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Books
on Film
by John Son
Is there an original
screenplay out there? Presumably, but with the number of books being turned
into films, one has to wonder. Even more compelling, however, is the related
question (a modern variation of the age-old chicken/egg conundrum) of which
is better: the movie or the book?
Which probably
explains why you've come to the "Books on Film" section of our site,
where you'll always find a running list of current films successfully -- or
unsuccessfully -- adapted from their original source. Find out for yourself
which is better -- the book or the movie. (Psst, we always think the
book is better.)
Hannibal,
by Thomas
Harris
 Are
you hungry for a great read? Catch up with Hannibal Lecter and Clarice Starling
(who suddenly looks a lot like Julianne Moore) seven years after The
Silence of the Lambs, and sink your teeth into another gripping adventure
with one of the most diabolical literary creations ever set to paper.
Left
Behind: A Novel of the Earth's Last Days, by Tim
LeHay, Jerry
B. Jenkins
 How
big is the Bible Belt? Ask Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins, whose bestselling
Left Behind series highlights the thrilling narrative qualities that have made
the Bible's "Book of Revelations" such compelling material for the
past 2,001 years. So much so that they've turned the first book of the series
into an action-packed movie.
The
Invisible Circus, by Jennifer
Egan
 The
high ideals and inevitable compromises of the 1960s form the background to this
acclaimed novel by Jennifer Egan. Phoebe O'Connor, eighteen years old in the
summer of 1978, is too young to know the 1960s, but old enough to feel the anxiety
of their influence. She's obsessed with the memory of her charismatic older
sister, Faith, a flower child who died in Italy in 1970. Searching for the truth
about Faith's death and life, Phoebe retraces her steps across Europe to the
very place where she died. Her search yields more complex and disturbing revelations
than she had wished for -- about her sister and the generation she emblematized.
The
House of Mirth, by Edith
Wharton
 The
House of Mirth is the novel that first established the literary reputation
of Pulitzer Prize-winner Edith Wharton. In it, she honed her devastating acerbic
style, created one of her most memorable heroines in Lily Bart, and discovered
her defining theme: the vulgarity, greed, human frailty, and false social values
that form the true foundation of New York society. Sounds sort of like a conspiracy
theory, which may be why the film version stars Gillian Anderson.
Before
Night Falls,
by Reinaldo
Arenas
 A
shockingly personal/political memoir from one of the most visionary writers
to emerge from Castro's Cuba, recounting Arenas' stunning odyssey -- from his
poverty-stricken childhood through his suppression as a writer and imprisonment
as a homosexual, to his flight to America and subsequent life and death in New
York. Javier Bardem has been garnering rave reviews for his portrayal of Arenas
in Julian Schnabel's visually lavish film version.
Thirteen
Days: A Memoir of the Cuban Missile Crisis,
by Robert
Kennedy
 During
the thirteen days in October 1962 when the United States confronted the Soviet
Union over its installation of missiles in Cuba, few people shared the behind-the-scenes
story as it's told here by the late Senator Robert F. Kennedy. In a clear and
simple record, he describes the personalities involved in the crisis, with particular
attention to the actions and attitudes of his brother, President John F. Kennedy.
He describes the daily, even hourly, exchanges between Russian and American
representatives. In firsthand immediacy we see the frightening responsibility
of two great nations holding the fate of the world in their hands, though Marilyn's
nowhere in sight.
Chocolat,
by Joanne
Harris
 Joanne
Harris wrote the novel upon which the charming film, “Chocolat” (nominated for
five Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Actress (Juliette Binoche),
and Best Supporting Actress (Judi Dench), was based. Both the novel and the
film are exquisite. Chocolat tells the story of a Mayan priestess who
arrives with her daughter at a tranquil, rural French village in the 1950s and
begins liberating the cozy, repressed inhabitants with her specially created
chocolate concoctions. Arch-conservative values bump up against sheer Epicurean
pleasure. Guess which wins.
Wonder
Boys,
by Michael
Chabon
 Grady
Tripp is a middle-aged philanderer -- with a penchant for pot and failed marriages
-- who's unable to complete the long-awaited follow-up to his award-winning
novel. His brilliant student James Leer is a troubled young writer obsessed
with Hollywood suicides and prone to fabrication and petty thievery. In their
odyssey through the streets of Pittsburgh, Grady and James are joined by Grady's
pregnant mistress, his hilariously bizarre editor, and an achingly beautiful
student lodger. The result is a wildly comic, poignantly moving, and ultimately
profound search for past promisess, future fame, and a purpose to Grady's life.
Requiem
for a Dream,
by Hubert
Selby
 In
this searing novel first published in 1978, two young hoods, Harry and Tyrone,
and a girlfriend, fantasize about scoring a pound of heroin and getting rich.
But their heroin habit gets the better of them, and Harry's mother's addiction
to diet pills lands her in a state mental hospital. A harrowing, vivid, unflinching
fever of a novel, from the writer who brought us Last
Exit to Brooklyn.
All
the Pretty Horses,
by Cormac
McCarthy
 A
simple story of tragic love and innocence lost catapulted into a literary masterpiece
by the profound prose stylings of McCarthy, and shown to be untranslatable to
film by the willing and game Billy Bob Thornton.
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