Book/Movie Comparison: Everything Is Illuminated

My first book/movie analysis. For this post, after a brief summary, I'll look at Characters, Setting, Theme, What Was Gained by Film Adaptation, and What Was Lost by Film Adaptation. If this works, I'll just keep this format for the rest, too.

Everything Is Illuminated was written by Jonathan Safran Foer in 2002. The book is divided into two sections.

The first is the story of a young American Jew, Jonathan, traveling to Ukraine to find the woman who saved his grandfather's life, Augustine. He is led around the country, searching for the shtetl Trachimbrod, by a Ukrainian named Alex and his grandfather. This part is written by Alex and mailed to Jonathan after the journey has ended.

The second section is Jonathan's writings mailed to Alex. It is his fictional account of the history of Trachimbrod. It's very literary and has bits of magical realism.

The movie was released in 2005. It was directed and written by Liev Schreiber. Elijah Wood plays the role of Jonathan, Eugene Hutz Alex, and Boris Leskin Grandfather.

The script only focuses on the story in Ukraine, following their travels around the country in search of Augustine and Trachimbrod.

Setting:

I really enjoyed the setting in the movie. The beautiful countryside, the ornate buildings, the dingy hotel. During Alex's writing in the book, you don't read too much about the landscape or their surroundings. (I'm definitely not complaining - Alex spends a lot of time on their conversations, making humorous Ukrainian-to-English translation mistakes, thinking about American pop culture, and reflecting on what they learned on their journey.)

Because Jonathan's novel sections are taken out, the movie doesn't explore the fantastical Trachimbrod. That might have been really neat in film, but I'm glad they didn't include this section, the movie would have been quite odd and stilted. So, from here on out, I'll just talk about Alex's section and how it was adapted.

Characters:

In any film adaptation, you lost a lot of depth. Film is a like an act of spying into the lives of these characters; books look into their minds.

The Jonathan in the book is a writer. In the movie, he's a collector. He spends a lot of time gathering things and putting them in ziploc bags, and in the beginning of the movie, there's a wonderful scene of his room, where the camera spans all the things he's collected connected to his family: movie tickets, handkerchiefs, jewelry. The "writer" role of the book is a way of showing Jonathan's character to us, and the "collector" role of the movie does this same thing. If Jonathan had solely been a writer, the viewers of the film wouldn't have been able to read his words.

Eugene Hutz was great as Alex. He was a funny, endearing character. The only thing I think the movie is missing is Alex's growth as a character.

(Warning: spoilers from here on out!)

At the end of the book, Alex tells his abusive, drunken father to leave and takes the role of the head man in the house. He also learns things about his grandfather and contemplates what it means to be a bad or good person. The journey to Trachimbrod changes him. He even confesses in the end that he doesn't go to nightclubs or become "carnal" with other women, but it was mostly an act. I didn't feel unfulfilled after watching the movie Alex, but I still felt like he wasn't as deep as the book Alex.

Here's a quote from the book that really signifies Alex's growth, from Alex's POV: "The bruises go away, and so does how you hate, and so does the feeling that everything you receive from life is something you have earned."

The grandfather is given a much different backstory in the movie. In the book, the grandfather gives his Jewish best friend over to the Nazis while they are ransacking his village Kolki. In the movie, the grandfather is a Jewish man who escaped the Nazis and stayed in Ukraine by pretending he wasn't Jewish. I think it was an interesting choice. The story in the book broke my heart; I cried the first time I read, and I was even crying in the library as I read it again yesterday. The story in the movie was moving, but I almost felt like it was too simple. The book version was complex, and you knew the grandfather was a good person, but it made you think about the horrors of war and what people will do to save their lives and the lives of their family. I suppose I like the book version a bit more, but again, just because it gives much more depth and growth to the grandfather.

Theme

The book had many themes. I think the theme about history and its meaning was definitely the stronger in the movie. Jonathan came all the way from America to search for Augustine. When they do find her, she explains the history of Trachimbrod, and we find out the grandfather's history.

Alex says at the end of the movie in a letter to Jonathan, "I have reflected many times upon our rigid search. It has shown me that everything is illuminated in the light of the past. It is always along the side of us, on the inside, looking out. Like you say, inside out. Jonathan, in this way, I will always be along the side of your life. And you will always be along the side of mine."

This echoes Alex's sentiments in the book: "Everything is the way it is because everything was the way it was. Sometimes I feel ensnared in this, as if no matter what I do, what will come has already been fixed."

Lost:

So much can be lost in film adaptation. Obviously, there was no way to translate the power of the written word to the film. In Alex's letters, it even becomes a point of contention between the two of them. Alex wonders why Jonathan continues to write sad, loveless histories for his relatives when "with writing, we have second chances." That was a powerful part of the book for me, but, of course, it's part of the book.

I regret the growth of Alex and his passionate response to his grandfather's suicide.

Gained:

The film adaptation was simpler than the book. At times, the book (especially Jonathan's account of Trachimbrod) can be overwhelming or too "out there." The movie took the relationships and basic journey to find Augustine and put it into a beautiful landscape with talented actors. You still have the melancholiness, the love, the humor, the significance in the past.

The movie is definitely in my top 20 movies, and the book is amazing, too. I recommend both in a heartbeat!

What do you think? About the book? The film? The switch from book to movie?

Some links:

Who is Augustine?
An Interview with Jonathan Safran Foer
IMDb for Everything Is Illuminated
Everything Is Illuminated on BWB
Everything Is Illuminated on Goodreads

Visit My Squid Lens on this topic

It's like _____ meets _____!

Inspired by this thread on the Nanowrimo forums (yes, I do spend a lot of time there), I decided to do this for a couple of my projects.

Fill in the blanks:
It's like _________ meets _________! (I can add "in _________" if I want!)

Stones of Cilean
It's like Avatar: the Last Airbender meets The Hunger Games.
(In a world where everyone is gifted with elemental powers, Jennifer and her twin sister are drawn to a rebel organization, exposed to an ancient source of power, and caught up in the war that ensues over the stones of Cilean.)

The Seeker
It's like Lost meets Treasure Island.
(When Dakota joins a team exploring the Bermuda Triangle, she doesn't expect to be transported to an alternate reality where there's a hostile island of people who are blaming them for unstable electromagnetism. But it happens.)

The Second Generation - this is my tentative title for my Thatcher Novel
Honestly, I have no idea. I feel like it's a pretty unique idea, but it has probably been written before. There's nothing new under the sun.
All right, I just read a synopsis of The Host by Stephenie Meyer, and it seems like what's happening on Earth in The Host is a lot like what happened in The Second Generation during the war - the aliens took over human bodies to fight for what they wanted. Interesting!
(When four part-alien young adults are pulled into a power struggle for a refugee city called Thatcher, they grow to love one another, forgive their enemies, and fight society's expectations of them.)

Here are some for other novels I've read:
the Mortal Instruments by Cassandra Clare
It's Neverwhere (by Neil Gaiman) meets Harry Potter.
Serious, when I read Neverwhere, I was like, "holy crap. This is TMI with better writing and older characters!"

The Luxe series (which I haven't yet finished - not a strong desire to, though)
Gossip Girl meets A Great and Terrible Beauty.

That's all I've got for now. Maybe I'll come back and do more later!

Light Raid by Connie Willis and Cynthia Felice

Light Raid by Connie Willis and Cynthia Felice

Hardback, Published 1989, 229 pages.

Set in a future North America where America is in a civil war. Protagonist Hellene Ariadne was sent to Victoria to escape from the dangers of the war, but she runs home when she has the suspicion that something has happened to her dad. She finds out her house has been destroyed by a light raid, her dad is in shock, and her mom is in jail, arrested for suspicion of sabotaging the war. What follows is an intense thrill ride full of twists and turns.

The book kept me guessing. I wasn't sure whether Ariadne's mom was guilty. I didn't know who to trust. I enjoyed following Ariadne on her journey as she put the pieces together and reacted to everything.

The book went a little too fast. I think that in exchange for the action and fast pace, the authors sacrificed some character development. Ariadne was a very likable character - smart, stubborn, quick-thinking, proactive. But the other characters - her dad, Essex, even Joss - remained one-sided. I like the romance, though.

A few things I could learn from this book:

Setting. I don't know what kind of preparation there was for this setting, but it seemed like they had everything figured out. How HydraCorp worked, the science of the future, the transportation, all of it. I lack this kind of detail in stories that take place anywhere other than our regular earth. At the same time, they just dropped in words like we knew what they were. Of course, I wouldn't want big info dumps or explanations about everything, but a lot of things, I didn't know what they were talking about, and just tried to make up an equivalent. For example, jams? Or those jeans? When I first read the words, I thought of pajamas, but I knew that couldn't be it.

Active vs. Passive Character. Ariadne was taking charge in the first chapter. I knew she was going to be one of those characters who didn't wait around for what she wanted. And I was right; all through the book, she actively does things to move the plot along. I've heard this a lot in writing classes: your character should be proactive, not reactive. I think Ariadne was a good example of this.

If you'd like a quick, fun read, check out Light Raid!

Using the Internet for Good

The internet can be a source of good! This is a post of awesome websites that support charities, literacy, and other good causes. Use them as much as you can! And comment if you know of a good one I left out.

Better World Books is an online book seller. Their mission:
Better World Books collects and sells books online to fund literacy initiatives worldwide. With more than six million new and used titles in stock, we’re a self-sustaining, triple-bottom-line company that creates social, economic and environmental value for all our stakeholders.
I've found that they are usually the same price, if not cheaper than, Amazon, mainly because they offer free shipping within the US. It can take a little longer for the books to arrive (app. 11 days), but for only 99 cents, your item will arrive in 2-6 business days.

Free Rice is a trivia website, and for each right answer you get, the website donates 10 grains of rice to help end world hunger.

GoodSearch is an online search engine. Once you choose a charity, each search you conduct will donate to said charity. There are almost a hundred thousand charities participating (http://www.goodsearch.com/charitylist.aspx) and you can install toolbars for your browser or make it your default search on Google Chrome. (Here is a list of more charity search engines.) If people used these search engines as much as they used google, they'd change the world!

The Hunger Site is a place - you click, and a cup of food is donated because of your click. According to this website, there are almost 2 billion people hooked up to the internet. If each person clicked on The Hunger Site daily, that would be 2 billion cups of food! On the website, there are lots more links to similar websites.

That's all I have for now, but I'm going to keep looking to find more awesome places to help others through your internet connection!

Thatcher Novel

I've read a lot of different places that the novel should have one basic sentence to sum up the plot. I think this might be the best one I've written for this novel:

When four part-alien young adults are pulled into a power struggle for a refugee city called Thatcher, they grow to love one another, forgive their enemies, and fight society's expectations of them.

I am obsessed with this novel right now. I absolutely love the characters. I can't stop thinking about the possibilities. I have actually cried while writing it.

Title Ideas
The Great Beyond
(The) Road/Journey to (for?) Thatcher
The Fight for Thatcher
The Second Generation

Characters
Natalie Bandele - Natalie's guarded and untrusting - but who can blame her? In the past two years, her sister's been sent to prison, her dad's been killed, three guys have tried to kill her, and another girl has tried to turn her and Tracey in. She's reluctant to let Ben and Heath travel to Thatcher with she and Tracey, but they slowly grow on her. Natalie often takes the lead. She's book-smart and a history whiz.

Tracey Saunders - Tracey considers Natalie her only family. Her mom was killed, her dad joined the military, and her brother ran away to Africa. She's reacted to the trauma differently than Natalie, searching out what kind of person she is. She offsets Natalie's reserved nature with warm honesty and a soft sense of humor. She loves music, and she's trying to figure out what she thinks about God.

Heath Parrish (last name may change) - Heath doesn't like staying in one place. He was born and raised in Thatcher, but left at thirteen. He moved in with Ben when he was sixteen, but they've spent the last two years traveling the US. Heath has made a lot of mistakes, some which he refuses to face, others that eat him alive. He's quiet and reflective, and a natural gardener.

Benjamin Long - After growing up in LA, Ben is a bundle of energy. He brings the comedy to the group. He lost both his parents before he and Heath left to travel, and his brother and him don't get along, so he considers Heath like a brother. Ben's ready to settle down in Thatcher for a bit. He's got a quick tongue and a quick mind.


Ah, I just love it! I think I'll go write a bit!

Nanowrimo!

Nanowrimo is a month away. The new forums were launched last night. I've already spent a considerable amount of time dicking (that's Emily-lingo for 'wasting time') around there.

My NaNo history:
2004 - I won with Altair
2005 - Won again with Promising Light
Apparently, I attempted 2007, but I don't even remember my failed novel.
2008 - I got about 3,000 words.
2009 - I devoted to write 50,000 words of an already started novel, Stones of Cilean in motivation to finish it. It may have been considered cheating, but I finished it and won! I also got a proof copy of it: excited picture here.

This year, I may end up doing what I did last year. I'm currently obsessed with my novel about four half-aliens who are caught up in a power struggle over a city called Thatcher. And, as much as I love Nanowrimo, I don't want to step away from this story. If I haven't finished it by November 1st (and I don't think I will, I'm only halfway through - 50,000 words, in fact), I'm just going to count completely NEW words to my word count, whether that's part of this story or the sequel to Stones of Cilean after that. I'm a Nano rebel!

I think I'm going to make a separate post about my story, because, like I said, I'm obsessed with it right now.

Best Seller #4

This dream was a little hard to sort out, but I've got the basics of a story down. This couple went through some hard times - a couple miscarriages and separation for a little while - but they get away on a small cruise for what they hope to be a romantic get-away. The boat has an emergency, causing it to land on a mysterious island where they encounter pirates and a past love of the husband. It'll be titled, A Sea of Love.

Book/Movie Comparison: Introduction & List

It's kind of funny I'm doing posts like this, but I kind of get annoyed when people complain about movie adaptations of novels. But these posts aren't going to be about "OMG, I can't believe they left this scene out." The novel and the feature-length film are two very different forms of art. These posts are less comparisons and more analyses. I'm going to talk about how well the movie did in conveying the theme of the book, the growth of the characters, the main conflict, etc. Sometimes, the movies do it better. I'll try to learn lessons from each adaptation, too.

So, here are a few reference lists for myself (not exactly exhaustive). I'll come back, add to the lists, and eventually take some of them to make posts!

Book Read and Movie Seen:
1. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by JK Rowling
2. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by JK Rowling
3. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by JK Rowling
4. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by JK Rowling
5. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by JK Rowling
6. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by JK Rowling
7. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by JK Rowling Part 1
8. The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
9. My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult
10. The Princess Bride by William Goldman
11. The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
12. Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton
13. The Prestige by Christopher Priest
14. Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane
15. LOTR: Fellowship of the Ring by JRR Tolkien
16. LOTR: The Two Towers by JRR Tolkien
17. LOTR: Return of the King by JRR Tolkien
18. The Lion, Witch, and the Wardrobe by CS Lewis
19. Prince Caspian by CS Lewis
20. Percy Jackson: The Lightning Thief by Rich Riordan
21. Children of Men by PJ James
22. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L'Engle
23. Where The Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak
24. Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer
25. Holes by Louis Sachar
26. 1-3 of A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket
27. Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
28. The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
29. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (various film adaptations)
30. Romeo & Juliet by William Shakespeare (various film adaptations)
31. Everything Is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer
32. The Green Mile by Stephen King

34. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by CS Lewis

35. Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

Books I've read that have movie adaptations I haven't yet seen or aren't released:
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Tomorrow, When the War Began by John Marsden
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell

Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller

Movies I've seen adapted from books that I want to read:
1. Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
2. Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
3. The Boy In Striped Pajamas by John Boyne

Books I'd like to read that have movie adaptations I'd like to see:
1. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

Books that should never be adapted for film (in my humble opinion):
And this isn't because they are bad books - on the contrary, these are my favorites - but so much that is beautiful about these books can't be translated to film. Their language and literary style is really what makes these books amazing. If the story went to film without the language, it wouldn't be nearly as powerful.
1. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
2. The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

 Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

Paperback, published 2006, 288 pages

I picked up this book after seeing the trailer for the movie. It was not as amazing as some reviews made it out to be, but it was a very thoughtful book. What an interesting premise, too! I knew it wasn't going to be a really happy ending where she ran off and never had to be a donor, but I was still sad. There was a finality to it: really, Kath had no other choice but to live the life set out for her. At first, I thought Halsham was kind of messed up, having ideas like Miss Lucy, but in the end, what Miss Emily said really touched me. They were doing all that they could for these student who were created to save others, students most people didn't even consider humans.

I liked that the book wasn't solely about the process of cloning and donating and the social implications about that, it just focused on Kath's relationships with Ruth and Tommy. I wouldn't mind a book like that, but this definitely was a more reflective one, especially with the way Kath was looking back at her life, sorting memories out and thinking of why people acted the way they did. This is a lot how I think when I think about the past, I try to understand my own actions and those of the people around me, and there's a new insight from the years since then. I grew to like Kath's voice.

One narrative trick that started to annoy me was:
"That's why I was so surprised when she said what she said in Room 22."
Then Kath told you exactly what "she" said in Room 22.

"Tommy was talking about the incident at Norfolk."
Then Kath told you all about the incident at Norfolk.

I don't think it's a bad device in and of itself, but Ishiguro used it at least half a dozen time. He was probably trying to create suspense, and it worked the first five times, then I started to get annoyed.

Anyways, I finished this book in just a couple days. Ishiguro's writing is beautiful and entrancing; I really felt like I was Kath remembering Ruth and Tommy and Halsham. 

I'll write about what I thought about the movie when I see it. I'm thinking of having book/movie comparison posts.

Dystopian Novels and God

Some of my favorite books are dystopia novels: Brave New World by Aldous Huxley and 1984 by George Orwell. I recently read The Giver by Lois Lowry, too. These books seem to have a common theme: the suppression of individuality for what appears to be the greater good and an absence of conflict. It's a popular topic in literature because it has so much potential and it's amazing to explore how characters try to break out of oppressive regimes. They speak to readers, too, calling us to view the political and social norms around us.

Some of my favorite quotes from these books:

"A nation of warriors and fanatics, marching forward in perfect unity, all thinking the same thoughts and shouting the same slogans, perpetually working, fighting, triumphing, persecuting - three hundred million people all with the same face." -George Orwell, 1984

"But I don’t want comfort. I want God, I want poetry, I want real danger, I want freedom, I want goodness. I want sin." -Aldous Huxley, Brave New World

I think it's interesting to compare this desire for individuality and free will to modern-day arguments against the existence of a loving God. For example, the question, "If a loving God exists, then why do bad things happen to good people?"

Now, I'm sure we could get extremely philosophical, but I'm just attempting to make a connection between genuine questions about God and dystopian literature. In these stories, societies and groups of people have sacrificed free will for an absence of evil. When everyone is the same, there's no option for sin or displeasure or unhappiness.

What if we applied this same concept to God and his plan for the world? If he decided to make the world easy and simple, and his people all identical in thought, then our society could potentially be without conflict or evil. But then we'd be robots, forced to love God either in fear or because we simply had no other choice.

I believe his choice to give us free will did cause evil in the world, but it also was the cause of genuine love and devotion and goodness. So, each individual can choose good or evil, and their choices affect other human beings, and sometimes, horrible things happen to good people, and sometimes, it's completely unfair. But in our world, we have a choice. We're not stuck in a society with Big Brother watching over our shoulders, we make our own society.

Like I said, you could get way into this. And you could definitely argue that you can't compare God and his plan for the world to literature. And then there is evil in the world that isn't caused by another human being, such as disease and famine. I still think it's interesting to look at it all and think about our desire for free will and how it might conflict with our desire for a peaceful world.

(These theme is also prevalent in A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L'Engle, Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (which, unfortunately, I've only read half of), The Uglies trilogy by Scott Westerfeld, The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, and many other books.)