Suspend Your Disbelief

Posts Tagged ‘film adaptations’

Shop Talk |

The Unfilmable Novel

by Celeste Ng

I am unreasonably excited to see the film adaptation of The Great Gatsby. Is it because Gatsby is one of my favorite novels? Because Baz Lurhmann is brilliant? Because Leonardo DiCaprio makes me swoon? Mark me down for “All of the Above.” Actually, most of all, I can’t wait to see how this novel comes to life on the big screen. It contains some of the most cinematic scenes I can think of—one of my favorites is the first moment we meet Daisy, in a swirl of white curtains—but I’m not sure how it will translate to film. Which makes […]


Reviews |

The Secret in Their Eyes, by Eduardo Sacheri

Popular Argentinian writer Eduardo Sacheri has said that “writing is a special way to read.” In this review of The Secret in Their Eyes, Denise Delgado explores the similarities and differences between Sacheri’s first novel and the Academy-Award winning film adaptation he helped write.


Shop Talk |

Faulkner meets HBO

by Celeste Ng

David Milch, the creator of NYPD Blue and Deadwood, will be bringing Faulker’s literary works to HBO. Yup, you read that right. Reports the New York Times: “I’m not, probably, the first person they would have thought of approaching them,” Mr. Milch said in a phone interview, referring to his months-long discussions with the William Faulkner Literary Estate. “But a number of conversations were fruitful and here we are.” But the Times points out Milch isn’t as far-fetched a choice as you might think: But before he started putting colorful words in the mouths of Andy Sipowicz and Al Swearengen, […]


Shop Talk |

It's all in the details… or is it? Movies vs. Fanfiction

by Celeste Ng

I don’t know about you, but when I see a movie after reading the book on which it’s based, I almost always prefer the book to the movie. Okay, there are exceptions: The Lovely Bones, for instance, where I prefered the film, and The Princess Bride—I love both the movie and William Golding’s novel deeply, and differently. But when it comes to Harry Potter, I land firmly on the book side. For me, much of the fun is in the details of Rowling’s world: the Fizzing Whizbees and Puking Pastilles, the elaborate recipes for Polyjuice Potion and the Draught of […]


Essays |

The Problem of the Author: On Not Reading Autobiography into the Writing of Andre Dubus

by Joshua Bodwell

What is the difference between art and life, between the writer and the writing? In this essay on the late, great Andre Dubus, we learn how Dubus recognized “transformative moments” as authors Richard Ford and Anne Beattie, among others, weigh in on his talents, and his legacy.


Interviews |

That Tar-Black Taste: An Interview with Vladislav Todorov

by Steven Wingate

Where do film noir, post-communist Bulgarian fiction, and black comedy intersect? In Vladislav Todorov’s searing noir-meets-social-commentary novel, Zift. Contributing Editor Steven Wingate and Todorov discuss poisonings, the resurgence of narrative fiction in post-communist Eastern Europe, the idea that “many people enjoyed spying on their neighbors” for the state, and much more.


Shop Talk |

Fiction on the big screen

by Lee Thomas

The announcement that Carey Mulligan has been cast as Daisy Buchanan, Leonardo DiCaprio as Jay Gatsby, and Tobey Maguire as Nick Carraway in Baz Luhrmann’s film adaptation of The Great Gastby has gotten me thinking about film adaptations in general. I’m of two minds. Sometimes the director or actors chosen are enough to entice me. When Joel and Ethan Coen signed up to make No Country for Old Men, Cormac McCarthy’s searing Western/manhunt, I knew I would see it. They did not disappoint. But by the same token, I have resisted seeing another McCarthy novel, The Road, because I didn’t […]


Interviews |

Talking with the Dead: An Interview with Yiyun Li

by Angela Watrous

Yiyun Li (Gold Boy, Emerald Girl) discusses with Angela Watrous what it means to be an American writer; the elusive process of revision; the art of transforming stories into screenplays; and the act of talking aloud to famous dead writers.


Interviews |

Imagined Landscapes of History: An Interview with David Ebershoff

Brian Bartels talks with David Ebershoff–author, editor-at-large for Random house, and Columbia professor–about such topics as the role research plays in his writing, writing the book you want to read, the advice his gives his students about drafting, and how he approaches revision.


Interviews |

The Truth About Fiction: An Interview with Peter Selgin

Peter Selgin’s debut novel, Life Goes to the Movies, is based in large part on his experiences growing up in New York in the 1970s. JT Torres talks to the author about bringing fact to fiction, strategies for the revision process, why identity is so important in his work, and more. Following the interview is an exclusive excerpt from Selgin’s novel-in-progress, Hattertown.




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