Wonder Boys by Micheal Chabon

Tried to watch the movie for Wonder Boys (based on the book by Micheal Chabon). There's just so much alternating of the original story I can take when it comes to adapting a book into film, and after the part Trip calls Walter at 8 am to tell him that he's in love with his wife I had it. I switched it off, feeling so glad that I read the book.

I wonder how many books turn into bad movies. What a shame that is. Wonder Boys might be a passable movie, but if anyone got turned off by it and didn't bother with the book that would be a damn shame. Then again, you can't translate a book with such a cleverness with language, references, turns of phrases, description and wit onto a screen.

I must say though that on the whole the novel had more good points than bad. It's a novel that's good, pushing great, but didn't quite get there. That is the best kind of novel for the learning writer to learn from, in my opinion. I learned a lot from this book.

It's good writing, good craft. There's so many nuggets of gold in there for an aspiring writing, and I have a feeling that this being the difficult novel, and the novel before the The Amazing Adventures of Cavalier and Clay (Pulitzer) it taught him somethings. As one in our trio reading group aptly said, "The writing is like Hollywood special effects. You're like 'wow, wow, wow' and then it's over, and you're thinking 'that's it? what about the story?" The dazzle of his prose got in the way of the execution of the story and character. You've got to 'kill your darlings' and here his cleverness with words were his.

I love first person narratives, and this one managed to stay in the same POV the entire novel. However, the writing bordered on the style of the the third person too much (the 'special effects'). While clever, the fact of it being 'too clever' at inappropriate places distracted from the situation of the story. I realized what the first person narrative needed most of all: a strong voice. That's essentially what I liked about all the books I read that's written in the first person (for an interesting experience try reading Jay McInerney's Bright Lights, Big City written in second person) from Catcher in the Rye to Henry Miller's Tropics.

I also appreciated the novel not having a standard plot. The characters essentially don't change throughout the entire book. Grady does towards the end, which could qualify it as a maturation plot for both Grady and James Leer, but it's just the barest of changes. This is not bad. Yet a novel without a standard plot is a difficult feat to pull off, and I admire the writer for managing it, especially in a first novel. From what I understood, The Mysteries of Pittsburgh had been Chabon's master's thesis.

We disused universality in our group. One in our group got all the Jewish references, which myself and the other had no clue about. Another referent would be the pot-smoking aspects. If you've never spoked weed, hung around weed-smokers for a long time, had good friends (or spouses) who smoked reefer, then certain parts of the book would definitely get to you. As Grady compounded the problems in his life (and his denial) by smoking and avoiding conflict, each 'shove it under the carpet' scene set up the next. The way these series of effects were connected were masterfully done, but they felt like connecting the dots instead of a resonance. The essence of standard plot are stories which resonate with the unconscious (either that, or we've just been listening to them over and over again from childhood) of a majority of people, and this one perhaps a more niche group.

There are a few other points, but I gleaned one valuable lesson here. The book appeared very autobiographical. All books are, but I got the sense that this book had excellent technical execution also as if it had been a creative writing project that an A+ student wanted to write. 'Write what you know' and all other maxims met. Yet the voice didn't seem to fit or didn't come in at the right time. I saw a writer beginning to understand his craft and style. Perhaps every beginning writer must do this: write an intensely autobiographical novel, just to understand both his voice, his passion, his honesty, and the distinction of that and the story-teller's craft. Every if he/she doesn't show it to anybody, it needs to be written.

So I go to write mine... keeping in mind to kill my darlings.