absorbed, beautiful Daisy Buchanan. With the backdrop is Long Island where decadent and wasteful parties are held, the superficiality of the age is in played out. In this wonderful lyrical story, Fitzgerald uses the narrator Nick Caraway to express his indictment of the American Dream. BPL has a wealth of critical information on the novel. The movie stars Robert Redford as Jay Gatsby and Mia Farrow as Daisy in a fairly faithful adaptation of Fitzgerald’s masterpiece.

Goldsmith, Olivia. First Wive's Club. Poseidon Press, 1992. Elise, Brenda, Annie and Cynthia had all supported their husbands as they became successful. Three of the wives were discarded for younger women. Cynthia was driven to suicide. The first wives club was formed to unify, plan and get even with the ex husbands. The book is great and keeps you reading to see what is next. The movie is good, too, with Bette Midler, Goldie Hawn and Diane Keaton except the movie leaves out major points from the book.

Grisham, John. The Firm. Doubleday,1991. The movie version of John Grisham’s best-selling novel(Paramount Pictures, produced & directed by Sydney Pollack),is a suspenseful edge- of-your-seat adaptation. Tom Cruise stars as Mitch McDeere, a heavily recruited top-ranked Harvard law school student driven to rise above his working-class background and to achieve great success regardless of the costs. Mitch signs on with Bendini, Lambert, & Locke, a small, wealthy tax firm and moves with his wife Abby to Memphis. At first, it seems that the firm can offer him all that he has ever wanted-great wealth in return for complete dedication and incredible hard work. But the firm is too good to be true. Approached by the FBI, Mitch’s worst fears began to come true, as he realizes that a sinister truth lies beneath the facade of the firm’s business. It is up to Mitch to find a way out and to protect those people that he cares about, from the firm, before it is too late. The novel does not disappoint as a gripping tale of legal suspense. Readers who read the book first noted a few disappointing changes from the novel. Either format, however, taken on its own, provides suspenseful, heart pounding entertainment in a cautionary tale of greed gone bad.

Harris, Joanne. Chocolat : a novel. Viking, 1999. This story is narrated by and presented from the points of view of two separate and antagonistic characters. Picture luscious chocolate being sold by a beautiful single woman during the Lenten season in a town managed by an entrenched and inflexible priest. ***** The video recording stars Juliette Binoche, Judi Dench, Alfred Molina, Lena Olin and Johnny Depp. When a single mother and her young daughter move to rural France and open a chocolate shop - with Sunday hours - across the street from the local church, they are met with some resistance from the rigidly moral community. But as soon as the townspeople discover their delicious products, their attitudes begin to change. Although this is a popular movie, it does not present the material in the book in a satisfactory manner. If you want the whole story, then read the book.

Harris, Thomas. Hannibal. Delacorte Press, 1999. This graphic and highly disturbing novel devotes itself to the question: if Dr. Hannibal "The Cannibal" Lecter is scary in a prison cell, how scary is he when he's loose? The answer is, pretty terrifying. No longer confined in a maximum security detention center, Lecter is free to let his worst impulses run riot; however, his actions in this novel could be called fairly restrained, for him. Harris has a genius for crafting sym-pathetic villains, and we the readers can hardly avoid rooting for Lecter when so many of the other characters in the novel are blatantly UN-sympathetic, such as the misogynist Paul Krendler and the gruesome Mason Verger, who has been one of Lecter's few surviving victims and seeks a spectacular revenge against him. The return of Clarice Starling (from Harris' earlier novel, The Silence of the Lambs) at first offsets this grim view of humanity, but as the novel goes on we see Starling grow more and more weary of the life she has chosen in the FBI,particularly when she is framed by Krendler because of his resentment that a woman could do so well in the Bureau (and this woman won't give him the time of day). Inevitably, Lecter and Starling cross paths again . . . and the result, in the novel, is quite a surprise. The film follows the novel closely until the ending--and the fact that the film's conclusion is such a departure from the novel possibly reflects the unease of thousands of readers exclaiming, "She couldn't. She wouldn't. Not Starling. Would she?"

Hemingway, Ernest. For Whom the Bell Tolls. Schribner, 1940. One of the key adventure and romance stories of modern times, the novel shows that not all struggles for (seeming) justice end happily, or end at all. At the time of publication, 1940, the book became an immediate and huge best seller. A ragtag group of Loyalist guerillas fights against fascist/royalist forces in the Spanish Civil War of the 1930s. A young American who allies himself with the fighters tells the story. They struggle against uphill odds (literally as well as figuratively- most of the action takes place in the mountains) and the accompanying fear, grief and despair. The period of time is three days. The narrative is spare and concentrated and expertly conveys the ever-forward movement of events. No clutter, sentimentality or long passages about interior psychological states are here. To most everyone this style will not seem the least bit original. That’s because generations of imitators and hacks have spread Hemingway’s novel-methods well past the point of ad nauseam. Don’t let that bother you; check out the guy who got it right. In the early forties, this was a radically new way of writing –and where do you think the word "novel" comes from, anyway? See why so many read it, and why the story’s characters – or any person - would say, in the face of almost inevitable defeat, "I can’t go on. I’ll go on."

King, Stephen. The Green Mile : The Complete Serial Novel. Penquin Books, 1996. When Stephen King originally wrote The Green Mile as a series of six novellas, he didn't even know how the story would turn out. As far as I am concerned, it turned out to be one of his finest stories. The setting is the small "death house" of a Southern prison in 1932. The Green Mile is the hall with a floor "the color of tired old limes" that leads to "Old Sparky" (the electric chair). The likable narrator is an old man, a prison guard, looking back on the events decades later. The Green Mile won a 1997 Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel, and it was made into fine film starring Tom Hanks. The film adaptation was excellent and true to the book. A minor storyline was left out, but I think this made for a tighter storyline in the movie. Both are excellent!

Letts, Billie. Where the Heart Is. Warner Books, 1995. Novalee Nation has always been unlucky with sevens. She's seventeen, seven months pregnant, 37 lbs. overweight — and now she finds herself stranded at a Wal-Mart in Sequoyah, Oklahoma, holding just $7.77 in change. An hour ago, she was on her way from Tennessee to a new life in Bakersfield, California. Suddenly, with all those sevens staring her in the face, she is forced to accept the scary truth: her no-good boyfriend Willy Jack Pickens has left her with empty pockets and empty dreams. But Novalee is about to discover treasures hidden in Sequoyah — a group of disparate and deeply caring people, among them blue-haired Sister Thelma Husband, who hands out advice and photocopied books of the Bible... Moses Whitecotton, the wise, soft-spoken, elderly black photographer eager to teach Novalee all he knows... and Forney Hull, the eccentric town librarian who hides his secrets — and his feelings — behind his world of books. Novalee may be homeless and jobless, living secretly in a Wal-Mart, but she's beginning to believe she may have a future. Through all the touching and surprising adventures that lie ahead, she's going in the right direction. Where the Heart Is puts a human face on the look-alike trailer parks and malls of America's small towns. It will make you believe in the strength of friendship, the goodness of down-to-earth people, and the healing power of love. And it will make you laugh and cry...every step of the way. The movie is very similar to the book with only a few differences. The main difference is that the number "5" is unlucky in the movie, not the number "7" as described in the book. Overall, both the movie and the book are cute stories.

London, Jack. The Call of the Wild. Harmony Books, 1977. C1903 The Call of the Wild is recommended for adults and young adults who enjoy adventure and/or stories about animals or dogs. The narrator of the story is Buck, a German Shepherd/St. Bernard dog who is stolen from his home in California and sold to men in the Northland for use as a sled dog. Buck quickly goes from being a domestic pet to learning to survive in the wild by returning to the survival methods of his ancestors, the wolves and other wild dogs. Buck is owned by a series of masters, some cruel, some fairer. He must adapt to life in a team of dogs and he eventually fights his way to being leader of the team. This story is bloody and violent in places. But it also tells the meaning of loyalty and true friendship in the relation between Buck and his master Thornton. Thornton rescues Buck from death, and Buck in turn later rescues Thornton from death. This is a story of life in the harsh wild and of the "call of the wild" that sounds within Buck and within all animals and men. There have been many movie versions of this book, but in my opinion, none of them measures up to the Clark Gable and Loretta Young version! Of course, Gable takes the major role here with Buck relegated to a minor role, with a romance thrown in to boot, but honestly WHO CARES? A hot romance between Gable and Young produced a scandal on location in Alaska (Young, a stanch Catholic, became pregnant with the married Gable’s child & went into hiding to have the baby which she "adopted" from an orphanage back in the 1930’s.) Great book, great movie!

Maugham, Somerset. Of Human Bondage. The Modern Library, 1942. She used him, she rejected him, and still he came back for more. Mildred was his woman, and when she needed him he was there, even while hating himself for his weakness. This is the story of unreasoning passion written by a master storyteller. The video recording is directed by John Cromwell and stars Bette Davis, Leslie Howard, Reginald Owen, Reginald Denny and Alan Hale. A gentleman doctor is inexplicably infatuated (obsessed) with a working class waitress. Watching this movie absolutely forced me to read the book. A classic movie based on a truly classic book.*****

Nasar, Sylvia. A Beautiful Mind : a biography of John Forbes Nash, Jr., winner of the Nobel Prize in economics, 1994. Simon & Schuster, 1998. Dramatic biography of John Nash, a mathematical genius, who made an astonishing discovery early in his career and stood on the brink of international acclaim. But Nash soon found himself on a painful and harrowing journey of self-discovery. After many years of struggle, he eventually triumphed over schizophrenia, and finally, late in life, received the Nobel Prize. A Beautiful Mind is a book that made me feel happy, sad, frustrated, scared, and lastly exuberant as I lived the life of John Nash while reading it. It makes the reader feel that good does prevail when Nash overcomes his illness to triumph in his field. It is a very interesting book. *****A Beautiful Mind (video recording): Universal Pictures, Dreamworks Pictures, Imagine Entertainment present a Brian Grazer production, a Ron Howard film. Starring Russell Crowe, Ed Harris, Jennifer Connelly, Paul Bettany, Adam Goldberg, Judd Hirsch, Josh Lucas, Anthony Rapp, and Christopher Plummer. After reading the book, seeing the movie leaves you feeling like a lot has been left out. However, the acting is wonderful and the movie is very detailed and descriptive. I have watched it twice, enjoyed it both times and will probably watch it again.

Porter, Bruce. Blow. 2000. Author Bruce Porter takes us into the life of Medellin cartel drug dealer, George Jung. Jung recounts his early days in Mexico as a small time marijuana dealer and his eventual promotion to head of cocaine distribution in North America in the 1980s. The book is very informative, describing the ins and outs of cocaine manufacturing, distribution and marketing. It also vividly describes, from a drug dealer’s perspective, the prison systems in Mexico and the United States. The movie Blow with Johnny Depp and Penelope Cruz is never boring, although some of the characters seem a little two-dimensional. Nevertheless, I highly recommend both book and the movie.

Smiley, Jane. A Thousand Acres. Alfred A Knopf, 1991. The 1992 Pulitzer Prize Winner for fiction, and the 1991 National Book Critics Circle Award Winner. A father, his three daughters and their friends and relations on an Iowa farm of about A Thousand Acres will have you wondering what could possibly happen next as this story unfolds. The father suddenly decides to stop farming and gives his land to his daughters Ginny, Rose, and Caroline. Perceived irrational acts by the father and daughters start a chain reaction of events and a dredging up of old memories and old wounds that will keep this story in your mind for a long time after reaching the end of the book. Told from the perspective of the oldest daughter, this story is considered to be a modern day version of Shakespeare's King Lear. Read it and decide for yourself….or watch the movie. Michelle Phieffer, Jessica Lange and Jason Robards head the all star cast. Beautiful scenery and a disturbing storyline.

Smith, Betty. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. Harpercollins, 1947. A Tree in Brooklyn is one of the most dearly beloved and one of the finest books of our day. Francie Nolan, avid reader, penny-candy connoisseur, and astute observer of human nature, has much to ponder in colorful, turn-of-the-century Brooklyn. She grows up with a sweet, tragic father, a severely realistic mother, and an aunt who gives her love too freely (to men), and to a brother who will always be the favored child. Francie learns early the meaning of hunger and the value of a penny. She is her father's child--romantic and hungry for beauty. But she is her mother's child, too--deeply practical and in constant need of truth. Like the Tree of Heaven that grows out of cement or through cellar gratings, resourceful Francie struggles against all odds to survive and thrive. Betty Smith's poignant, honest novel created a big stir when it was first published over 50 years ago. Her frank writing about life's squalor was alarming to some of the more genteel society, but the book's humor and pathos ensured its place in the realm of classics--and in the hearts of readers, young and old. This American masterpiece of a young girl's coming of age and beginnings of wisdom in turn-of-the-century New York is a profoundly moving novel. If you miss A Tree Grows in Brooklyn you will deny yourself a rich experience...It is a poignant and deeply understanding story of childhood and family relationships.

Spenser, Scott. Waking The Dead. Knopf, 1986. Scott Spenser has crafted a touching love story that transcends time, political ideology, and even death. The book opens in 1974 as Fielding Pierce (played by Billy Crudupin the movie) watches a news report announcing the death in Chile of three American activists, including Sarah Williams (Jennifer Connelly, recent Oscar winner), his one true love. The story flashes back to when they first met, showing how he was always more conservative, with grand political aspirations, but the relationship worked because they both shared dreams of making the world a better place, one from inside the system and the other from outside. The movie also flashes forward to his life in the early '80s, when he gets tapped to run for Congress. He starts having visions of her, but he is never quite sure if she's a hallucination arising out of his stress, a manifestation of his political consciousness, an out-and-out ghost, or maybe she's still alive somehow. Whatever she is, his deep longing for her is making him crack up. Spenser smartly jumps the story back and forth in time, forgoing an "objective" reality in favor of a more subjective and emotional one. It is a structure based on memory, and that in tandem with the content is what makes Waking the Dead a very powerful book indeed. The movie does an excellent job of conveying all the emotions of the book. Great performances!

Waller, Robert James. The Bridges of Madison County. Warner Books, 1992. Here's a Hallmark card for all those who have loved and lost: a mushy memorial to a brief encounter in the Midwest. One enchanted afternoon, across her Iowa farmyard, Francesca Johnson sees a stranger: "his eyes looked directly at her, and she felt something jump inside.'' He reminds her of a gazelle, make that a leopard or, better yet, "some star creature who had drafted in on the tail of acomet,'' for obviously he's come "a long way, across more than miles.'' In fact, 52-year-old National Geographic photographer Robert Kincaid has driven from Washington State to shoot the covered bridges of Madison County; what wonderful luck for these soon-to-be-lovers, this hot August of 1965, that 45-year- old Francesca's husband Richard, along with their two children, is at a state fair for a week. The Italian Francesca, who married Richard 20 years before in Naples but now feels "compromised and alone,'' asks the equally lonely, equally sensitive Robert to dinner. That's Day One; on Day Two, they fall in love; and when they make whoopee, it's as much spiritual as physical, what with Robert whispering, ``I am the highway and all the sails that ever went to sea.'' On Day Four, their last together, Francesca announces she must stay with her family, but their bond is forever: As Robert says, ``in a universe of ambiguity, this kind of certainty comes only once.'' Looking back years later, Francesca concludes that undying, romantic, extramarital love is compatible with family values. That conclusion sat well with the target audience. This fake and pretentious novel, poorly written as it was, was to the 90’s, what Love Story was to the 70’s: It was a huge bestseller which seemed to strike some emotional chord with many readers. The movie, starring Meryl Streep and Clint Eastwood in the leading roles, provided me with a first: a movie that was far superior to the book it was based on! Had these two stars not been in this movie, I never would have bothered seeing it in the first place. I knew Streep would never have appeared in a film that was as poor a quality as the book. The screenplay & acting gave plausibility to this story. I loved the movie & loathed the book!

Wharton, Edith. The House of Mirth. Vintage Books, 1990. C1905. Lily Bart is one of Wharton's most memorable and disturbing characters, a woman obsessed with the high society which she must struggle to fit into. Bart's downfall is her lack of money and she will go to great lengths to attain the one thing that matters in the New York of the early 20th century. She even flirts with the idea of becoming a kept woman. Her ambition blinds her to the love of a good, but poor man who must helplessly watch her decline from afar. Bart ends up as only her type can in Wharton's hands-- alone, disillusioned, and ultimately unable to continue to live a compromised life.

Television Movies

Albom, Mitch. Tuesdays With Morrie: An Old Man, A Young Man, & Life’s Greatest Lesson. Doubleday, 1998. This true story about the love between a spiritual mentor and his pupil has soared to the bestseller list for many reasons. For starters: it reminds us of the affection and gratitude that many of us still feel for the significant mentors of our past. It also plays out a fantasy many of us have entertained: what would it be like to look those people up again, tell them how much they meant to us, maybe even resume the mentorship? Plus, we meet Morrie Schwartz--a one of a kind professor, whom the author describes as looking like a cross between a biblical prophet and Christmas elf. And finally we are privy to intimate moments of Morrie's final days as he lies dying from a terminal illness. Even on his deathbed, this twinkling-eyed mensch manages to teach us all about living robustly and fully. Kudos to author and acclaimed sports columnist Mitch Albom for telling this universally touching story with such grace and humility. The TV adaptation starred Hank Azaria as Mitch and the incomparable Jack Lemmon as Morrie. It did an admirable job capturing the indomitable spirit of Morrie Schwartz…………I wish we could have at least one teacher like Morrie.

Evans, Richard Paul. Christmas Box. Simon & Schuster, 1995. The Evans family needed a change. This came when they moved in with a widow to cook and clean for her and maintain the grounds of her mansion. Richard and business partner run a ski equipment store. The widow and the Christmas Box teach Richard and his family the meaning of Christmas. In the movie, Richard has more Attitude than in the book. For me the book was more enjoyable.

McMurtry, Larry. Lonesome Dove. Simon & Schuster, 1985. An epic of the frontier, Lonesome Dove is a grand novel written about the American West by noted author Larry McMurtry. Two former Texas Rangers, Augustus McCray and Woodrow Call drive cattle from Texas to Montana in the post-Civil War years of the nineteenth century. Along the trail the reader not only meets such classic characters as cowboys, call girls and lawmen, but also views the spirit and condition of the American West. A Pulitzer Prize winner for fiction in 1986, Lonesome Dove is recommended for anyone interested in American culture and history, particularly that of the West. This is a western that will intrigue all readers. The book was turned into one of the best mini-series I’ve ever seen starring the incomparable Tommie Lee Jones and Robert Duvall as the colorful lead characters.

Short Stories

Miller, Sue. Inventing the Abbotts. Harper & Row, 1987. Inventing the Abbotts (motion picture 1997) (originally published as "The Lover of Women" in Mademoiselle) is a densely rich short story of only 29 pages that conveys more information than many novels and was deemed sufficient in scope to be the basis of a feature length film. Set in a small town in Illinois in the 1950’s the story involves two families from different socioeconomic levels and their interactions with each other and their community. The wealthiest and most prominent of families in this community are the Abbotts consisting of a father, mother and three beautiful, sought-after daughters. Once or twice a year a huge striped tent goes up on the Abbott’s back lawn to celebrate an event for one of the daughters -- sending the town’s young people into social turmoil wondering who will be "in" or "out" this time. Among the Abbott girls’ admirers include two brothers Jacey and Doug Holt who live with their widowed mother in a poorer section of town. Shortly after their father Mr. Holt died, Mr. Abbott talked Ms. Holt into selling him a patent well under its current and potential value. This knowledge adds complexity to Jacey Holt’s attraction to the Abbott sisters and their privileged world. Much of the story centers around Jacey’s pursuit of the girls one by one over a period of years. He is ultimately ruthless in his fixation with the women leaving a trail of both sexual pleasure and emotional pain. All of this is witnessed and told to the reader by the younger Holt brother Doug who serves as a prudent and sensitive narrator. Sue Miller’s writing reminds one of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s whose characters lust for wealth, beauty and social status at all costs, yet ultimately must face the moral consequences of such blind pursuits. Her short story is a literary gem complete with subtle metaphors and other nuances that lift it well above the level of most contemporary fiction. The 1997 film (co-produced by Ron Howard) on the other hand is a disappointment. One of the few good things that can be said about this film is that the cast is gorgeous. Joaquin Phoenix, Liv Tyler, Jennifer Connelly, Joanna Going, Kathy Baker and Billy Crudup are among the beauties cast in the film. Joaquin Phoenix’s performance as Doug Holt the narrator is probably the best of the entire ensemble. Others have good moments but they tend to play to the camera instead of to each other – leaving the film without the connective tissue necessary to make it an appealing whole. Ken Hixon (the writer of the screenplay) is no Sue Miller. One cannot help but wonder what Sue Miller thinks of the film, though one suspects she is far too prudent to let anyone know. Unlike Miller, Hixon offers major insights and character epiphanies early on in the film instead of letting the natural flow of events lead to them. An example of this is the "inventing" theme. Sue Miller introduces this theme toward the end of her story when she has Ms. Holt discussing her son Jacey’s fixation with the Abbotts with her younger son Doug. She says, "If John (Jacey) hadn’t met the Abbotts, he’d have had to invent them, one way or the other. There is no end of Abbotts in the world, if that’s what you need. And he just needs that somehow." Hixon practically opens the film with this observation giving the viewer a formula for how to perceive the action of the film instead of having the action point toward this conclusion. I would like to think that I would have found this film weak even had I not read Sue Miller’s short story two days prior to viewing the film. I believe that many of its flaws are independent of any comparisons. I do know there are many occasions when I like both a movie and the book it is based on, even when they are quite different.

Two good websites that feature information and critical viewpoints on films are the Internet Movie Database, http://www.imdb.com, and Rotten Tomatoes, http://www.rottentomatoes.com

August 14, 2002