Earlier this week I finished The Hunger Games trilogy and boy are they thoroughly enjoyable. Unlike some books for younger readers, The Hunger Games was incredibly serious and dealt with complex issues relating to politics, war, oppression, families, love and death (I couldn't believe Collins went where she did at the very end). My finishing of the series coincided with two things: 1) the finalizing of the casting for the film versions, 2) the publication of an article about the author in The New York Times Magazine.
I think the casting is adequate. Katniss should be fantastic (though maybe a little old?), though I am not familiar with the two young hunks slated to play Peeta and Gale. Hopefully they pull a Harry Potter and the movies are just as good as the books.
Lastly, I could not relate more to the reaction of Collins' agent Rosemary Stimola when she read the last chapter:
“No!” Stimola wailed. “Don’t do it.”
She was reacting as a reader, not a career adviser, but perhaps in the back of her mind she was imagining the emotions the plot twist might provoke in the book’s youthful fans: depression rather than inspiration, desolation rather than triumph. The capacity of young-adult literature for dark messaging has been expanding since the early ’70s, but this poignant loss seemed almost unbearable.
No comments:
Post a Comment