Another
Wednesday and another book review here at the Horror Dude Blog and this one is
probably the biggest book I’ve ever reviewed, at least for the blog. I think
that we have all seen the movie Jaws, I certainly have. But I’ve never read the
book. In fact, I’ve never read Peter Benchley at all. Since he was responsible
for the nature run amok craze of the seventies and eighties that I love so much
it was time to dive in. No better place to start than Jaws.
The little
town of Amity survives on the out of towners that come to rent houses on the
beach and spend their money at the stores. Right as the season is going to
start a young woman is killed and her partially eaten body discovered on the
beach. Sheriff Martin Brody wants to close it down after the coroner determines
it was a shark attack. But the town doesn’t want the bad publicity and forces
him to bury the news. But then the shark decides to take a few more people and
Brody acts, though with a lot of guilt. After many unsuccessful attempts Brody,
marine biologist Hooper, and fisherman Quint finally come face to face and do
battle with it. Well you know what happens…
Or
actually you don’t. The book is much different from the iconic movie that it
spawned. You have probably heard the phrase “the book was better” but here it
is reversed. Don’t misunderstand I think that this is a good novel and I read
it in a couple of sittings which means I was engaged with the story. I can see
why Universal bought the rights and turned it into a movie. But the movie does
a much better job of realizing where the heart of the story is and focuses on
the characters of Brody, Quint, and Hooper. In the book the three are kept
apart until the third act. Quint only shows up for a couple of pages before
they hire him to hunt the great white. Hooper is a more arrogant and in many
ways despicable character. The only one of the three that seems to remain
basically the same is Brody. I’m sure that years of watching the movie has
influenced my opinions, but I noticed that Benchley worked on the screenplay so
I’m thinking that given a second crack at the characters he made some
much-needed changes.
Getting
back to actually reviewing the book and not comparing it to the movie I’d say
that I was satisfied and enjoyed it. The writing is tight and has no slow
parts. The story makes sense and is easy to follow. I did find that it ended
rather abruptly but has a cool final visual that stuck with me after I closed
the back cover. I was left wondering about the subplot of the mayor being into
debt with a mobster that was never resolved. This is what drove him into forcing
Brody to keep the beaches open, but then he leaves town. End of story. It
seemed odd and felt shoehorned in to explain the decision to keep things
running even after the bodies start to pile up. I wish that we had some sort of
resolution. But these are small issues and overall this is a quick and fun
read.
I
recommend picking up a copy of Jaws and checking it out. It is a classic that
I’m glad I finally got around to reading.
© Copyright 2018 John Shatzer
No comments:
Post a Comment