The Wild Things [Hardcover]

Dave Eggers (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 13, 2009

The Wild Things — based very loosely on the storybook by Maurice Sendak and the screenplay cowritten with Spike Jonze — is about the confusions of a boy, Max, making his way in a world he can’t control. His father is gone, his mother is spending time with a younger boyfriend, his sister is becoming a teenager and no longer has interest in him. At the same time, Max finds himself capable of startling acts of wildness: he wears a wolf suit, bites his mom, and can’t always control his outbursts. During a fight at home, Max flees and runs away into the woods. He finds a boat there, jumps in, and ends up on the open sea, destination unknown. He lands on the island of the Wild Things, and soon he becomes their king. But things get complicated when Max realizes that the Wild Things want as much from him as he wants from them. Funny, dark, and alive, The Wild Things is a timeless and time-tested tale for all ages.

Editorial Reviews

From Bookmarks Magazine

Maurice Sendak's spare picture book has captured the hearts of readers for more than four decades. Critics were split, however, on whether Eggers's novel will enjoy the same long-lasting popularity. Its greatest appeal may stem from Eggers's ability to convey both the sense of wonder and the dark uncertainty that make up a typical childhood, though a few reviewers disagreed. The Times, for example, called Max's outbursts an appalling symbol of "contemporary brattish America." The Washington Post simply wished that authors would develop their own material (critics mentioned Pride and Prejudice and Zombies as a horrific literary crime, not for the first time). Overall, younger readers may find much to enjoy here, but children and adults alike should start with the original.

From Booklist

In Eggers’ novel, adapted from Spike Jonze’s film of Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are, Max is a robust, self-reliant boy who acts out in response to his parents’ divorce. After some particularly epic mischief, he runs away, finds a boat, and sails it to a land where large, destructive beasts are willing to recognize him as their king—but Max, as it turns out, is not a particularly good king. There are many pleasant surprises here, from the personalities of the wild things to the dreamlike particulars of their world. But it doesn’t feel like an organically grown story. Whether because of this book’s unique origins, or Eggers’ execution, or even the familiarity of the picture book, the drama here, unfortunately, comes less from Max’s adventures than from our interest in seeing how Eggers has managed the adaptation. Where Sendak’s book contains multitudes in a dozen sentences, Eggers uses nearly 300 pages to tease out a number of ideas, and his book still feels too long. Billed as an “all-ages novel,” The Wild Things feels too grown-up for most children and too childlike for most grown-ups. Its association with the movie may boost sales, but the book seems unlikely to last long in the popular imagination. --Keir Graff

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 300 pages
• Publisher: McSweeney's (October 13, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1934781614
• ISBN-13: 978-1934781616
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.5 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (32 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #504,541 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Dave Eggers is the author of six previous books, including "Zeitoun," a nonfiction account a Syrian-American immigrant and his extraordinary experience during Hurricane Katrina and "What Is the What," a finalist for the 2006 National Book Critics Circle Award. That book, about Valentino Achak Deng, a survivor of the civil war in southern Sudan, gave birth to the Valentino Achak Deng Foundation, run by Mr. Deng and dedicated to building secondary schools in southern Sudan. Eggers is the founder and editor of McSweeney's, an independent publishing house based in San Francisco that produces a quarterly journal, a monthly magazine ("The Believer"), and "Wholphin," a quarterly DVD of short films and documentaries. In 2002, with Nínive Calegari he co-founded 826 Valencia, a nonprofit writing and tutoring center for youth in the Mission District of San Francisco. Local communities have since opened sister 826 centers in Chicago, Los Angeles, Brooklyn, Ann Arbor, Seattle, and Boston. In 2004, Eggers taught at the University of California-Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, and there, with Dr. Lola Vollen, he co-founded Voice of Witness, a series of books using oral history to illuminate human rights crises around the world. A native of Chicago, Eggers graduated from the University of Illinois with a degree in journalism. He now lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife and two children.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 32 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Who The Wild Things Are October 14, 2009

By Jack Holden

Format:Hardcover

I am a long-time Eggers fan. And while I liked the original book when I was a kid and I think the movie looks good, the only reason I read this book is because Eggers wrote it.

All of the protagonists in Eggers' previous books are adults. It is interesting to see how he handles Max as his main character. Max's parents are divorced, his older sister ignores him, his mother's boyfriend is embarassing and incompetent, and he rarely sees his father. He loves his mom but she is swamped with work and he has to fight for her attention. On top of that, his neighborhood is being torn down and re-developed. His friends' parents are overprotective and frown upon Max riding his bike around alone. He is scolded in gym class for playing too rough, and his neurotic science teacher expounds at length about how everything and everyone will someday expire, even the sun will eventually burn out. Eggers' descriptions of a modern American childhood are spot-on. A lot of younger readers can intensely relate to Max, and older readers can gain a perspective on what it's like to grow up with a single-parent in American suburbia.

As far as the actual wild things go, Eggers has said that his goal with this book was to not so much show "where the wild things are" but rather "who the wild things are". These characters have real fears, hopes, passions, and relationships with each other. A lot of the wild things are not all that different from the humans in Max's life, except with these new creatures, Max finds himself in a position of leadership and control. The relationships between Max and the wild things are very moving and again, very true to human interactions people deal with every day.

People who read this book because they enjoyed the original story or the movie will be very satisfied. Eggers fans will find that this is pretty different from his other books. But the best part about Eggers' writing has always been his honest and humane portrayal of emotions and relationships, and this signature quality rings true through the Wild Things just as it does with any of his other books.

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Our Own Wild Things October 24, 2009

By M. Murillo

Format:Hardcover

I disagree with the major review at the start of these reviews list. I think this is one kind of book if it's to be read by kids 8-12 and another if it's to be read by adults or even by adults to children. What the review above failed to mentioned is that Maurice Sendak actually asked Dave Eggers to publish this novel, and to flesh out the screenplay into a complete narrative. It's clear to me why he wanted to do this.

On one side, for children reading the book, it's a bit dark, psychological, and tense. I think without a parent to mitigate and dampen the effect of the Wild Things' more wild inclinations (wanting to eat what makes them unhappy), I think the book might be a bit overwhelming for the a few 8-12 year olds. I can imagine that it would, however, tickle the minds of many.

This isn't a typical children's story, and it doesn't aim to be, just like the original. It's about complicated childhood drama, and the feelings so many of us have when we want to run away as children. It's about that very real feeling that even in the places we love, we can feel alone, scared, and even betrayed. This sometimes, or in my experience with kids of this age group, leads us to do regrettable, childish things--run away for an evening, hide somewhere for a prolonged period of time, knock stuff over, yell, essentially misbehave. As if the dissolving of structure and certainty makes us want to return somewhere wild, and that's exactly what Max does, and what many of us have done.

But the Wild place is wild for a reason, and I think the idea of the Wild Things Island is so extensive, and painted so broad and perfectly, that it also offers glimpse of our adult wildness, our fears, our excitements, our uncontrolled and bestial tendencies that are sudden jolts of rebellion from the world we create for ourselves.

So, on the other hand, in the large sense, I thought this book was really about growing up, about accepting responsibility, and more keenly for children, about parenting. If read to a child, this book gives an incredibly approachable (for children) account of how challenging parenting can be. I think it can allow children, with the use of metaphors that are comprehensible to them, to see themselves when they are wild, but not feel the guilt of it, and then, as a result, begin to feel an understanding for their parents and guardians as well as what it really means to cooperate and behave.

If you read the book, what I have written, will make a lot more sense. But because of this, I can see why Maurice Sendak wanted the book when his masterpiece already existed, it's because he could only tell so much about subjects that he could only vaguely allude.

18 of 23 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The more complete Max October 11, 2009

By James Hiller TOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

Long time fan of Maurice Sendak's marvelously devilish and ultimately comforting book, "Where the Wild Things Are". Taught it in school. Had my kids do a play on the story (complete with paper bag masks that were fantastical). It was with trepidation and intrigue that I learned about the upcoming Spike Jones' movie. It has the potential to be really good (The Polar Express), or really awful (How the Grinch Stole Christmas). It was with equal trepidation that purchased the book based on the screenplay of the movie, "The Wild Things" by Dave Eggers. And I'm happy to report, things are looking wild.

The first thing that the book (and now, presumably the movie) really does it honor the original source material. For example, when Max is "making mischief", the mischief in the novel is real, purposeful, and truly, truly awful. This contextual Max is one that evokes pain, true childhood pain that taunt little boys. Eggers hits on something right off the bat, that Max, who is just simply rotten in the original book, now has a reason to be rotten. It's brilliant, and makes you love Max more.

Max's most rotten action leads him to escaping the house, the symbol of his confinement, and into the primeval forest that will eventual envelope him and allow him to travel. I must admit that Eggers handling of the room's changing into a forest by just having Max run into one is a bit disappointing, but understanding. Once Max makes it to the island where the named Wild Things Are, the fantastical and amazing story of Max becoming their king is rewarding, deep, and personal. And the rumpus rocks.

Eggers says that the book is very loosely based on the screenplay. If this novel is any indication, we're in line for quite a visual, and emotional, treat. In the meantime, I'll settle into my book and spend time with a very real Max.