We all need an escape from the overstuffed holiday-time itinerary, but quiet time with a book isn’t necessarily compatible with the traditional Family Togetherness Imperative: as great an escape as reading is, it’s also challenging, and time consuming, and isolating by its nature. Not that these are bad things, but when the season itself is already challenging and time consuming, and isolation isn’t exactly an option, trying to keep your head in a book can be a futile exercise. I myself always plan on using the holiday to get into the latest book I’ve picked up (this year, that would be Poe’s Children: The New Horror, a 2008 Doubleday anthology edited by Peter Straub), but the demands of a loving family usually require that I devote any alone time to napping.
The answer, for me, is book-to-movie adaptations: they provide the perfect opportunity to enjoy an authorial vision without slighting loved ones or taxing your already-taxed mental faculties. The Schultz clan makes it a point every year to visit the multiplex on Black Friday and Christmas Day, taking in something good and/or innocuous enough for the varied tastes of mom (2011 favorite The Help), dad (Drive), sister (Horrible Bosses), and myself (The Future). More often than not, it’s something with George Clooney; I’m pretty sure, as you read this, we’ll be heading out to catch a matinee of The Descendents, based on the novel by Kaui Hart Hemmings.
Happily, we get a range of quality adaptations this season, some already garnering Oscar buzz: besides The Descendents, both Breaking Dawn Part 1 (which amassed $138 million in its opening weekend) and the fast-and-loose Puss in Boots adaptation are hanging in the box office top ten. And this weekend brings us no less than three more book-based movies: psycho-drama A Dangerous Method, memoir-sourced My Week With Marilyn, and kids’ adventure Hugo. Readers can be hard on themselves—especially when staring down a rapidly multiplying number of year-end Best Of lists—and it’s easy to overlook, or dismiss as inferior, or consider a cheat, most page-to-screen projects (especially when one is as devoted to the written word as all you PW newsletter-subscribers). But for this holiday season’s crop of literary, family-pleasing fare, I think time-strapped readers should be very thankful.
And speaking of time-strapped: the short week has given us enough time to rustle up just a couple stories, but I suspect that both the Picks and Art Check features this week will give you plenty of ideas for the critical shopping week ahead. Best of luck, and please remember to support your local bookseller.
