My book club made me pick between finishing a 900 page novel or watching the movie first

Our group chose 'The Luminaries' for March, and it's huge. I had a work trip coming up and knew I'd never finish it. My choice was either to power through 200 pages a night for a week or just watch the TV show and fake it. I picked the show, thinking I'd get the gist. Big mistake. At the meeting, our leader, Karen from Tempe, asked a super detailed question about a side character's motive in chapter 17. I panicked and quoted a scene that wasn't even in the book. Has anyone else tried the movie shortcut and gotten totally caught?

4 comments

4 Comments

ryan_black25d ago

My buddy Mark tried that with 'The Goldfinch'. He watched the movie, said it was fine, and went to his club. They spent forty-five minutes just talking about the kid's time in Las Vegas, which the movie basically skipped. Mark just sat there nodding, then made a comment about the furniture in the hotel lobby because that's all he remembered from the film. Someone asked him which specific antique desk he meant, and he just froze. He said it was the longest silence of his life before he mumbled something about needing more coffee.

ericw9326d ago

Karen from Tempe sounds like the kind of person who grades your potluck contributions. The movie shortcut is a classic move, but it only works if your club is full of other fakers. You need at least one person to nod along when you bring up a plot point from the director's cut. Getting caught on chapter 17 details is the universe charging you for your laziness. Next time, pick a book with a worse adaptation, something they only made into a straight-to-DVD cartoon.

oliviatorres8d ago

Lol @ericw93 is so right about needing fellow fakers. I got away with it for "The Shining" by only talking about the creepy twins and the axe scene, stuff everyone knows from the movie. When someone asked about the book's hedge animals, I just said "oh man, they were way scarier in my head" and changed the subject.

brookeellis25d ago

What if the whole point is to get caught? Maybe showing up unprepared and getting roasted by a Karen from Tempe is the real entertainment. It's way more fun than actually reading some boring book. At least you get a story out of it, like your friend Mark and his weird desk moment. That's a better memory than just talking about themes for an hour.