It's now March. The days are longer but the amount of time we spend inside hasn't changed much. I usually pass the time watching TV, solving crossword puzzles, and - of course - reading. This time around, I have a couple of books from different genres that I'd like to share with you. Interestingly, they do have something in common.
Miscellaneous
Nothing Lasts Forever - Roderick Thorp ($9.32/$4.00, copyright 1979, 245 pages, Trade Paperback)
Thorp lays out a very simple premise. Joe Leland is a middle-aged former WW2 Ace and ex-cop who now works as a security consultant specializing in anti-terrorism. He flies out to LA to spend the Christmas Holidays with his daughter and grandchildren. He meets up with her on Christmas Eve at an office party in the high-rise Klaxxon Oil Building where she works and is just freshening himself up in the Men's Room when 12 Terrorists attack, taking Leland's Daughter and co-workers hostage. Leland must now mount a single-handed rescue mission and defeat the bad guys. Sound familiar? That's because it's the basis for the 1988 box office hit "Die Hard" starring Bruce Willis. There were changes made of course. The most obvious is that the hero's name was changed to John McClane now a NYC cop who meets up with his estranged wife in the Nakatomi Plaza Building when terrorists attack. Also, the book being older, the technology is somewhat dated and the terrorists' reasoning in the book is more about stopping the oil company's operations in Chile then money. But a lot of the action stuff is taken directly from Thorp - running barefoot through broken glass, using a fire hose as a bungee cord to jump off a roof, and a dangerous climb through an airshaft to mention just a few. Thorp keeps the action moving while building the suspense. His characters are mostly stereotypes but he does right by Leland giving us a lot of background and motivations through what he's thinking as he goes through with his plans. I have to admit, though, that having seen the movie first I prefer McClane to Leland. I liked it. SIDE NOTE: This book is actually a sequel to Thorp's "The Detective" written in 1966 and made into a movie in 1968 starring Frank Sinatra as NYC Detective Joe Leland. There was talk of Sinatra reprising his role but he turned it down so it was rewritten to fit the brassier persona that Willis displayed.
The Searchers Alan Le May ($5.99/$8.19, copyright 1954, 333 pages, Paperback)
The book's title obviously gives away the commonality with the previous book. It's the basis for the 1956 movie starring John Wayne and Jeffrey Hunter and directed by John Ford. The story is well known by this point: after the family of Henry Edwards is killed by a raiding party of Commanches, two men, Amos Edwards and Martin Pauley, begin an epic quest to find the family’s missing two daughters, Lucy and Debbie, who have been kidnapped by the Indians. Amos (Wayne, renamed Ethan for the movie) is the brother of Henry, and Martin (Hunter) is the adopted son of the Edwards, his family itself killed years before in an Indian raid. It covers the span of 6 years and we see them deal with fading tracks, dead leads, brutal encounters with both whites and Indians, fierce weather, and dimming hope. The movie only has a limited time to convey a lot of what's going on so it's usually up to the actors to express the basics. In the book however, Le May has the time to create a background including humanizing the Comanches by letting us see how much Amos knows about their culture and customs. He hates them, but he also understands them. Also, Le May's descriptions of the frontier and weather our heroes travel through/experience are well done. Thankfully, Ford's direction and the cinematography really play a part in the movie and give us a real feel for things. The main characters are well defined and personified well - especially Wayne's Ethan. I'm leaving a lot out because I don't want to spoil anything. If you haven't seen the movie then go find it. If you have, then watch it again. Then go out and get a copy of this book. I enjoyed it and I hope you will, too.
There you have it - I found out that 2 of my favorite movies were based on books and I was able to track down copies of each. There's an old saying that the book is always better then the movie. I guess there's always going to be exceptions. I just noticed an interesting difference between these two. "Die Hard" takes place in a very insular almost claustrophobic space while "The Searchers" is as vast as the great outdoors. This doesn't mean anything, just something I realized while writing this.
April is next and I find myself with a backlog of books and no particular one I want to start up with. I'll just have to dip in and out until something grabs me. Until next time -
Wash Your Hands,
Wear Your Mask,
Stay Socially Distant,
Get Your Shot, and
Keep Reading.
