Books Made Into Film

MY SISTER'S KEEPER

I couldn't put it down.

Wow.

I wanted to read this one especially because it came out in movie form just recently. I ALWAYS like the book better than the movie, but that's not necessarily a put-down. There are some well-made film adaptations out there, but you take 300+ pages and condense it into 2 hours and it's rare to catch all the components that make a book great.

It was weighty, sometimes dark and bleak, but it had a good deal of wit along with the grit.

For those of you that are unfamiliar with the plot, the story follows the life of 13-year-old Anna Fitzgerald, who enlists the help of an attorney, Campbell Alexander, to sue her parents for rights to her own body. Kate, Anna's older sister, suffers from leukemia, and their parents conceived Anna through in-vitro fertilization to be a genetic match donor for her sister Kate. Anna donates genetic material throughout her life, such as blood and bone marrow; every time it was assumed that she would do so. No questions asked. Now, their parents want Anna to donate a kidney to Kate, but Anna instead files a lawsuit against her parents for medical emancipation so she will not be forced to donate one of her kidneys to her sister.

Once more Piccoult delivers her trademark twist, right at the end. Ooooo, it's a doozy!

I can't wait to see the movie. It's on our Netflix Queue.

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Another book made into film that I just finished is MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA by Arthur Golden.

I watched the film years ago when it first came out, but didn't pick up on all that was going on. Now that I've read Sayuri's memoirs I'm anxious to see the movie again.

In Japan, during the 1940's, two Japanese sisters are sold to Mr. Tanaka because their poor, aging father and dying mother can no longer take care of them. From that moment on, it is a series of tragedies. The sisters are separated; the older one sent to a brothel and the younger one, Sayuri, the heroine of the story, is sold to the house of a geisha. Sayuri has to pay her dues and owes a large sum of money before she can earn her freedom.

We are told the word geisha means artisan. The difference between a geisha and a prostitute is that a geisha is trained in the art of entertaining, which includes among other things the ceremony of serving tea and arts like classic Japanese dancing, reciting poetry and playing musical instruments. All these traditions are used in the geisha houses--okiyas--to entertain their guests, mostly married men of financial independence.

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Two really well-written books. I'd highly recommend them both.