Saturday, June 07, 2008

John Hughes on Speed

I Love You, Beth Cooper by Larry Doyle

Set in the suburbs up in Chicago area, this novel is very much like a book version of a John Hughes film. Each chapter begins with a picture of the protagonist, and these are actually collected on the front cover, showing how the character just keeps getting into worse and worse shape due to various mishaps.

The novel begins with Denis's speech as valedictorian, in which he declares his love for one of his much more popular class mates. As a result of this declaration, he ends up on a series of adventures on graduation night. For the most part, it was funny, but it started losing steam towards the end, and some parts just went on too long. Also, maybe I'm just too innocent, but I was reading parts of this, thinking "in high school? Really?"

I think the book is already being made into a movie, and it should translate very easily, especially since it basically already uses all the high school teen movie clichés. Also, the author has worked on The Simpsons and other films, so he should have no problems translating the work into a screen play.

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