Literary Adaptations: Episode 3
Scarborough by Catherine Hernandez
📘Book (2017):
This was a multifaceted, beautifully woven tale of community, with both heartbreak and moments of triumph. It was a Trillium Book Award finalist, and shortlisted for Canada Reads 2022. I raced through this book, because though its subject matter is at times challenging and heavy, its pacing is light and quick. Add the absorbing characters and the emotional tug to the story, and the pages turn themselves.
Over the course of a school year at a literacy drop-in program, Ms. Hina connects to families and their school-aged and preschool kids. This is a poorer neighbourhood, and the families struggle with housing and food insecurity. Hernandez introduces the voices of children and their parents for a multi-point-of-view narrative that comes together beautifully, so that I truly felt immersed in the lives of these individuals for a time.
There is all of the hardship and heartbreak that one might expect. The most challenging passage that I read was one that showed up front and centre the trauma of Laura, a young child confronted with a parent who lacks the skills to parent. By giving voice to the kids, I was able to sit with the uncomfortable feeling of how it might be as a child who has no power, helpless simply because of their age and circumstance.
There is also the triumph of connection and love here. The most uplifting chapters I read were of a middle-school boy Bing and his mother, who together made me want to cheer. Believe me, this was the most rewarding use of Whitney Houston’s I Wanna Dance With Somebody and a bedazzled pink halter top that I’ve ever read. I also loved the story of the Beaudoin family, where a mother’s quiet determination makes a true difference for her children.
The ending of the book was uplifting though I wasn’t sure the last chapter added much to the story, but that is really my only nitpick, and it is a personal preference. As a snapshot of a complex community, this book really delivers.
🎥 Movie (2021, screenplay by Catherine Hernandez; directed by Rod Williamson and Sasha Nakhai):
Perhaps for the first time in this series, I can honestly say that I liked the film adaptation just as much as the book. The screenplay is by Hernandez, and though writing a novel and a screenplay demand different skills, I can’t help but wonder if her involvement is part of the reason why the film represents the novel so very well. Often, it bothers me when there are too many changes from novel to film, and in this case there were some key differences, though they were not glaring. There was more emphasis on the character of Laura, as we watch her navigate her very difficult life, and I actually think this brought more balance to the story. As well, we get to meet Jane, the literacy program coordinator, a completely new scene, but it was valuable and needed in the film. One disappointment? Bing didn’t get to wear his pink bustier. I suppose you can’t have everything.
The stylistic choice to film the characters very naturally, with time having the camera observing the action without formal dialogue was a smart way to go. And the casting! It was fantastic all around. Those kids were amazing, and kudos to Liam Diaz who played Bing…and picked up a Canadian Screen Awards Best Actor credit. Absolutely a fantastic film! It won a ton of 2022 Canadian Screen Awards, including Best Motion Picture.
Something Wicked This Way Comes
📘 Book (1962):
This book captured me totally. Bradbury’s ideas are big: longing for things to be different, craving for experience and age, a nostalgic pull to youth, fear of death, and the need to confront one’s internal darkness. When Cooger & Dark’s Pandemonium Shadow Show shows up in 13-year-old Jim and Will’s small American town in the 60s, what should be innocent fun proves an evil carnival of temptation and horror.
Bradbury contrasts the characters of Jim–dark, restless and yearning for the future–and Will–lighter, contemplative, cautious and protective. Will’s dad Charles is middle aged and plays an important role too, so well-written. I loved the sense of peril, and how the boys are inexorably moving towards adulthood, with loss of innocence and change that feels tempting and threatening all at once. The temptations of this evilly enchanted carnival represent the baser aspect of human nature, dark yet destructive.
Perhaps we all hold the carnival within us. Craving, the desire for sin, wickedness, immortality, or just for things to not be the way they are. Bradbury shows us a way through this, with bravery and acceptance of the way things are, so this ends up being a moral tale at its core. Charles, for example, defeats his own “carnival,” by facing his fear of ageing head-on.
As the novel ends, Will, Jim and Charles are tempted one last time by the carousel, that vehicle of evil, and each finds the ability to turn away: “But then, thought Charles Halloway, once you start, you'd always come back. One more ride and one more ride...finally you end up the owner of the carousel, keeper of the freaks...Maybe, said their eyes, they're already here."
🎥 Movie (1983, screenplay by Ray Bradbury; directed by Jack Clayton):
Sadly, my conjecture about Scarborough’s successful adaptation having partly to do with the fact that the novelist and screenwriter are the same person just doesn't hold up. Ray Bradbury himself wrote the screenplay for this adaptation, and I personally found it to be terrible.
Yes, I’ll say it. Terrible. This movie didn’t stay very true to the book at all, and it felt “Disneyfied” in the worst way. Perhaps if I hadn’t read the book it might be just fine, but the menace, the depth, the themes of the book…all are almost erased, or so tritely written that they become virtually meaningless. I can hardly believe that the same person wrote the book and the screenplay. I was reading a bit about the production, and it seems that there was much consternation over directing, editing and re-writes, and the vision for the feel of the film. I think it is too conflicted: horror plus family-friendly didn’t mesh well. All the conflict behind the scenes made it onto the screen, I think, and the film suffers for it.
The two boys’ characters are watered down; Mr. Dark (as played by Jonathan Pryce, who I loved in Brazil) is cartoonish; and father Charles Holloway is okay but has lost his poignancy. And the silly special effects, even accounting for the 1980s era, are completely distracting and not very well done. It opened to mixed reviews for sure. Roger Ebert really liked it! But Gene Siskal did not. I have to agree with Tom Milne from The Monthly Film Bulletin (Milne, Tom. "Something Wicked This Way Comes." Monthly Film Bulletin, vol. 50, no. 597, Oct. 1983, pp. 278–79):
"The novel's texture has been thinned out so ruthlessly that little is left, but the bare bones; and all they add up to, shorn of the slightly self-conscious Faulknerian poetics of Bradbury's style, is a dismayingly schoolmarmish moral tale about fathers and sons, the vanity of illusions, and homespun recipes for dealing with demons ('Happiness makes them run')."
The Expanse by James S.A. Corey
📘 Book Series (James SA Corey, 2011-2021):
I read this Science Fiction series of nine hefty novels for my first Read a Series project and they were so good! I can’t say enough positive about these books. Amazing characters, a compelling story about a “protomolecule” that changes human history forever, complexity enough to keep one interested while not overwhelming the reader, and depth! I guess that’s one advantage of nine books: it gives the authors space to really develop their world. Not only depth of character, but thematic depth: the books were full of universal human struggles, truths about war and peace, and the ever challenging battle against oneself in tough situations. I’ve written long reviews for most of the novels. I’m sad they’re over. The two men who make up the writing team of James SA Corey have started a new series and I hope that will scratch my Expanse itch.
🎥 TV Series (Syfy/Amazon, 2015-2022):
The series consists of six seasons, the first three on Syfy, which cancelled it. It was then picked up by Amazon for a further three. The show covers the first six of the nine books. I get why they stopped, because there’s a 30-year gap between books six and seven. Perhaps there were other reasons as well. It’s a decent place to stop with a fairly natural ending.
I enjoyed the TV series a reasonable amount and I’m glad I watched it. Was it as good as the books? No, but I can be pretty forgiving here, because there is no way that the complexity of the books can be meaningfully captured on television. There’s far too much internal dialogue, too many characters, and too many plot lines in the book to be faithfully rendered on screen. I thought the casting was pretty well done overall, though Natalie grated on me just a bit. The main character of Jim Holden worked reasonably well, with good casting, though his character on screen lacked the optimistic mien that was so prominent in the book. Amos, though? He was my favourite main character in the book and I loved him on screen too.
The first three seasons were the best, because they stayed pretty faithful to the book. Plot points were changed more and more with each passing season, and at the end, the addition of scenes from Laconia–which would have made sense if they were going to film the last three books–were entirely superfluous. They should have been left out. **Spoiler alert**The most jarring departure from the books was the loss of one main character. I was like, “What, why?” when that happened, but apparently it was because of some misconduct allegations against the actor, and the production let the actor go. It’s interesting when creative vision meets real life. It reminded me of when I used to watch soap operas years ago and they’d just announce (or not) that a new actor was playing the part of an ongoing character and we’d all just suspend our disbelief. I wonder if that would have gone over well in The Expanse series? In any case, I’m glad I watched it, and can generally recommend it.
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That’s it for this episode. Let me know by commenting if you’ve read and watched these ones, and what you thought.
Literary Adaptations Series:
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