Mona Lisa Smile: A Novel

Rating:
Summary: All Hail the return of Deborah Chiel
Review: Deborah Chiel is back! Yay! Deborah is a fine author who has elevated the job of the novelization to a fine art. Her previous books have often accomplished the same task that she expertly accomplishes here with Mona Lisa's Smile. Namely taking a sucky stupid sappy movie (a D says Entertainment Weekly) and making a swell enjoyable moving novel out of it. She gives Mona Lisa's Smile the same expert treatment she gave Great Expectations, Sabrina, and other sucky films. You will enjoy Mona Lisa's Smile!

Rating:
Summary: Good book that reads like a movie.
Review: I found Mona Lisa Smile to be on the whole a good book. The story line draws you in and the resolution is satisfying. I have not yet seen the movie(though i do plan to), but it does not seem that the book gives you much more than the movie does. I felt that the language in general could be fleshed out to be a little more descriptive and that the sub plots could have been fleshed out some to give it a little more depth. I would highly reccomend the book to anyone looking for a quick, satisfying read but don't expect great literature out of this one.

Rating:
Summary: Totally dispensable
Review: It's the first movie tie-in I have ever read, so maybe the problem is with the genre and no with this specific book.
If you have read a book and seen a movie based on it, you know that books go though vast adaptation before becoming a movie. That's because these are different media and different languages. They could have just voiced-over anything that isn't a dialog, but that would make a bad movie. There's a whole art and science of writing a script based on a book.
It follows that making a book from a movie also requires adaptation. This book follows the movie scene-by-scene. It includes movie dialogs word-by-word. It just doesn't work.
What's more, in movie there's space for interpretation, because you don't know what people think, just what they say. This is ruined in this book - we get the author interpretation. And this interpretation doesn't always really make sense. If Katherine only starts thinking seriously of Bill during the second semester, why does she accidentally slips his name in front of Paul in Christmas?!
I bought this book because I liked the theme of the movie but I though it was too short and some of the events needed more background. This hardly happens in the book. The story is too short, too many details are missing, which is a necessity in a movie, but a problem in the book.
In short - don't buy if you've seen the movie.
Maybe if you haven't, you might enjoy an easy reading, I can't tell. But even in that case, I would go to see the movie and skip the book.


Rating:
Summary: Movie is much better
Review: This book is just like the movie ~~ almost word for word ~~ so if you've seen the movie, don't buy this book. If you haven't seen the movie, buy the book ~~ then see the movie, you won't be disappointed.

It's a fast read ~~ perfect for a lazy sunny afternoon at the pool ~~ it doesn't go into depth about anything and it reads "like the movie" ~~ so you have a mental image of the characters gliding along in the book.

If you're looking for a meaty in-depth look of the characters and of the times, this is not the book to read. If you just want to recapture the memory of the movie ~~ this is the perfect book for that!

6/1/04

Rating:
Summary: A disappointment~
Review: This book was a huge disappointment. I saw the movie first and thought it would be a better book. When I saw the book in the store, I was excited and bought it right away. It turns out, however, that the BOOK is based on the MOVIE and, boy, can you tell. It was like the author was handed the script and just filled in the non-dialoge parts around the dialoge. There were a few parts in the book that somewhat clarified parts of the movie and I did like the ending, which went a step further than the movie did. All in all, though, if you are seeing the movie skip the book. It's not worth it. On the other hand, you might enjoy the book on it's own. It's an easy read and would be nice for a cold winter's night when you don't have anything better to do.