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A review by njdarkish
Jaws by Peter Benchley
3.0
I am always surprised when a film is better than a book. I can think of only a handful of times that I’ve seen that as the case—The Shawshank Redemption, or The Godfather, as a couple examples—but my recent experience with both reading and watching Jaws shows that this horror classic definitely fits into that small category.
There are some things I really love about the book. The scenes from the perspective of the shark during the earlier attacks are fantastic. You feel like you are really thinking as a shark would think during the brutality. It’s some of the best non-human perspective work I’ve ever read.
The problem with the book is that it is kind of bloated. That sounds weird to say about such a short novel, but it’s true—the book spends way too much time on nonsense that really didn’t seem to matter in the story. The plot threads about the mayor and the mob were okay, but the stuff about the affair felt very cheap, like Benchley was afraid the book wouldn’t sell if he didn’t sex it up. It didn’t feel like it contributed to the story and stuck out like a colloquial sore thumb.
And that’s why the movie was better—it cut out the nonsense and stuck to the shark and to what the shark was doing to the town.
But on its own, it was a pretty fun read, especially if you skip the affair chapter. It was enough of a fun popcorn book to sell a ton of copies and make people scared to get in the water.
There are some things I really love about the book. The scenes from the perspective of the shark during the earlier attacks are fantastic. You feel like you are really thinking as a shark would think during the brutality. It’s some of the best non-human perspective work I’ve ever read.
The problem with the book is that it is kind of bloated. That sounds weird to say about such a short novel, but it’s true—the book spends way too much time on nonsense that really didn’t seem to matter in the story. The plot threads about the mayor and the mob were okay, but the stuff about the affair felt very cheap, like Benchley was afraid the book wouldn’t sell if he didn’t sex it up. It didn’t feel like it contributed to the story and stuck out like a colloquial sore thumb.
And that’s why the movie was better—it cut out the nonsense and stuck to the shark and to what the shark was doing to the town.
But on its own, it was a pretty fun read, especially if you skip the affair chapter. It was enough of a fun popcorn book to sell a ton of copies and make people scared to get in the water.