Best TV Series Drawn from Novels

The definitive list.

In my Chicago Tribune column this week I rave about the job the new Ripley Netflix series does in capturing the tone and spirit of Patricia Highsmith’s novel The Talented Mr. Ripley.

This is no small feat given that numerous other attempts have been made, often with limited success. As I explain in the column, the 1999 film adaptation starring Matt Damon may be a decent movie, but it fails to capture the essence of Highsmith’s novel that makes it such a unique experience.

As I write in the column, the larger canvas of a limited television series gave creator Steve Zaillian and star Andrew Scott the space to develop all of the nuances that infuse Highsmith’s novel.

It got me thinking about my favorite other novel to TV adaptations. Every list/categorization like this is going to be subjective by default, but let me at least explain the rationale for my own subjectivity.

1. The book the adaptation is based on has to be one I liked and would recommend on its “literary” (barf, sorry) merits. Reacher is one of the most successful transitions from book(s) to TV ever and I greatly enjoy both the series and the Lee Child (and collaborators) books, but their entertainments are different from what I experienced with a series like Ripley or the other examples below.

2. The adaptation is at least as good or better than the book. I want the bar to be high on both fronts, with both versions delivering the goods.

A Totally Subjective List You Should Feel Free to Disagree With, But Which Is Also Totally Correct

Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry

McMurtry’s epic Western is an all-time classic, and its 1989 miniseries adaptation is about as faithful to the original as it gets. Sure, the production values of the series seem a bit dated today, but the cast (Robert Duvall, Tommy Lee Jones, Diane Lane, Danny Glover, Robert Urich, Chris Cooper, and Steve Buscemi in his first big production) is incredible. The series won a gazillion Emmys and was maybe the last of the great miniseries of the 1970s and 1980s when these things were absolutely appointment watching.

The Leftovers by Tom Perrotta

In Tom Perrotta’s novel, something like 2% of the world’s population suddenly disappears in a rapture-like event and people are understandably freaked out. The series starring Justin Theroux takes a couple of liberties with the book in the first season - making Theroux’s Kevin Garvey sheriff instead of mayor of the town, which provides him with a different kind of authority and responsibility - but for the most part, the first season adheres to the novel, primarily as an exploration of the aftermath of a collective trauma and the ensuing grief.

Once the novel is exhausted, the subsequent seasons get increasingly - to use a highly technical critical term - crazyass. Not surprising given that the adaptation was overseen by one of the co-creators of Lost, Damon Lindelof. It’s only 28 total episodes, so it’s easily bingeable, but my recommendation is to savor things a bit as you make your way through to the end.

The Queen’s Gambit Walter Tevis

This is the one entry on the list where I didn’t know of the book prior to watching the series, but went back and read it afterwards because I was struck by the amazing career of Walter Tevis. In addition to The Queen’s Gambit, Tevis wrote The Hustler, The Color of Money, and The Man Who Fell to Earth, all of which were adapted into major films, a sort of amazing feat for a writer who seems to have been serially forgotten, but is re-appreciated every so often when we’re reacquainted with his work. Tevis’s books are straightforward, almost noir-ish in style, rocketing along with great momentum and sharp dialog. It’s interesting how the source material was stretched into a series that hangs on the strange and compelling charisma of Anya Taylor-Joy in the lead role as chess prodigy Beth Harmon.

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

I’ve saved my favorite for last. Station Eleven is the best TV series I’ve seen in the last five years, maybe longer. It is sad, tense, challenging, and brilliant, and manages to capture the essence of the novel and even significantly adhering to the storylines of the original novel while also bringing the world of the novel to life in surprising and wonderful ways. In the first episode, the world ends as a devastating pandemic sweeps across the globe with incredible speed. Subsequent episodes move us through time and place to explore what it’s like to survive the end, even if you maybe didn’t want to.

I think that it is not incidental that the adaptation was helmed by a novelist, Patrick Somerville, who has written some very fine books himself. The challenge of adapting a literary work is always how to capture the interiority that is inherent in a novel and making that accessible to the audience via the screen. The series and the performances of Mackenzie Davis, Himesh Patel, and Matilda Lawler (as the younger version of Davis’s character) are criminally underrated. Should have won every Emmy available.

Now it’s your chance. What are the best books to TV adaptations where both the books and the series are worth the audience’s time?

Links

In other John Warner writes stuff news, at Inside Higher Ed I make what should be pretty obvious (IMO), universities should be for students.

Helen Vendler, a “colossus” of poetry criticism passed away at age 90. Vendler had a career in a role that really doesn’t exist anymore, a critic and scholar with the power and influence to shape what people read.

The PEN America organization is tearing itself apart.

A recent Substack newsletter tried to make the argument that traditionally published books don’t sell. This is incorrect as

Lincoln Michel

explains at his newsletter.

Freddie deBoer

also looks at the question from an individual author’s perspective, exploring the ways that traditional publishing matter in an independent writer’s life, even when your books don’t sell all that great. The trouble, as deBoer explains, is that most individual books don’t really sell all that much, which is okay for the industry, but can prove devastating to the authors of those books.

Yesterday was “Indie Bookstore Day.” When your industry needs a day to remind people to support it, it’s a bit of a mixed deal because while these events do help drive sales, shouldn’t we instead start thinking that every day is Indie Bookstore Day?

Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian is being adapted for film. I’ll withhold judgment until I see it, but count me as skeptical that this works, particularly given that the attached director, John Hillcoat, helmed the pretty limp adaptation of McCarthy’s The Road.

From McSweeney’s this week, an instant classic, “Grendel Must Have Immunity for Raiding Our Capitol, or Else Anyone Could Be Punished for Raiding Our Capitol” by Nick Morgan.

Recommendations

1. Eileen by Ottessa Mosfegh
2. Tomato Red by Daniel Woodrell
3. Manhunt by Gretchen Felker-Martin
4. Mostly Dead Things by Kristenn Arnett
5. Songs for the Unravelling of the World by Brian Evenson

Scott W. - Regina, SK, Canada

I think Scott may take to this strange family tale, F by Daniel Kehlmann.

1. Don't Fear the Reaper by Stephen Graham Jones
2. Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk
3. Interesting Facts About Space by Emily Austin
4. All's Well by Mona Awad
5. The Emperor's Babe by Bernadine Evaristo

Christine F. - Seattle, WA

We Ride Upon Sticks by Quan Barry is a sly and enjoyable updating of the story of the Salem Witch Trials set in 1989 and involving a girls field hockey team.¹

I realized too late last week that I forgot to link to the instructions for submitting your request for recommendations which means the inbox dried up a bit. Get those requests in!

I received the copyedited manuscript back for my next book (More Than Words: How to Think About Writing in the Age of AI), and I am mustering up the courage to open the file and see what an absolute dolt I am. Stay tuned for the results next week!

JW
The Bibioracle

1. All books (with the occasional exception) linked throughout the newsletter go to The Biblioracle Recommends bookstore at Bookshop.org. Affiliate proceeds, plus a personal matching donation of my own, go to Chicago’s Open Books and an additional reading/writing/literacy nonprofit to be determined. Affiliate income for this year is $59.70.