Wednesday, September 28, 2016

Update on reading "The Nix"

I'm about a third of the way through reading The Nix, so, as I said in a previous post that I would, I'm going to briefly provide a few thoughts on what we might be able to suspect from a screen version.  If you don't want any spoilers on the story, you may not want to read any further, but I won't go into super crazy detail.

Most of us have probably already read at least a short synopsis of the main points of the story.  The main character, Samuel, is between a rock and a hard place when a publisher for whom he is supposed to be writing a book drops him and informs him that they're suing for interest.  To prevent this, Samuel agrees to write a book about the backstory of his mother, Faye, who recently became national news for throwing some gravel at a conservative governor who's a prospective candidate for president.  Faye left Samuel and his father without warning when Samuel was eleven years old and is about to come in contact with her again due to his intention to write this tell-all.

Well, as I said, I'm about one third of the way through the 600 book and thus far, the 60 year-old version of Faye has been a character for about five pages.  Although I really enjoy the backstory of Samuel as a child and the events leading up to his mother leaving, I realized pretty quickly that if the limited series truly captures the book cover to cover, Meryl may only be in 2/3 of it.  I also can't imagine how they would not have a younger version of Faye, meaning a different actress.  Meryl can pull off playing someone quite a few years younger than she is, but can she portray late 30's or early 40's?  My guess is no, but if anyone could do that I suppose it would be Meryl.

I'm just getting into the section of where Samuel is seeing his mother again for the first time since he was a child.  The way Faye is described I couldn't help but picture Meryl as Violet Weston, but as she does with every character, if and when this comes to the screen I'm confident she will provide us with a unique and fresh persona.  I'm also confident that the juiciest parts are yet to come, and imagine that the remainder of the book with include much of modern Faye.  I'll be excited to read about her hidden backstory which Samuel is itching to learn himself, including the "why" of her leaving.  At my current point in the book, after Faye provokes Samuel to simply ask the question he's been wanting to ask for twenty years ("why did you leave me?"), her swift response is basically "I can't tell you. It's private." Ouch.

More to come as I read further.  No doubt Faye's reasons and private history will fill us with fun anticipation of how Meryl will negotiate the character.  Until then, let's also continue to wonder when the hell Meryl will have her next leading film role.

4 comments:

  1. Very interesting to hear your thoughts on it. I agree Meryl will totally bring a whole new persona to this woman and will be exciting to see. Weird though that someone becomes an overnight notoriety for throwing some gravel at a politician but maybe a little timely given your impending elections?! haha

    Now you have a feel for Samuel, do you have an idea who'd you could see/want to play him?

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    1. I'm really bad at thinking about which male actors would fit a part, especially for TV. I picture Samuel early to mid thirties, they'll probably get a good-looking actor and make him up to be a bit dumpy, but Samuel is someone who has his charms.

      In regard to the throwing gravel, the fact that it seems so minor is part of the issue and how in the American media the facts are often blurred.

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  2. Hi Jeff,

    My name is Nhat, I'm currently working on a very exciting graduation project. Is there a way so that I could send you an e-mail please? I'm not familiar with this blog and couldn't find a link to contact you.

    My e-mail is np173993@falmouth.ac.uk

    Kind Regards

    Nhat

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    1. Hi Nhat. You can reach me at wordonthestreep@gmail.com

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