What The Jackal Taught Me

A dear aunt and uncle recently gifted me two books on the occasion of my birthday. After excitedly tearing through the gift wrap, I was thrilled to see the first title "Chaos Theory" but a tad bit disappointed to see the second, "The day of the Jackal". Now I am a huge, huge fan of the Hollywood film "The Jackal" starring Bruce Willis & Richard Gere, which is loosely based on this same novel, and have seen the movie an umpteen number of times. I literally remember every scene and dialogue, and even the mannerisms, of both central characters and I was convinced the book could no longer hold any excitement or suspense for me, seeing as I already knew everything. To add to that, I am a big believer in the practice of reading a book before watching it's film adaptation, because that allows me the freedom to conjure my own images of the characters, plot and setting, without the inevitable shackling of the imagination that results from the burden of having the director's vision firmly imprinted in my mind - a freedom that I believe is vital to enjoy any kind of storytelling and without which the entire process is utterly pointless. Armed with this belief, I altogether abandoned the idea of reading the book.

But a few days later, my curiosity got the better of my skepticism and I decided to give it a go. The story began interestingly enough and quite soon I realized that my skepticism was completely misplaced. The narrative was so powerful that I completely forgot about the film and began to paint my own images of the characters and situations in my head. I also began to realize that the film had deviated very drastically from the book, preserving only the central theme. In fact, Richard Gere's character was nowhere to be found! Things were beginning to bode well for my undertaking and I pressed on with new found enthusiasm!

The book is astonishingly descriptive and very realistic. The author has carefully taken even the most minute of details into account, and has slowly built up the characters and situations in a way that the reader can believe very easily. Where the film director has gone over the top, the author has been far more measured. The image I conjured of the Jackal was far more sinister and menacing than what Bruce Willis delivered. Later on I discovered that the author, Frederick Forsythe, had been a Reuters reporter for many years and had covered several terrorist bombings, political assassinations etc. and this was probably why he was able to write such a realistic story. Eventually I got so hooked that I finished the entire novel in a three day frenzy and I enjoyed it thoroughly!

I've come to the conclusion that a good book CAN be read AND enjoyed even after watching it's film adaptation and this is why I shall first go to watch The Hobbit and then read the book :D