Need an audio book for the gym? Maybe don’t try out Jaws
Jaws – the blurb
It’s never safe to go back in the water . . .
It was just another day in the life of a small Atlantic resort until the terror from the deep came to prey on unwary holiday makers. The first sign of trouble – a warning of what was to come – took the form of a young woman’s body, or what was left of it, washed up on the long, white stretch of beach . . .
A summer of terror has begun . . .
Dun Dun Dun Dun
This is my first official audio book (I’m not counting Women In Love) and I decided to listen whilst slogging away at the gym. I won’t tell you how many sessions it took me to get through it but I did almost give up half way through.
I’ll start by saying the book is VERY different to the film. Spielberg certainly did weave his magic to make it the blockbuster it became. The book is written in the 70s and it shows with casual racism and sexism a plenty. Strange to be talking about race and sex in a book about a big fish but that’s because for a lot of the time the shark is barely present. In fact there are whole chapters where it isn’t mentioned at all. Instead we have marital affairs, small town politics and even a murdered cat.
It’s so disappointing as the start of the book was brilliant. Tensions raised as the shark pounced on an unsuspecting skinny dipper. To go from that to the restaurant scene where Brody’s wife fantasizes about enjoying being raped (yep you read that right) was just plain bizarre. It’s one of the few occasions I recommend the film over the book. And you don’t hear me saying that very often.