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Since my To-Be-Read (TBR) list is continually growing, from time to time I like to throw together a list focussing on some of the (often diverse) titles on there.
I figured that this time around, I would feature 3 books which I added to my list because I’ve seen the film adaptation.
This being me, though, they’re probably a little on the obscure side — because since when can I do anything ‘normally’? (Lol.)
Bullet Train by Kōtarō Isaka, Tr: Sam Malissa
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Bullet Train was originally published with a Japanese title which translates to ‘Maria Beetle’ — because insect code names are apparently a significant part of Isaka’s work.
Basically: there’s all these people on a train. And violence happens. Y’know, as it tends to.
I could go into the intricacies of the premise, but it would take me a long time and it boils down to:
there are a bunch of gangsters and assassins on this train
sh** goes down
As mentioned, the original novel for this is Japanese, but the film is Western—
(although it’s still set on a Japanese bullet train,)
— and there was a lot of controversy around the whitewashing (i.e. casting a White character for a role originally intended for a Person of Colour (PoC)) of many of the characters.
Brad Pitt, for example, plays Ladybug (an assassin, and one of the main characters,) in the film version; they tweaked the plot to make him an American.
Racial casting issues aside (and I’m not downplaying the importance of discussing those issues, but the film is the way that it is, and they don’t let me make casting decisions) it’s a pretty awesome film, and it made me want to read the translation of the book, so onto the TBR it went!
Saturday Night and Sunday Morning by Alan Sillitoe
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This has been on my TBR for a long time, and I’ve been curious about reading it for even longer.
The film version of this is something I studied for A-level Media Studies — a subject that I would encourage literally everyone to study because, far from being a ‘cake subject,’ it is vital to our modern world.
It creates a level of awareness about the uses and manipulations of the media, and an engagement with the processes and depictions that have created and continue to create our modern culture and society.
(See? I’m smartical, and I took Media Studies!)
Media Studies is a subject that is often derided by the elites (especially the Conservative party here in the UK,) as somehow unacademic, when in reality it is both academic and practical, and gives you the tools and education you need to navigate modern life.
…Strange that politicians and people in the upper classes would discourage a greater understanding of the uses and abuses of the media, huh? *upside down smiley face*
Anyhow, we looked at Saturday Night and Sunday Morning as part of our study of British films. It’s not remembered much now, but at the time that it came out it was shocking and daring.
Known as a ‘kitchen sink’ drama, it was part of a wave of films featuring (gasp) working-class people! And it showed unmarried people lying in the same bed! An abortion was heavily implied! All the scandal!
…It really is interesting to see what people thought was ‘daring’ back in the day — I’m confident that Saturday Night and Sunday Morning walked so that Game of Thrones could run (…and also do some other stuff, lol.)
Anywho, it also has Albert Finney (legendary, super-posh, British actor,) doing a working-class Northern (England) accent. And doing it pretty well (as far as this Welsh girl could tell, anyways.)
The book was written by Alan Sillitoe - a working-class writer who was known as one of the ‘angry young men’ shaking up the establishment and the high-class world of publishing in the 1950s.
Their Finest Hour and a Half by Lissa Evans
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The film version of this is simply called ‘Their Finest.’
I saw it at the cinema and loved it, although all I can really remember about it now was that it was set in World War 2… I saw it pre-pandemic, dudes, and my brain is swiss cheese at this point.
I actually have this book in my floor-TBR (which is what we call it when your bedroom floor becomes engulfed in literature, #TrueStory,) so I really have no excuse for not getting around to it yet.
Although, I’m not sure where in the floor TBR it is, and also it’s 100% in the tradition of book bloggers everywhere to ignore their 1k+ TBR (or however many it currently is,) and read something entirely different instead.
(Which is how we end up with posts like this… lol.)
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