I LOVE Alfonso Cuarón’s sci-fi action movie Children of Men. I’ve watched maybe six times and every time, the ending always almost brings me to tears. So when I learned it was adapted from P.D. James’ book of the same name, it was a no-brainer deciding what my next book would be.
After finishing the book, it wasn’t difficult to reach to the conclusion that I enjoyed the movie better.
While James’ book gives a more in-depth look at how human infertility and humanity’s slow death march towards extinction affects the sexual dynamic between men and women and almost demented ways humans try to cope with a world without children or a race of dead men walking, I feel the book dedicates WAY too much time describing the failing of human civilization and the Regrets and guilt of Theo Faron. It’s not even until after 2/3 through the book where it feels like the plot and story are properly paced and stuff of consequence actually begin to happen.
The film’s adaptation by, comparison, feels consistent in its pacing and the world building and woe-is-mes of Theo feel more compact a take up less of the audience’s time.
What books do you feel were worse than its film adaptation and why?
I always thought Mark Twain was a boring, dated, moralizing writer based on Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. Then I read literally anything else the man wrote… he’s hilarious! I always wondered why he was described as a “humorist” because Huckleberry Finn has only very occasional moments of levity. As it turns out, the only reason high school kids read it is because it’s a “slave book” and you can’t read too many of those in high school. Which, fair enough, but it definitely gives folks a strange idea about one of the greatest American writers of all time.
Have you read The Innocents Abroad? It’s an early work so parts are forced, but overall it’s great fun.