The Wild Things

Synopsis: Seven-year-old Max likes to make noise, get dirty, ride his bike without a helmet and howl like a wolf. In any other era, he would be considered a boy. In 2007, he is considered willful and deranged. His home life is problematic. His parents are divorced; his father, immature and romantic, lives in the city. His mother has taken up with a younger man who steals quarters from the change bowl in the foyer. Driven by a series of pressures internal and external, Max leaves home, jumps in a boat and sails across the ocean to a strange island where giant beasts reign. The "Wild Things" is from Maurice Sendak's visionary classic. This is an all-ages adventure, full of wit and soul, that explores the chaos of youth while Max explores the chaos of the world around him.

Review: Although I loved 'The Road' I wanted my next read to be something light hearted and fun and this fitted the bill perfectly.This book is an adaptation of Spike Jonze's film, 'Where the Wild Things Are', which itself was an adaptation of Maurice Sendak's classic book of the same name. I haven't seen the film or read the original picture book, so I came to this new adaptation without any pre-conceived ideas.
It's about Max who's seven, he lives with his Mum and sister Claire. His parents are divorced, and his Dad lives in an apartment in the city. His Mum has a boyfriend called Gary, Max does his best to get rid of Gary, he plays tricks on him, hides his coffee and replaces his muffins with stale one's, but Gary is not very quick on the uptake, and is not at all suspicious, in fact he thinks that Max is his friend.Max is feeling pretty frustrated with life, his sister's friends have tried to kill him during a snowball fight, and his subsequent revenge (which involved buckets of water and Claire's pretty pink and powder blue bedroom) has made his Mum angry with him. And then there's frog faced Gary, lounging about, taking coins from the dish in the foyer, and calling Max 'bud'

It's more than a seven year old can stand, and after another huge row late in the evening, Max, dressed in his beloved furry wolf suit, runs out of the door (with Gary in pursuit) and into the night.He soon outstrips Gary and reaches the woods, where he finds a small boat, at the edge of a vast lake. Max climbs in and decides that he can sail the boat northwards, until he reaches the city and his Dad's apartment. But although at first he can see the twinkling lights of the city, they seem to be getting farther and farther away, until he appears to be sailing in the open sea.

Eventually Max's boat finds an island, a very strange island with brown and yellow striped earth (like peanut butter and cinnamon) and rocks that have embroidery like red moss clinging to them. He hears a strange mix of sounds, crashing, destructive noises but laughter too. He follows the noises, and comes across some four inch high cat's which is very odd, but they aren't making the noise so what is?. A hundred yards later he finds out. Huge animals, ten or twelve feet high, four hundred pound each or more, like enormous bears but bears with the quickness of deer or small monkey's, and they are all different too, one has a horn, one has string hair and one looks like a goat etc.

Thus we are introduced to Douglas, Carol, Judith, Ira, Alex, Bull and Katherine, seven incredibly wild things. In order to avoid having his flesh and brains devoured, Max persuades them that he is their king. They have a celebration and he's given a crown. The beast's look at him expectantly and Max says the first thing that comes into his head 'Let the wild rumpus begin!'

I found the first two thirds of the book really easy to read and extremely funny in places, but it did seem to lose it's way a bit and the final outcome seemed rushed. It was throroughly enjoyable though, the 'wild things' themselves were endearingly odd and funny. I must put the film on my rental list now.