Who is Max? What is a Wild Thing? Is it ever okay to eat someone’s head? What if it falls off? Then can you eat it? An all-ages novel loosely based on “Where the Wild Things Are” by Maurice Sendak. Also based on the movie co-written with Spike Jonze.
Wow.
First of all, I must say how utterly well-written this book was. I didn’t even feel like this book was aimed at kids–it really is an ‘all-ages novel’.
I’ve been waiting to read this for a long, long time. I was also kind of hesitant to read it–do I wait until the movie comes out, then buy it? Do I buy it now and just let it sit on my shelf until after I’ve seen the movie? Or do I read it now and gain all the perspectives that went into making this film that I’m so anxious to see?
At first I read about half of it and thought, “Okay, I’ll stop here.” But I couldn’t put it down. Even though I paced myself, I read it all in about two days.
I love how everyone was characterized. I felt like I connected a little with each character. I loved how Meinka, Claire’s friend*, still loves to play Legos with Max. I loved how Max loved Meinka “without boundary”. I saw myself in Claire, who’s a little bit of a ticking bomb: she loves her family, she’s still close to her mom, but at the same time she’s trying her hardest to distance herself from them. I positively fell in love with KW, or Katherine as she’s called here. I even related a little to Max’s mom, who loves her kids so, so, so much but is having such a hard time keeping track of it all.
From the interviews I’ve read, Spike and Dave talk a lot about being scared of your emotions as a kid, like feeling that you can’t control them. That was absolutely true in the book. Max often described his thoughts as quail, meaning that they were like the birds who were on his street: sometimes they were all nice and orderly, but at the slightest disruption, they would go all over the place…
The monsters particularly fascinated me. I usually don’t overanalyze books like this, but I carefully dissected each of the Wild Things as I went along–each one is an emotion or feeling of some kind. Carol is anger, KW is love, Judith is sarcasm (she always speaks her mind), Ira is sadness or insecurity, Alexander is the annoying, whiny side of all people, Douglas is…Douglas is awesome, so I guess he’d fall under ‘contentness’ or ‘happiness’ and I’d say The Bull is your conscience. Max is stuck having to control them all, much like he’d have to control his own emotions.
But enough with the literary analysis.
I was also kind of worried that once I read the book, I wouldn’t want to see the movie anymore. Or that I would, and once I saw the movie I would prefer the book. But by the way the book ended, I know that I have to still see the movie. The book did not end on the note I thought it would–but then again, in the acknowledgements Dave said that the book is a little different from the movie.
I’m a very visual person. If I cried during the book and laughed during the book and gasped in horror during the book, I know that I will be taking that to a much higher level while seeing the movie. So if you’re a Wild Things fan, you could go either way. Read The Wild Things now or read it after you’ve seen the movie. You’re your own judge.
*Claire is Max’s older sister. There was another background character here named Mr. Beckmann who was obviously based off of Maurice–”So, Maximilian, how the hell are you?” I wish this guy was my grandpa, no joke. He better be in the movie.
No comments:
Post a Comment