Jaws [Unabridged] [Paperback]

Peter Benchley's 'Jaws' is a book very much of its time: there are some characters that resonate the recent history of America (Hendricks, a Vietnam veteran with obliviously homophobic undertones- a role significantly reduced in the film). There is also a somewhat mysoginist view of female sexuality (a discussion about sexual fantasies in the book focuses shockingly on Ellen Brody's apparent desire to be raped- that's no way to flirt)... but if you're going to read 'Jaws' for informed social commentary, you've probably picked up the wrong book.

When Benchley isn't concerning himself with domestic issues, class conflict and shady political dealings (something he is clearly interested in exploring in Part Two), he excels at constructing taught, tense sequences that move at such a thunderous pace they are actually heart-pounding. The opening sequence is much what you would expect having seen the film, as is the inevitable finale, but the difference between this book and the unsurpassable movie that it inspired is largely in the characters. A major supporting character is entirely excised from the film (journalist Harry Meadows), the touching connection Brody has with his sons is absent from the book, and Hooper is an entirely different animal altogether.

There are some incosistencies within the book; in the first two acts, Benchley seems unsure whether to follow the shark or the effects it has on the small town leading into an entirely unnecessary and uncomfortable emotional betrayal (it's here that Benchley shows weakness) and also giving too little focus to a subplot about Mayor Larry Vaughan's shadowy mafia connections (perhaps something better left hinted at rather than exposed- I don't entirely understand the point of the cat sequence at all). The book is quite largely devoid of any true wit, something the screen version has in spades. But in the characters of Brody and Quint, Benchley has created something that the screenwriters couldn't avoid. Quint is very much the Ahab seadog we see in the film (if not quite as developed as Robert Shaw's outstanding turn) and Brody is still the conciencious everyman trying to do the right thing, even though it terrifies him.

The third act is rewarding, and equally as gripping as the film's- but it's that screenplay (co-written by Benchley with Carl Gottlieb) that just outdoes it. Benchley was right to make changes for the adaptation, it's simply better. That's not to say that this book is not worth reading. On it's own merits it's a taught little thriller, with some stomach turning depictions of the shark's numerous attacks, and I really relished some of the elements that didn't make the final cut of the film. If unfaithful adaptations are bad, then Spielberg's 'Jaws' would be an awful film. Sometimes changes need to be made, and I think that these two different versions of 'Jaws' should be appreciated in their own right. The novel could've been a little leaner, a little more to the point- but it's those diversions that add to the palpable tension and create an atmosphere of unrest and incredible power in what has to be one of the most grippingly cinematic conclusions to a book I've ever read. Part Three of 'Jaws' doesn't waste a word, leading me to suspect that some of what preceded it was just a bit of padding. Still, when you finally get out on that boat it's just flawless.

An old coverless copy of Jaws was left in my waiting room at the clinic. You can imagine my surprise when far from being a dental thriller, this book turned out to be all about a shark. Well I couldn't put the book down. As I read on my denture patients were suffering from floating lower chompers and food getting trapped underneath their falsies. So be it, this is a fabulous ripping tale, taut and explosive at the same time, has only one draw back - it caused a universal fear, hatred and subsequently slaughter of the Great White. I understand Mr Benchley is now on a crusade to rectify this. If successful that will be his greatest work.

Peter Benchley's debut novel is perhaps almost impossible to seperate in ones mind from the Spielberg blockbuster of the same name. Both film and book cover the events of a few summer weeks on the island resort of Amity in which a killer shark chomps its way through a series of swimmers, leading three men to go to sea to in a man vs. beast showdown. So iconic is Spielberg's adaption in fact, that one can almost here John Williams' famous score when reading the passages in which the fish attacks.

However Benchley's novel differs from the adaption in a number of key ways; what's more, to be fair, Benchley's novel obviously came first and so should be judged on it's own merits.

On the plus side Benchley writes with a pulpy kind of urgency, carrying the story through at a brisk pace that catches the reader along with him. There's some nice passages of characterisation, and the neutral tone in which the shark attacks are described lends a chillingly amoral feel to the horror: this is, the argument follows, just a big fish feeding. What's more there are some nice tensions drawn out in the last 100 pages or so: is the fish just an unthinking animal, or is it a cunning, thinking adversary? Is it a tool of divine judgment on the corruption lurking in Amity (adultery, mafia deals, etc), or is it just a random coincidence? The fact that Benchley gives no answers to these questions is to his credit, and leaves the novels climax pleasingly unresolved and open to interpretation.

However, the problems with this book are extensive. Despite pacing his story well on the whole, there are some clunkingly bad sections of writing. Dialogue is reeled out in lengthy passages that lack authenticity, and character's voices are somewhat indistinct from each other. There are some repetitious and lame paragraph structuring that actually caused me to read it out to my wife in disbelief that something like this could be published. What's more Benchley misjudges some crucial moments. For instance (and although I'm somewhat loathed to compare the novel directly to the film, I'm going to do so anyway) in the scene when the shark finally appears to Brody, Quint and Hooper on their climatic hunting trip, instead of the "You're gonna need a bigger boat" line from the film, the characters launch into a 2-page debate about whether prehistoric megladons could exist which are even bigger than this shark. What we want is excitement: what we get is a natural history lesson. Spielberg also stated that he found the characters unlikeable, and whilst I would concur with this assessment I would say this is not necessarily a problem and may, in part, be part of the point.

Overall Jaws delivers cheap, trashy thrills with a smattering pleasing thematic tensions and compulsive page-turning. This is marred by some low grade, GSCE-level writing and some very poor dialogue indeed. Robert Shaw, who played Quint in the movie, said this book was a piece of rubbish, and whilst I mostly agree with that it is still very enjoyable rubbish. Just don't read it on the beach.