You will never know the ultimate meaning of evil until you read - TWINKLE, TWINKLE "KILLER" KANE
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Book Description
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
More About the Author
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Army Nuthouse Turned Upside Down,
By
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Twinkle Twinkle Killer Kane (Paperback)
Every good movie, it seems, had its origins in a better book, but there are some exceptions. This is one of the more notable ones, if rather obscure."Twinkle, Twinkle, Killer Kane" has been out of print for a long time, and the movie it was later made into, "The Ninth Configuration," while celebrated, is decidedly in the cult category. But the recent release of a "Ninth Configuration" DVD seems to have stirred up a little more excitement, judging from the reaction it is getting on this website, and maybe more people will be moved, as I was, to special order the novel it all sprang from. Whether or not it's worth it is another question. "The Ninth Configuration" is my all-time favorite film, and even I had a tough time reading "Twinkle." Not because it's not good, or packed with the same philosophically probing, gut-wrenchingly hilarious dialogue that makes the film so special. But it's a choppy narrative, lacking the sense of mood and character that enriches the movie. I've only read one other William Peter Blatty book, "Demons Five, Exorcists Nothing," which was terrible, so maybe he's the rare storyteller who works better on screen than on the page. But I'd rather view this as an interesting rough draft of the project that would become a true classic in its film version. "Twinkle, Twinkle, Killer Kane," published in 1966, may be one of the first novels to ever explore the theme of madness in the time of the Vietnam War. Blatty doesn't make the connection until the novel is more than half over, and it's not one he leans on too strongly (he would in the movie), but he certainly was onto something there, and should get points for that alone. Otherwise, the book works for me mostly in the form of showing the many paths Blatty's imagination was taking as he thought through the story. There are some striking variations in the story we have here versus what we see in "The Ninth Configuration." The central character, Col. Kane, is more active and vocal a presence in the book, and you really can appreciate what Blatty (and actor Stacy Keach) did with the character onscreen to make him more of an enigma. Same with Dr. Fell, who was played so well by Ed Flanders in the film, but is bland and off-putting in the novel. He has little to do with Kane in the book, and would be improved upon vastly on film. The dialogue is loopier at times, and not always in a good way, but there are some recognizable passages for fans of the movie. "If God exists, he is a fink." "A fink?" "Or a foot. An omnipresent, omnipotent Foot! Do you think that is blasphemous?" "Yes," said Kane. "I do." "I believe I capitalized the 'F'." That one got me laughing out loud, as did some other lines rewritten or excised in the film. The concerns of the book, as with the film, is the existence or non-existence of God and the problem of evil in the world. There are some odd detours, though. The old house being used by the military to house lunatic veterans once belonged to a Bela Legosi-type movie actor, not the aristocrat mentioned in the movie, and there's a subplot involving the actor's legacy in a secret part of the estate. There's also some business involving a cost-conscious senator which seems to belong in a New Yorker cartoon. More to the point of the story that survives in "The Ninth Configuration," some of the asylum patients seem to have swapped identities. I liked reading this book, and recommend it to others who love the film, even though they may find it as inchoate and choked with bad comic rimshots as I did. Blatty uses adverbs too much, and words like "scruted," but his gift for witty dialogue is evident. There are also sections where he works in some ideas left out of the movie which I found rather moving, and deepened my appreciation for what he was after. "We're all miscast - one way or another," Kane says at one point. "Being born into this world: that's the ultimate miscasting." This is a bit of a miscasting job, too, since it only came alive in screen form, but because it gave life to a great movie, I have to feel some gratitude. Life can be a brutal voyage, but having fellow passengers like Mr. Blatty makes for a more endurable ride.
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Difference between The Exorcist and Twinkle...Killer Kane,
By
This review is from: Twinkle, Twinkle, "Killer" Kane (Paperback)
Your review gives the impression that "Twinkle, Twinkle Killer Kane" was written after "The Exorcist", which is not the case. "Twinkle" was published in 1966, and "The Exorcist" in 1971. Though both deal with God and evil, their stories and resolution are quite different.
2 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
I really wanted to like it.,
By
This review is from: Twinkle Twinkle Killer Kane (Paperback)
This is the only time I've read a book that was later made into a movie, and came away certain that the movie was better.
I get that William Peter Blatty enjoys exploring the connection between madness and evil, and pondering its origins, but if you're coming to this already familiar with The Exorcist (which I'm assuming most people are), it's going to feel redundant more than anything else. And well it should, seeing as almost half a page is reused verbatim in The Exorcist.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product).
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
