Friday, March 26, 2010

Five terrific novels overshadowed by their film versions

One title from Jonathan Lethem's 1999 list of five terrific novels overshadowed by their film versions:
The Manchurian Candidate by Richard Condon

An abundance of weaker work has blotted out Condon's few best novels, which have a prescient paranoiac verve that holds up nicely -- he's sort of a pop Don Delillo. "Winter Kills," another splendid novel, was also made into a lesser-known but excellent film. Oddly, in the 1950s and '60s, Frank Sinatra made a habit of starring in films made from underrated novels: Both James Jones' "Some Came Running" and Roderick Thorp's "The Detective" are worth a closer look.
Read about the other books on Lethem's list.

The Manchurian Candidate also appears among Barry Forshaw's top political thrillers.

--Marshal Zeringue