Michael Chabon: Wonder Boys

[Ell]

Wonder Boys ****

"Wonder Boys" unfolds over the course of a weekend during Wordfest at a small Pittsburgh college. The English department hosts this writers' and publishers' festival where established and aspiring writers, editors, and publishers gather to mingle and discuss all things literary. The festival serves as the backdrop for a pivotal weekend in the lives of Grady Tripp and James Leer.

Grady Tripp is a middle-aged, overweight, pot-smoking, writer and English professor. Regarded as a "wonder boy" following the success of his first three novels, the third of which won him the Pen/Faulkner, he is struggling to come up with a suitable fourth novel. He has spent seven long years on his next novel, ironically titled, "Wonder Boys". It's not that he can't get started, it's that he can't seem to finish. He keeps writing and writing, but is unable to bring the story to a fitting conclusion. Consequently, he has created a 2600 page monster of a manuscript that he's unwilling to show his editor - who also happens to be his best friend. When his friend's career depends on getting a successful book published, Grady is really put on the spot. Not only is he having problems with his book, but the rest of his life is in absolute chaos. His third wife has just left him. He is having an affair with the chancellor of the college who happens to be married to the head of the English department. Sara, the chancellor, has told him that she's pregnant with his child, and needs to know what his intentions are. He thinks he's still in love with his wife, but isn't sure. And to top it off he keeps blacking out from either all the stress or an inordinate amount of pot mixed with assorted pharmaceuticals, or maybe a combination of both.

James Leer is one of Grady's writing students. He shows promise, but seems too weird, even for the other writing students. He has an obsession with Hollywood star suicides and can recite their names, dates, and means of death - in alphabetical order. No one really knows him and he keeps changing stories regarding his family and background. He has led people to think that he's an impoverished orphan from a small town that no one has heard of. It's hard to know if he's suicidal or just strange.

During the weekend, Grady and James are thrown together in both hilarious and touching circumstances. Grady is forced to face some of his demons and get a grip on his life as James discovers . . . , well, just read the book.

I saw the movie of "Wonder Boys" first and loved it's dark humour. So it was with a bit of apprehension that I approached the book, worrying that the movie characters would be too indelibly etched in my mind to allow the characters in the book time to develop as the author intended. I needn't have worried. The book, as is usually the case, provides much more than the movie. It's both laugh-out-loud funny and thought-provoking.

If you liked the movie of Wonder Boys with Michael Douglas, then you will love the book. If you've neither read the book nor seen the movie, I'd recommend both.

-June, 2002.


From Ell's Reviews

 

[bebe]

that's nice.

 

[Tobytook]

Just looking through my copy of the book now.

I read it in 1996, when it was first published in paperback in the UK, but I never considered it as a candidate for film adaptation. It was too... I don't know - clever, maybe? (That sounds horribly snobbish, doesn't it?)

It is a very funny book - although not in a "laugh out loud" way (hello, Townbear!). The strangest thing for me is not that Curtis Hanson was able to make a good job of it on film - with the help of Tobey Maguire and Michael Douglas (isn't he the dark horse these days?) - but that it proved to be so commercially viable.

Maybe people are just going to see rubbish because that's essentially all that's being made. Is Hollywood - the big budget, wide distribution companies, I mean - underestimating its audience?

Tobytook

 

[Ell]

It is a very funny book - although not in a "laugh out loud" way

Actually, I thought it was quite a laugh out loud book. Maybe I just have a warped sense of humour. I literally couldn't stop laughing when picturing the trunk of Grady's car with dead dog, tuba, and portion of the family's pet boa constrictor!

Strange, but I've found that my taste in humour has gotten darker - both in books I read and movies I watch. I think I've mentioned elsewhere that when I was younger, I didn't "get" Margaret Atwood's rather dry, ironic sense of humour. One my favourite portions of her "Blind Assassin" was about the older Iris - the parts when she is feeling old and being grumpy about getting old. I totally saw the humour in those scenes, but in discussions with other people, they just saw her as being cranky.

As for some movies with black humour that I loved: Election -with Reese Witherspoon and Matthew Broderick, War of the Roses -with Michael Douglas, Kathleen Turner, and Danny De Vito.

Is Hollywood - the big budget, wide distribution companies, I mean - underestimating its audience?

Yes, mainstream Hollywood always underestimates its audience. When truly good, unique movies actually get made they are usually one of the following:

• indie films
• made by a producer/director that has already "made it", thus can afford to take a risk
• has a leading actor/actors that have "made it" and can afford to go outside of the mainstream or want to stretch themselves and take a risk
• have brave individuals who are willing to risk everything (house, mortgage, reputation, etc) for the sake of a vision
• pure, blind luck

 

[Tobytook]

Originally posted by Ell
As for some movies with black humour that I loved... have brave individuals who are willing to risk everything (house, mortgage, reputation, etc) for the sake of a vision

[or] pure, blind luck

Yes, but have they been commercially viable, as I metioned before. Don't forget that a film needs to make approximately three times its production cost just to break even.

I don't deny the artistic value of a film like Election - personally, I thought it was great (as I did Ghost World - based on a comic, by the way), but it didn't make anywhere near the money that Wonder Boys did. And the reason for that must be that Michael Douglas was involved in one and not the other.

Tobytook