Sunday February 5th, 2012 From Page to Silver Screen

Have you ever had the experience of finishing a great book and thinking this would make a fabulous movie? Many films are derived from novels, and while many films are disasters, some are brilliantly done bringing a new audience to an amazing book or talented author. Novels have on occasion taken years to reach the silver screen, while others seem to flow seamlessly from the page to the Cineplex.

As we are coming to the end of the film awards season with the most glittering prize of all, the Oscars, being awarded at the end of this month it’s a great time to check out the literary inspirations for the prizes. While a few of the nominees are blockbusters, many of the films nominated for the big prizes are virtually unknown to the mass film viewing public. It has become a yearly tradition in my house, when watching the awards, to argue about who “actually” deserved the award, envy or disparage the clothes and gossip about who came with who, accompanied by a vat of popcorn, of course. It has also become a tradition to read the novels that inspired the movies. Fortunately, this year as with any other, the titles are available on the shelves of the Thunder Bay Public Library.

The Descendents by Kaui Hart Hemmings

The debut novel by Hemmings deals with Matt King, absentee father and husband whose whole life changes when his wife, falls into a coma following a boating accident. Matt suddenly must learn how to parent his two daughters, who are difficult children at best, and deal with reality behind his marriage. The book is a careful mix of humour and pathos and makes for an excellent read.

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

Another debut novel, concerns the beginnings of the civil rights movement in Jackson, Mississippi in 1962, where young writer Eugenia “Skeeter” Phalen begins writing stories based on interviews with the black women employed to raise the children of their white employers. The stories display the active and passive discrimination of these women and force the characters to begin the process of change.

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer

The tragedy of 9/11 takes on a more human face with the tale of Oskar Schell who lost his father and tries to cope by following a quest throughout New York to solve the mystery of a key that he finds in his father’s possessions.


We Need to Talk about Kevin by Lionel Shriver

The relationship between a mother and child is explored both before and in the aftermath of the child’s Columbine-like killing spree. Kevin was a difficult and frightening child, unable to bond with Eva, who was ambivalent, in her mothering toward him. Behind the story is the question, was Kevin destined to violence or could his parents have done anything to prevent a tragedy?


The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick

A great story for children of all ages, Hugo Cabret is an orphan living in the walls of a Paris train station. Hugo’s adventure and his destiny involve around a mysterious key, a book of treasured notations, a mechanical man and a hidden message.



Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by John Le Carre

Set in the 1970’s, Tinker, Tailor, Solider, Spy is the story of intelligence agent, George Smiley who is forced out of retirement in order to find a Russian “mole” in the upper levels of the British Secret Service.




Lori Kauzlarick