Monday, March 26, 2007

Laura Hird's literary top 10

Pulp Net has posted an interesting "literary top 10" list by Laura Hird, the Orange and Whitbread nominated author of the collection, Nail and Other Stories and novel, Born Free.

Number three from Hird's literary top ten:
Best ‘film of the book’

Stanley Kubrick was able to adapt books for film like no other director I can think of – ‘A Clockwork Orange’ and ‘Lolita’ I think set a pretty high benchmark that few people since have managed to come close to. I also enjoyed Pawel Pawlikowski’s recent adaptation of Helen Cross’s ‘My Summer of Love’. Probably my all-time favourite film of the book though is ‘The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie.’ Both Muriel Spark’s original novella and the film are gems and were way ahead of their time.
I like and admire Kubrick's Lolita but I think Adrian Lyne's Lolita is a more faithful adaptation of the novel and arguably a better film. (See them both.)

Read the entire literary top ten, and visit Laura Hird's website.

--Marshal Zeringue