Customer Reviews

Far And Away

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A novelization of the screenplay for Far and Away, that doesn't really add much to the story. The main reason that someone reads a movie novelization is to learn more about the characters, and get more of the back story that can't be dwelled on in a movie. This book doesn't really add much, except give a little background (emphasis on little) to the social realities in Ireland at the end of the 19th century-explaining part of what keeps Joseph and Shannon apart.

The book tries to be a romance novel, but I don't think there is enough sex to really interest romance novel fans, and there isn't enough details for the fan of the movie to gain more insight into the characters. If you are a fan of the movie, and why else would you be looking to get this book, you would be better served renting or buying a copy of the DVD. Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman did a much better job communicating the growing attraction between Joseph and Shannon than this book.

I've been a fan of the movie for years and finally found the time to read the novel. Sonja Massie bases the novel on the screenplay by Bob Dolman, so there isn't much additional information from the movie. I suggest you read the book first, and then see the movie. The story is about Joseph and Shannon both are struggling for freedom but for different reasons. Joseph wants freedom from poverty and injustice and Shannon a wealthy Irish landowner's daughter wants freedom to be her own person away from her domineering mother. Together they struggle to find that freedom in the form of land. They leave Ireland and travel to America where they are confronted by a city of corruption and sin. Ultimately their journey takes them to the freedom they are truly looking for, love.