Which is better--the book or the movie?
CASINO ROYALE
Ian Fleming (paperback)
Not content to keep James Bond at the card table, Royale's scripting
trio fleshes out Fleming's plot with an origin story, a Madagascar
jaunt, and Daniel Craig in a snug swimsuit.
Last Word
The film's darker take on 007 is a headier cocktail of grit, sex, and
suspense. — Hannah Tucker
A GOOD YEAR
Peter Mayle (paperback)
The '04 novel's vineyard-inheriting stockbroker (Russell Crowe) gets a
fuller romance and more childhood flashbacks. Screenwriter Marc Klein
also de-emphasizes a secondary plot about a mystery wine.
Final Word
Mayle's sensuous prose is a higher vintage. — Michelle Kung
FAST FOOD NATION
Eric Schlosser (paperback)
Schlosser adapts (with director Richard Linklater) his 2001 nonfiction
exposé of fast-food corporations, inventing characters and (potentially
real) scenarios.
Final Word
The book's stories of gross-out animal slaughters and corporate
shadiness are more absorbing. — MK
