Yeh, the Book was Better, Then

Read a review (in The Economist, if I recall correctly) of Roddy Doyle's latest novel, Love, and was immediately reminded of The Commitments, a movie I'd reviewed enthusiastically back in the day (and was enthusiastic enough about, in fact, that I bought the soundtrack album almost immediately*). But I hadn't seen the movie in decades... and I'd never read the source novel at all.

Stax Museum of American Soul Music, Memphis
Image from Wikimedia Commons

Well, even during a pandemic quasi-lockdown this was an oversight the Toronto Public Library could easily remedy. So I put holds on both novel and DVD and, since fortune brought them to me on the same day, I first read the novel and then re-watched the movie.

Sort of glad I did them in that order, too. It had been long enough that I had mostly forgotten the details of the movie (save for how impressed I'd been with the performance of musician Robert Arkins in the role of band manager Jimmy Rabbitte); this meant I could read the one and revisit the other without much in the way of pre-judging. And I'd have a better grounding in the story by which to judge how well (or not) it had been adapted to film, keeping in mind that Doyle was one of the screenwriters for the latter.

The book is definitely worth the read. It's not really a novel; more like a novelette, really. The edition I read was 167 pages long, and with a more traditional format it wouldn't have gone much over 125. And—I gather this is typical of Doyle's writing—there's almost nothing to it but dialogue. No internal monologues for this Irishman, I guess.

But the characters all come through beautifully anyway. In fact, I think they have more presence in the book than in the movie. Well, perhaps that's not so uncommon, is it?

What did take me by surprise was the ending. I remembered, from seeing the film back in 1991 or so, that the band breaks up about as soon as they start getting good together. But I was surprised at how comparatively upbeat the book's ending is when set against that of the movie. In the movie Jimmy "interviews" himself about the aftermath of the breakup, and the results are mostly depressing.

But in the novel, we end the way we began: with Jimmy demonstrating to Outspan and Derek the music they're going to be playing in the new band Jimmy is putting together in the aftermath of the breakup (there's one addition to the group in this scene, but I won't spoil it). So while Jimmy might still be a fan of soul, what this scene reveals is that he's really a fan of music, and its potential. The last piece of music referenced in the book is this one, and so the story ends on a cheery, upbeat note that makes the choice of endings in the movie seem pinched and sour.

So yeh, read the book.

*I confess I haven't listened to it in years, and I'm not even sure we still own it. I still love soul music, though. Take me to the bridge, y'all.