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The Wild Things Hardcover – October 13, 2009

by Dave Eggers (Author)

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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.

Print length

300 pages
Language

English
Publisher

McSweeney's
Publication date

October 13, 2009
Dimensions

5.5 x 1 x 8 inches
ISBN-10

1934781630
ISBN-13

978-1934781616
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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

Review

"Once Max reaches the island of the beasts, Eggers goes for broke. We get a writhing Technicolor landscape of carnivorous vines, lava beds, mini-tornadoes, mutant snakes, and, of course, the beasts themselves, a motley bundle of brawn and neuroses.... The real question, when it comes to literature, is whether a particular author is interested in hustling us through a breakneck plot (a la Dan Brown) or investigating the internal lives of his or her creations. The best books—and I happily include The Wild Things on this list—manage to do both.... Eggers has written a book for readers of all ages, without dumbing down his prose. But his highest achievement is in having found a fresh way to tell us a story we already know so well, about the monstrous forces of love and hate that mark every childhood—and pursue us howling into adulthood."
— Steve Almond, Boston Globe

"Eggers, in this funny and touching novelization of Maurice Sendak's picture book, is brilliant at portraying the exuberance and chaos of a young boy's mind and heart."
— San Francisco Chronicle

"Not content to reinforce the foundation of Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are, Eggers instead architects entirely new additions. Young Max's psyche is fully formed, and the Wild Things themselves are given wonderfully eclectic personalities, ensuring each new chapter is greeted with a sweet sense of anticipation."
— Powells.com Staff Pick

"Dave Eggers has created a novel like childhood itself: sometimes weird, sometimes dark, and full of wonder.... Like the original, this is far from the cosy world kids are often fed, but it has real heart—Eggers uses simple but superbly effective prose to suggest that childhood has to be lived without cosseting for us to grow up with any semblance of a normal personality."
— Doug Johnstone, the Independent

"Eggers makes us privy to Max’s thoughts, fears and desires. He lets us feel the boy’s confusion and horror as anger results in shocking behaviour....[Wild Things] is not only a wonderful read, but a lovely product. McSweeney’s is known for the care it takes in producing its books. From the cover illustrations by Rachel Sumpter to the quality paper and printing, to the informative postscript by the author/publisher, this does Sendak’s original picture book proud. (It’s for all ages, by the way, not just for kids.)"
— Bernie Goedhart, Montreal Gazette

"Everything is in the spirit of Sendak’s book. There are knowing nods—Max carves his name on the boat during the boring trip to the island—and the monsters retain their utter, incomprehensible difference. There is far more emotion: the monsters are petulant, panicky, selfish, vulnerable and violent. 'We want what we want. We want all the things we want,' says one, 'oh, and we want no more want.' Without being too grandiose, Max learns that 'uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.' His attempts to govern the monsters slip from rumpus to warfare to disillusionment. More than in the original, Max learns what it feels like to let others down, although this moral is not forced nor mawkish. The parting is affecting. It won't just be Max and the monsters that end in 'a mess of tears.'”
— Stuart Kelly, The Scotsman

About the Author

Dave Eggers is the author of What Is the What, among other books. He is the editor of McSweeney’s, an independent publishing house in San Francisco, and is the cofounder of 826 National, a network of nonprofit writing and tutoring centers for youth with locations in San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Boston, Ann Arbor, and Seattle. With his high school students he edits The Best American Nonrequired Reading, a yearly anthology, and with his brother Toph he cowrites the Haggis-on-Whey series of semi-informative books, which includes Giraffes? Giraffes!, Animals of the Ocean (in Particular the Giant Squid), and Cold Fusion.

From The Washington Post

From The Washington Post's Book World/washingtonpost.com Reviewed by Michael Dirda Sigh. Here's yet another example of a contemporary writer paying homage to, and screwing around with, an earlier masterpiece. Poor Jane Austen, in particular, has suffered innumerable such depredations, the latest being the grotesque "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies." In "The Wild Things," Dave Eggers -- who, in a sense, is self-publishing this book, because he founded McSweeney's -- has taken Maurice Sendak's "Where the Wild Things Are" and turned a timeless picture-book classic into a contemporary problem novel for children 8 to 12. Of course, its marketers hope that grown-ups -- racked with nostalgia or fans of Eggers's popular earlier work -- will read "The Wild Things" as a kind of enriched version of their long-ago bedtime favorite. Yet where Sendak created a poetic blend of words and pictures to depict typical childhood impulses, fears and desires, Eggers has crimped these universals, reducing them to the upswellings of confusion and rage felt by an 8- or 9-year-old after his parents' divorce. Yes, the general outline of Sendak's story is still there: Max misbehaves in his wolf suit, sails to an island inhabited by roly-poly monsters, becomes their king and eventually returns home a wiser child. But everything has been made trendy, diminishing the original's archetypal resonance to syrupy movie cliches. This is especially so in the first third of the novel, set in our world. Once on monster island, the book grows more charming and witty. But it never loses its cynical manipulativeness, starting with a dedication that demands the Heimlich maneuver to preventing gagging: "For Maurice Sendak, an unspeakably brave and beautiful man." Come on now. After the comma, every one of those words is California Speak worthy of "The Simpsons' " Troy McClure. Sendak did catch major flak early in his career -- the nightmarish Wild Things were too scary for little kids; some parents and librarians were indignant that Mickey, the hero of "In the Night Kitchen," was shown naked -- but for the past 30 years or more the man has been a living god. (See, for instance, Gregory Maguire's recent homage, "Making Mischief.") So let's not exaggerate here. In truth, "The Wild Things" has less to do with Sendak's original picture book than with the young adult novels of the 1970s and '80s. Just before the fantasy tsunami hit with J.K. Rowling, YA fiction was dominated by depressing accounts of children coming to terms with every sort of social and psychological trauma then available: a gay parent, drug addiction, teen pregnancy, racism, uncertain sexual orientation, worries about body image, prejudice of every sort. Although such books are obviously useful, they nonetheless readily slide into kiddie socialist realism, contrived stories of bravery and redemption, packed with uplifting morals for the troubled and confused. Give me Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys any day. "The Wild Things" belongs in this gloomy tradition. Young Max lives with his divorced mom, his adolescent sister (who has recently discovered boys) and his mom's three-nights-a-week lover, the dippy, hippiesh Gary. Max's dad lives in an apartment in the city, sometimes forgets to call or visit and has hooked up with the "pretty in a loud way" Pamela. Max's mother cries a lot. Meanwhile, the neighborhood is going to hell. The old houses are being torn down and being replaced by McMansions. When a new kid moves in and proves to be a possible friend for the lonely Max, the boy's mother turns out to be insane about the omnipresence of "Molesters! Drugs! Homeless! Needles!" She actually sends her son to a quilting class. As for the plot: Max rides his bike, builds a fort, starts a snowball fight, takes revenge on his evil sister and goes around worrying about why he's so bad. One presumes that the action takes place sometime in the recent past, since there are exercise tapes and personal computers, but no mention of text-messaging or Game Boys. So much for the first third of the book. Matters do improve dramatically once Max reaches the island of the Wild Things. These are hairy and horned creatures, "ten or twelve feet tall, four hundred pounds each or more. Max knew his animal kingdom, but he had no name for these beasts. From behind they resembled bears, but they were larger than bears, their heads far bigger, and they were quicker than bears or anything so large." One looks like a gigantic rooster. Yet these Boschian monsters also resemble typical American adults: One is depressed, another complains about everything and still another talks like a prissy English teacher: "Carol, can I speak to you for a second?" By the way, Carol turns out to be male -- why, it's hard to say, unless it's an attempt to undercut a reader's sexist expectations. Still, however deeply sensitive these creatures may be, they are still as short-tempered and unfocused as colicky pre-schoolers, and their general fallback position when thwarted is "if you do that again, I swear I'll eat your head." The Wild Things prove even more impulsive, ferocious and destructive than Max himself. (And some of Max's recorded behavior does suggest the need for intervention; at one point he dumps seven buckets of water over his sister's bed and belongings). But, as King Max's sojourn on monster island continues, it's clear that his adventures with his new subjects subtly mirror the real life he left behind: The free-for-all of the wild rumpus recalls a vacation weekend when his aunts, uncles and cousins crammed themselves together in a small cabin in Colorado. At a later feast, the Wild Things actually get drunk and flirtatious like his mother's friends at her out-of-control New Year's Eve party. One monster named Katherine gradually emerges as an ambiguous mother figure, going so far as to symbolically give birth to a new Max and then to murmur, possessively: "Please don't go, Max. You're a part of me." More than anything else, though, the Wild Things want the same impossibilities that Max dreams about: "To make everything better for everyone always for all time." Throughout the book, Eggers's viewpoint remains that of Max's child-mind, yet he regularly undercuts his hero with nudge-nudge adult humor. A Wild Thing will start talking about another monster's "aura" or mention a fear of the "void." When Max insists that a war will be a swell way to pass the time, Eggers insinuates double-edged remarks, so that we know we're supposed to think about terrorism and the invasion of Iraq: Max "was wrong to ban rocks, or even animals. The key was to use any or all weapons at one's disposal, but to just make sure you won when you used them." When Max finally sails back home, he finds -- as in Sendak's original -- that his supper is still hot: Those who visit fairyland or the folkloristic Other World always return to find that either a century has passed or no time at all. But because of his experiences with the unruly Wild Things, Max has begun to master his emotions and to sympathize more fully with his mother. He is, in short, starting to grow up. But then what other ending could there be? All in all, Dave Eggers's "The Wild Things" is intermittently amusing but far more conventional than it should be. Eight- to 12-year-olds will like the book, but older readers -- those "children of all ages" -- won't be starting a wild rumpus over it.
Copyright 2009, The Washington Post. All Rights Reserved.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ 1934781614
Publisher ‏ : ‎ McSweeney's (October 13, 2009)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 300 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1934781630
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1934781616
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.16 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 1 x 8 inches

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Dave Eggers

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Dave Eggers is the author of ten books, including most recently Your Fathers, Where Are They? And the Prophets, Do They Live Forever?, The Circle and A Hologram for the King, which was a finalist for the 2012 National Book Award. He is the founder of McSweeney’s, an independent publishing company based in San Francisco that produces books, a quarterly journal of new writing (McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern), and a monthly magazine, The Believer. McSweeney’s also publishes Voice of Witness, a nonprofit book series that uses oral history to illuminate human rights crises around the world. Eggers is the co-founder of 826 National, a network of eight tutoring centers around the country and ScholarMatch, a nonprofit organization that connects students with resources, schools and donors to make college possible.

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jim rice

Wish I could give it another half-star...

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on September 11, 2014

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That was fun. Fun, quick, and easy!

I haven’t seen this movie yet, and although I’m sure I read Sendak’s original book when I was little I can’t really remember anything about it whatsoever. I only picked this up because it was an Eggers book that I hadn’t gotten around to yet… well that, and I really loved the furry cover. Hopefully that let me approach this novelization (?) more as an independent work of art than as something that had to live up to my preconceived notions. Regardless, it was a really enjoyable read… nothing particularly outstanding or life-changing, but it was a fun story and a nice diversion from having to be me for a while.

The first third of the book or so was, for me, the most interesting section by far. Eggers did a really wonderful job of imparting the sense of isolation that Max was feeling. Isolation and frustration borne from, in a way, the powerlessness of a child in an adult’s world. Although Max was confused and seemed often to feel invisible, it was touching for Eggers to show the softer side of their family life as well. Everything isn’t bad and Max certainly wasn’t invisible all the time, and I really appreciated that everything about Max’s growing-up experience felt like it was fully plausible and completely normal. One minute I felt warm and comfortable sitting in the office with mother and son where the love was palpable, and the next I just wanted to scream for someone to please pay attention to me. I feel like that speaks to the talent Eggers has as an author to evoke emotion from every day scenarios – he really made me miss that feeling of closeness you have inside a family… the good times and the bad ones.

Once Max was set adrift across the water, Eggers continued with a beautiful narration of Max’s time at sea, but he actually kind of lost me once Max arrived at the island. Each of the beasts was humanized in such a way that I could care for them individually, the storytelling was vivid, and the emotions were just as real on the island as they were in the city. I can’t put my finger on exactly what it was, but despite all of that all I really wanted the whole time Max was on the island was for him to get back home so that I could understand what happened and see the aftermath. I think that I was just so enamored with Max’s relationship with his family that I found it difficult to swap that out with the imaginative relationships he had with the creatures on the island. It still remained entertaining, and I still enjoyed reading it (especially given how quickly I was able to tear through the story), but I was never able to fully *be* Max (or the beasts) like I was before.

As much as I really did enjoy the book, I have to say that the ending was kind of a let-down too. I read the first 250-ish pages one afternoon, which just left me with a little under 50 to go. I didn’t expect that I was going to care all that much, but all the next morning I really really just wanted to go to lunch so that I could finish the book and find out what happened. As heart-warming as the ending was (and not just because I love eye-glasses…), I really didn’t get what I wanted. Sometimes those stories that leave the ultimate ending up to the reader work really well for me, sometimes they fall flat, and sometimes… sometimes I just want to know more! All-in-all, that probably speaks to the strength of the rest of the novel that I was left somewhat dissatisfied with the ending. Perhaps all I really needed to say was that, after returning from lunch, I immediately hopped online and purchased Sendak’s original along with the movie. I hope to eat them both this weekend.

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Christine S.

Transcends Age

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on October 18, 2009

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Dave Eggers' unique adaptation of Maurice Sendak's picture book describes what life is like for so many children; they are confused, lonely, impulsive, and in need of guidance they don't know how to ask for. Using the original text as a framework, Egger's version is a great "next step" for older readers, including adults.

Five Stars:
- Unfortunately, there is a lot of poorly written examples of children's/young adult lit circulating the market. Fortunately, this is not one of them. Dave Eggers adapts his normal prose so that is accessible to a younger crowd, but without dumbing it down.
- The characters have depth, humor, and intellect. Egger's shows the different sides of Max, his needs, and his wants through seven similar, yet different, creatures.
- Eggers includes some of the whimsy that many have comfortably attached to the picture book, but doesn't balk at including the darkness of Max's inner turmoil.
- Eggers includes Sendak's message without being corny- it's okay to escape reality once in awhile, especially if it's enlightening, but eventually, everyone must go home.
- The cover is made of fur.

Parents, keep in mind:
- I wouldn't recommend handing this novel over to children younger than twelve or so before reading it yourself, as there are some definite adult undertones. I plan on reading it aloud to my fourth grade students, but will definitely have to "edit" a few parts to keep it school appropriate.

Great novel, I definitely recommend it to older kids and adults!

8 people found this helpful

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Brian A. Lee

An honest adaptation of my childhood memories

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on February 7, 2010

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Eggers does a valid, believable job at writing in the gaps in the original classic. I don't think Sendak's children's book was missing anything and if there was a perfect book for childhood, Sendak wrote it. This is what made "The Wild Things" even harder to write and for me to accept. But Eggers expands the existing characters and actually instills interesting into each of Max's family and the wild things. This book has more than is in the movie and goes into more detail and complexity than the film allowed for.

All in all, it stands alone as a good book for adults that describes a child's childhood. I find it useful as a parent to remember what it is like to be 8. The fur on the outside of the book is a nice touch and doesn't detract from reading at all. The book opens and lays flat perfectly and the fur is not a gimmick that harms the experience of reading.

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Toolkit

Amazingly gorgeous and wonderful design, and a quick read

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on February 22, 2014

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One of the few books I'm not ashamed to cuddle, The Wild Things at first seems unnecessary. "A YA novel based on a movie that's based on a children's picture book? Absurd!" Perish the thought - it's written by Dave Eggers who also helped write the movie, but it's also a completely different beast (no pun intended) - which is what I loved about Where The Wild Things Are when it came out - the original book is the original book, the movie is its own thing, the video game (which I love to this day) keeps the tone of the movie but makes it much more action-orientated but nonetheless beautiful with a dark ooze overtaking the island of the wild things, and this book, too, holds up the tradition of telling a completely different story in a completely different format. It still has Max sail to the Island, become king, and have it crumble around him, but it's almost like a completely different version of the movie.

Highly, highly recommended for fans of the movie, and if you can't help hugging your books.

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Christina I. Stone

Both my daughters love this book

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on March 26, 2015

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Both my daughters love this book. My 9 year old is reading it now and we don't have to talk her into reading, she is eager to read it and occasionally laughs out loud.

Rebekah D'Alessandro

A dark twist on a classic

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on October 18, 2015

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a captivating read. I really enjoyed this book as its not always a fairy tale read which is predictable. This will make you miss your childhood imagination and take you straight back to your fort making days. I highly recommend this book.

Jasmin Ahmad

Highly reccomended

Reviewed in Germany 🇩🇪 on June 21, 2017

Verified Purchase

Came in wonderful, used condition. Still looking good, but with a little character. No writing or anything distractive inside. Mint condition. Great price. Love it!

franziska decker

interesting topic

Reviewed in Germany 🇩🇪 on September 12, 2014

Verified Purchase

I read another book of the author and wanted to read more. He has an interesring way of writing. You are constantly waiting for something grand to happen. For me, the book is not finished. Same with the other book. Questions are constantly wandering around my head - questions I cannot get answered. It's a good thing in a way, but a bad thing in another.

umemomosakura

あまり期待してなかったのですが・・

Reviewed in Japan 🇯🇵 on November 9, 2011

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センダックの有名な絵本のノベライズです。
あまり期待しないで読んだら、予想外に面白かったです。

話はほぼ絵本に沿っていますが、（映画版を見ていないのでわからないのですが）あとがきによれば、映画とも絵本とも別物ということ。
主人公Maxが家が嫌になって飛び出してしまういきさつや、王様になったものの、怪獣たちとの微妙な緊張関係が続く島での様子など、なかなかよくできています。

怪獣たちと少年が出合って仲良くなって苦難を乗り越え最後はハッピーエンド、みたいな軽い話ではなくて、児童小説とはいえ、読後には結構苦い感じが残ります。

アイデアはいくらでも出せるのに、最後まで責任を全うできないMaxの未熟さ、怪獣たちの、よそ者に対して最後まで気を許さない感じなど、子どもや野生動物が本来持っている性質に忠実に作られている印象でした。
こういうビターな感じは、個人的には好きです。

英語は読みやすいです。中級くらいから、辞書なしで読めると思います。

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