I’m a sucker for books like Kristen Lopez’s But Have You Read the Book? (2023). Lopez chose 52 movies based on books and delivers a quick but pithy comparison of the original book and the resulting movie in short essays. Lopez shows which movies are exceptional adaptions faithful to the book…or completely altered by cinematic “creative license.”
For example, Lopez discusses the various versions of Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner (based on Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?) and the controversy each iteration produced. I was also fascinated by Lopez’s commentary on movies that were deemed “unfilmable” like The Lord of the Rings and Dune that eventually got made.
Lopez shows why Stephen King hated Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining. But King loved Mike Flanagan’s film version of Doctor Sleep (2019).
Of course I now want to rewatch several of these movies…and reread many of the books!
How many of these 52 movies have you seen? How many of the original books have you read? Any favorites? GRADE: A
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Introduction — 8
Frankenstein (1931) — 11
The Thin Man (1934) — 15
Wuthering Heights (1939) — 19
Rebecca (1940) — 24
To Have and Have Not (1944) — 28
Mildred Pierce (1945) — 32
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953) — 36
Kiss Me Deadly (1955) — 40
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) — 44
Psycho (1960) — 49
Dr. No (1962) — 55
To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) — 59
The Haunting (1963) — 64
In Cold Blood (1967) — 68
Valley of the Dolls (1967) — 73
Rosemary’s Baby (1968) — 76
True Grit (1969) — 81
A Clockwork Orange (1971) — 86
The Last Picture Show (1971) — 90
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971) — 94
The Godfather (1972) — 98
Jaws (1975) — 102
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975) — 106
The Shining (1980) — 110
Blade Runner (1982) — 115
The Color Purple (1985) — 119
The Princess Bride (1987) — 124
Goodfellas (1990) — 128
The Silence of the Lambs (1991) — 132
The Age of Innocence (1993) — 136
The Joy Luck Club (1993) — 139
Jurassic Park (1993) — 143
The Remains of the Day (1993) — 147
Clueless (1995) — 150
Devil in a Blue Dress (1995) — 154
The Virgin Suicides (1999) — 158
Cruel Intentions (1999) — 162
Fight Club (1999) — 166
The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999) — 170
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) — 175
Children of Men (2006) — 179
No Country for Old Men (2007) — 183
Coraline (2009) — 187
The Social Network (2010) — 191
The Hunger Games (2012) — 195
The Great Gatsby (2013) — 199
Call Me By Your Name (2017) — 203
Crazy Rich Asians (2018) — 207
If Beale Street Could Talk (2018) — 211
Little Women (2019) — 215
Dune (2021) — 219
Passing (2021) — 223
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS — 227
BIBLIOGRAPHY — 229
About the Author — 240
I’ve seen many of the movies and read a fair number of the books. “Jaws” the movie was so much better than JAWS the book. “Mildred Pierce” the movie was a total noir, but the book is more about how a spoiled brat if a daughter gets her parents to commit insurance fraud—nary a gun nor corpse in sight. My least favorite adaptations are the Margaret Rutherford Miss Marples where Rutherford is NOTHING like Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple. But Christie must have liked them well enough—she dedicated one of her books to Rutherford.
Deb, Kristen Lopez mentions Hickson had appeared in a stage adaptation of the novel Appointment with Death in 1946, after which Christie sent Hickson a note that read, “I hope one day you will play my dear Miss Marple.” Christie got her wish.
Books and movies are two different critters with two different rules. That said, sometimes the movie people have grand ideas about how smarter they are than the original author and how their vision is so much better than the author’s. Almost always, this is a mistake. Also, in films there are too many fingers in the pie — fingers that ignorantly contain way more ego than talent.
Jerry, I agree with you, but some movies are better than the novels they are based on. The magic of the creative process can improve…and diminish.
I have seen all of the movies except A CLOCKWORK ORANGE. I have read perhaps 40% of the books
Patti, very impressive! I remember reading A CLOCKWORK ORANGE and then going to see the movie–which I think was my first X-rated movie. I walked out of the movie wondering about all the changes in the movie from the novel.
“Slaughterhouse Five” seems like an odd admission since Vonnegut (as well as Susan Sontag) thought it was a good adaptation of an “unfilmable” book. I would have thrown in “The Third Man” (which Greene actually based on the movie) for fun. Also have to add “The Ghost and Mrs. Muir” because that’s much better than the book as well as “Portrait of Jenny” and “The Bishop’s Wife” as examples of perfectly fine adaptations that can stand beside the books despite their changes. “To Have and Have Not” doesn’t have much to do with Hemingway and is all the better for it. Oh, and despite the inconsistent quality of the animation, “Watership Down” is a pretty good “straight” adaptation of the book.
I’be read and seen a chunk of these and seen their adaptations. “Mildred Pierce,” “Rebecca,””Wuthering Heights” and “The Thin Man” all work for me in their respective mediums. Novels and movies are very different beasts with very different temperments though they can sometimes swap moods surprisingly effectively.
“Lord of the Rings” is a slog in either form and while “Dune” is a good read for teenage boys (girls are generally too smart for it) I wouldn’t touch either film version with a ten-foot pole. “Jurassic Park” is a dumb, phoned-in Spielberg movie but god, the book was crummy. “Frankenstein” is a literary curio more memorable for what people have projected onto it and I’ll take the James Whale movie (or the surprisingly watchable seventies mini-series) any day.
Byron, I suspect Kristen Lopez may be working on a sequel to BUT HAVE YOU READ THE BOOK? Some of the movie/book examples you cite might be included in that volume. Part II of DUNE is being filmed now and we’ll see how it turns out.
I think I’ve seen all the movies but haven’t read 12 or so of the books, and I’m not likely to read the ones I’ve missed. I’m definitely not a stickler for having movies follow the book exactly. I loved King’s THE SHINING but never really understood his hostility toward Kubrick’s movie, which I also loved despite the fact that it’s not particularly faithful to the book. I don’t care–it’s a great movie anyway.
Michael, Kristen Lopez’s commentary on THE SHINING delves into Stephen King’s animosity toward the film.
Understandable animosity…it’s a self-indulgent mess, Kubrick’s worst film after FEAR AND DESIRE.
The Shining made me a Stephen King fan. I’ve read Doctor Sleep but haven’t seen the movie. I need to add it to my list.
I loved the movie version of The Notebook. The book itself is crap. How does Nicholas Sparks become a bestseller?
Beth, I’m with you on Nicholas Sparks…but he has a loyal audience that buy his books and watch the movies/TV series based on them.
How many have I seen? 47!
How many have I read? Well, do you count LORD OF THE RINGS and HUNGER GAMES as 1 or 3? Either way, it’s 31+.
I will definitely be looking for this book too. Wait. Just went to the library site and they had it available, had one ebook and it was available, so I downloaded it. I’m not really enjoying the current non-fiction book I’m reading as much as I’d expected to – YOURS TRULY: An Obituary Writer’s Guide to Telling Your STory – so may just return it.
Yes, as Deb said, JAWS was so much better than the book. So was THE GODFATHER. When I read THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE my first choice to play the lead was Julie Harris, so they got that right.
The ones I haven’t seen are THE VIRGIN SUICIDES, FIGHT CLUB, THE GREAT GATSBY, and DUNE, which we have on the DVR.
Jeff, you’re running a close second to Patti Abbott! Let me know what you think of Kristen Lopez’s commentary on these movies and books.
CALL ME BY YOUR NAME was the last one I haven’t seen.
As I’ve said before (and elsewhere) I have always read the books that were made into movies I’ve seen, at least as far back as Fred Gipson’s OLD YELLER (1956/movie 1957). I even read General Lew Wallace(as he was called on the cover)’s BEN-HUR: A Tale of The Christ (1880/movie 1959). And Irving Shulman’s novelization of WEST SIDE STORY (1961 for both). I have distinct memories of getting at least some of these from Scholastic book orders in school.
Jeff, same here. I try to read (or reread) the books the movie I’m about to see is based on. I’ll be reading DUNE again (for the 6th time!) when the second half of the movie is released on November 3, 2023.
Read 26 of the books. Saw 47 0f the movies.
Steve, seeing 47 of the 52 movies is quite a feat! And 26 of 52 books…well done!
I find this disappointing lightweight. She talks about the differences, but seldom analyzes how the changes affect the story — okay on Rebecca, not on Wuthering Heights. And while she read all the books, she doesn’t know all their backstories; I wouldn’t expect her to, but it means she’s sometimes off. For instance, she talks about how the ending of The Fellowship of the Ring is weak, but apparently doesn’t know that Tolkien wrote The Lord of the Rings expecting it to be published as one book, not three. (She also said that Christopher Lee played Sauron, when he played Saruman.)
It’s mildly enjoyable, but I’m not getting out of it what I hoped.
Jeff, you’re right about Lopez needing a better editor to clean up some of the gaffs. But, all in all, I enjoyed the breezy commentary. It inspired me to want to watch some of these films and read some of the books she wrote about.
I’m surpised at how few of the books that I have read, maybe 10, and how few of the movies I have seen, maybe 20. Not sure what this says about me other than I seem to avoid what’s popular. And I doubt if I will go looking for any that I have missed. Amazed at how many Patti has read and seen.
Kent, Patti Abbott is amazing! She loves movies. With the streaming services available, all of these films are easy to access for those who want to watch them.
Belatedly, I’ve seen 42 of the films, keep meaning to see Valley of the Dolls–Lee Grant referred to it as the best comedy she worked in–but not yet. Read just under half…won’t read the Susann, most likely, tried with the Benchley, etc.
Did see the first DUNE film, figured that was enough.
Todd, the second part of DUNE arrives later this year. I’ll go see it.
Todd, set the bar low for VALLEY OF THE DOLLS. But it was a huge money-maker at that time.