Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane.I learned of a new quote a couple of weeks ago. "Don't judge a book by its movie." Shutter Island, the movie, was excellent in its own right but the book was even better (as is usually the case...thus the quote). I don't want to give anything away so I'll keep this short and tell you what you probably know from the movie previews. U.S. Marshall Teddy Daniels is dispatched to an asylum for the criminally insane to help find an escaped patient. This is a fast-paced, exciting story, Lehane all the way. (Read "Mystic River" also!) That's really all I want to say. Anything else will just set you up for spoilers. Just read it!!
3 comments:
Is the book a little more ambiguous than the movie about what exactly is going on? I thought the movie made it very very clear (not necessarily in a good way) from the first few minutes about what its intentions were. But I bet the book does a much better job at keeping you guessing. Is this true?
I would say yes the book does do a better job (i wasn't a huge fan of the movie). There are a lot more clues and riddles hidden around the island in the book and things were more complicated. We were inside Teddy's thoughts and memories so we trusted and related to him. The book also gives you significantly more back story on Teddy and Dolores and on Chuck as a person too and these memories (that were pretty much entirely absent from the movie) allow you to shape your own opinions about the characters. I read the book before seeing the movie and definitely was surprised by some of the twists. The person I saw the movie with guessed the ending just by watching the preview. Thats how obvious the movie was.
I was still reading the book when I saw the movie and I wondered very early on in the movie if something tricky was going on. I never had that feeling while reading the book. As a matter of fact, I took the story at face value (until I saw the movie) and probably would have up until the very end. You should read it, even though you know what's going on from the movie. The book is far meatier.
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