The Wild Things by Dave Eggers
The Wild Things by Dave Eggers
Also In The News
|
By Matt Hallam. |  |
Wednesday, 28, Oct 2009 05:19
Published by Hamish Hamilton, out October 29th, hardback, 297pp, £14.99.
In a nutshell...
There's one in all of us...
What's it all about?
The insert says it all - "Adapted from the illustrated book Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak and based on the screenplay Where the Wild Things Are co-written by Dave Eggers and Spike Jonze".
So while in many ways this is a movie novelisation, the likes of which we rarely see anymore - remember the days when you could journey in print to Chewbacca's home planet or relive Indy's journey to the Temple of Doom with authorial comment? - The Wild Things is also a brave and original undertaking. Not just a sterling, possibly foolhardy attempt to adapt the ten sentences of Sendak's 1963 children's classic into a novel, but also a conversion of his own and Jonze's screenplay for the recent US number one movie. Take a look at the film trailer below for a look at what to expect when UK audiences finally get a look in December:
Who's it by?
Thirty-nine-year-old American author and publisher Dave Eggers, writer of A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius and You Shall Know Our Velocity, as well as the founder of the McSweeney's literary journal and publishing house.
As an example...
"The Bull lifted Max and placed him on his shoulder, and as they made their way out of the tunnel, there were deafening cheers from the rest of the beasts. The Bull paraded Max around the forest, as everyone danced in a very ugly - drool and mucus spraying left and right - but celebratory kind of way. After a few minutes, the Bull placed Max atop a grassy knoll, and the beasts gathered around, looking up to him expectantly. Max realised he was supposed to say something, so he said the only thing he could think of:
"'Let the wild rumpus begin!'" - p117
What the others say
"Eggers does a fine job portraying the chaotic existence of a very young boy, as well as the innumerable stresses the rest of the world places on him without even thinking. But ultimately, this is one man's experience of Where The Wild Things Are, and interesting as it is in that respect, it only really made me want to revisit my own. So, grab your boat. I'll meet you there." - Patrick Ness, Guardian
"It's still Eggers, so that means the humour will always be there in the dark, but when Max finally decides to leave the island, it's unclear whether there will be any light for his path." - Jonathan Messinger, Time Out Chicago
So is it any good?
Since that first full trailer surfaced, the Arcade Fire's Wake Up soaring majestically as Spike Jonze seemed to perfectly capture the magical, boundless possibilities of Maurice Sendak's world, it's been clear that the film of Where the Wild Things Are could be the awe-inspiring work needed to attract the generations who've fallen in love with Sendak's book since 1963. And by the same token, with a new age group set to take a trip to visit their own wild things, the merchandising possibilities offered by the ambiguity of Sendak's brief sentences are umpteen, whether it be shop-bought versions of Max's wolf-suit or the wild things' own lumpy masses, or a new book based on the original. So it's no small surprise that Hamish Hamilton are to publish The Wild Things, a novelisation of both Sendak's illustrated novella and the screenplay based on the children's classic. Happily, it's written by the hugely gifted Dave Eggers, after he and Spike Jonze turned Sendak's 32 pages into 101 minutes of celluloid. And, thankfully, it's excellent.
While some might argue the power of the original lay in the infinite imaginary possibilities offered by the brevity of Sendak's work and the otherworldly darkness of the illustrations, Eggers' fleshing out of the back-story of the boy sent to bed without his supper is commendably well handled. A dysfunctional family unit is rendered with a sister who "knew everything about Mom's job", an aspiring stepfather who "seemed to be the most gullible adult Max had ever met" and a mother who advises her seven-year old to "never have a relationship with a woman you don't respect". The clearly American environs of Eggers' Max might jar with some readers - for whom Sendak's original protagonist was a universal child hero - but once the magical land of the wild things is reached, and the rumpus begun, it's a breathless and sweet portrayal of the power of imagination and escape.
It'll never surpass the original but it was never meant to - Eggers' novel is a fine companion to the film and a worthy grandson to Sendak's classic.
8/10
Lewis Bazley