Book Review - A Novel Idea

It’s a Wonderful Life, by M.C. Bolin. New York: Harper Paperbacks, 1996.

In my book reviews, I give my brief thoughts on what I read. Sometimes I will expound on those thoughts, but more often than not, I will just give a brief opinion. I could go into detail about what the book is about, but a lot of people have already done that. You can read their descriptions of the book, plus the official description on Amazon.

My copy of the novelization of the film.

As with many popular films, someone writes a book that tells the same story that we see on the screen. Sometimes, as with The Help, the films are based on the books. In other situations, such as Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, the film came first, followed by the book, which is based on the film.

That is the case with It's a Wonderful Life, the book by M.C. Bolin, and released for the film's 50th anniversary.

It is pretty mundane, describing the actions that you see on the screen and the lines that are said in the film. But every once in a while, you get moments of brilliance when Bolin gets into the heads of the characters, and describes their thoughts and emotions.

One example of this occurs during the bank run when George thinks to himself, “What was it his mother had said not so long before about Mary’s having all the answers?” (Bolin 70)

2.5 out of 5