Books are always better
Read Say Nothing and Small Things Like These before you watch them.
Dear readers,
This is a note to tell you that the books are (almost) always better.
I think it was sometime this past December that I saw ads for an adaptation of my favorite nonfiction book, Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe, that was being turned into a mini-series. My immediate reaction was — oh no! Now people will only watch the show, neglect the book, and perhaps even fail to realize the show is based on a book.1
Shortly after, I saw another advertisement for a film adaptation of another story set in Ireland, an excellent novella called Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan. Once again, my heart sunk. I thought to myself, people will watch this movie featuring the amazing Cillian Murphy before they pick up the book. And in this instance, there’s truly no excuse not to read the book first: it’s literally 128 pages! I read it in less than 24 hours. Anyone could read it in a week.
Now, I formed this opinion — that both Say Nothing and Small Things Like These should be enjoyed in their original book form prior to being consumed via the screen —before I had seen either. And I also resolved to write this newsletter about it almost immediately, since I had read both books. But I felt the need to prove my foregone conclusion and so, on a recent four-day long weekend (thank you MLK day and a Texas “snow” day), I watched half of the Say Nothing mini-series.
Was it engaging? Yes. Was it well-produced and well-acted? For the most part, yes. Did I watch several episodes in a row? Unashamedly, yes. It was a snow day! But three weeks have gone by and while I have had the occasional desire to watch the next episode, it’s been a passing urge that I’ve ultimately ignored for screen time with other shows, like Severance.
Compare this ability to walk away from a show — I’m honestly not sure I’ll finish it — to the inability to stop reading a page-turning narrative nonfiction by an award-winning journalist to find out what would happen to the abducted Jean McConville, the terrorist Price sisters, and the unrelenting IRA leaders during the height of The Troubles. Which is exactly what I did four years ago. I was even reading it on Christmas Eve (not exactly your classic holiday material).
And this brings me to another issue with the show, at least from what I’ve seen of it. The FX/Hulu limited series kind of makes heroes out of the Price sisters, Gerry Adams, and Brendan Hughes. And they certainly thought they were at the time they were committing acts of murder and terror. But that’s the thing — they were committing acts of terror. The show depicts the preparation for these acts with an odd choice: a sort of action-adventure-spy music score in the background.
When I was reading Say Nothing, I couldn’t look away, but I also understood the author was not writing about the IRA to praise them. He was writing about them to tell a true story of people who were “disappeared” by their own and of a group of people who thought they had the right to violently rebel against their government with acts of terror. This is not a story of resistance; this is true crime. So I feel a bit uncomfortable watching the mini-series because I worry that viewers who haven’t read the book might get the wrong idea: that it’s okay to disappear people, plant car bombs, and have a secret paramilitary organization that kills their members when they fail to “say nothing” to anyone who isn’t sworn in to the IRA.
This does not mean I’m siding with the British government. But I think Patrick Radden Keefe writes a balanced narrative, whereas the adaptation felt the need to pick protagonists and the ones they chose are real-life terrorists. I’m not sure if and to what extent Radden Keefe was involved in the making of the limited series. There’s a minor acknowledgement of the book in the ending credits. Still, I think the book is better and if you’re interested in the limited series, read the book first.
Perhaps before you crack open that 500 page bestseller, maybe tackle the novella first. Small Things Like These won The Booker Prize in 2022. It’s about a man named Bill who lives with his family in a small Irish town in 1985. He’s a coal merchant who makes a discovery while on his rounds, one that “forces him to confront both his past the complicit silences of a town controlled by the church” (to quote the inner cover flap). Here’s a sentence I underlined:
Before long, he caught a hold of himself and concluded that nothing ever did happen again; to each was given days and chances which wouldn’t come back around. And wasn’t it sweet to be where you were and let it remind you of the past for once, despite the upset, instead of always looking on into the mechanics of the days and the trouble ahead, which might never come.2
Isn’t Claire Keegan wonderful? Don’t you want more?
I’ve heard good things about the adaptation, even though I haven’t yet had the time to rent and watch it on AppleTV+. I’m looking forward to doing so on the right moody evening. For now, I’m grateful to have been gifted the book by one of my bookish friends (looking at you, Laura) and to have read it on New Year’s Day, 2024.
Recently I was sitting with a group of friends made up of current literature teachers, former literature teachers, and avid readers. We were talking about our favorite books, and one friend said, “I am convinced the book is always better.” We tried to think of exceptions. We came up with: Jurassic Park (debatable?) and The Shining. I haven’t read the former and I refuse to read or see the latter (I don’t do horror).
Maybe, as teachers and readers, we’re biased. Still, I’m inclined to agree with my friend, but with a caveat:
The book, and the experience of reading it, is always better than a film or a television adaptation — if it’s a Classic or award-winning literary work of fiction or non-fiction.
And, for what it’s worth, my favorite television shows of recent years have all been originals, not book adaptations. But that’s a newsletter for another time.
P.S. I am somewhat embarrassed to admit that I have seen the BBC War & Peace adaptation twice without finishing Tolstoy’s novel. However, watching the show made me want to read the book because it is a very good adaptation, and it also helped me understand what I did read of it, even though I haven’t finished it… also the adaptation has Lily James, Paul Dano, and James Norton, to name a few of its shining stars!
P.P.S. Speaking of reading books before seeing the screen version, there’s an adaptation of Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell coming out this year. It stars two of my favorites, Paul Mescal and Jessie Beckley, and is directed by Chloé Zhao who won an Oscar for best director in2020 for the beautiful Nomadland. Have any of you read Hamnet? I’m hoping to get my hands on a copy and read it before the film hits theaters because I hope to see it!
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I’ve written about my love for this book previously, when sharing about another Irish show I love, Derry Girls.
Keegan, Claire. Small Things Like These, page 28.