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ADAIR, GILBERT The Holy Innocents: A RomanceNew York: E. P. Dutton, 1989 (c.1988). First Edition. Hardcover. Illustrated by (dj design) Margo Barooshian. [nice copy, thin remainder line on bottom edge but otherwise only minimal shelfwear, tiny tear at top of page 109; jacket shows only the faintest trace of handling wear]. "In that winter of 1968 in Paris, watching the movies is no longer enough -- it's time to live them, and damn the consequences. As if to prove the point, the Cinémathèque Française shuts down and three of its most loyal rats -- obsessive watchers of old movies -- are left to their own devices. The three, the French twins Guillaume and Danielle and their American friend Matthew, decide to restage the movies, with special debut to the Cocteau of Les Enfants terribles, in an empty Left Bank apartment. It begins with seemingly harmless film quizzes but soon descends into sexual role playing designed to exhilarate and mortify." A film geek's wet dream raised to the level of literature, and the basis for Bernardo Bertolucci's 2003 film THE DREAMERS, the novel has a somewhat unusual publishing history. Adair, reportedly dissatisfied with the book (his first novel), refused to sell the film rights for over a decade -- until Bertolucci (who on the face of it would seem an ideal choice) made an offer. The primary change wrought during the adaptation (with Adair himself as screenwriter) was the re-arrangement of the characters' sexual relationships, to downplay the gay-sex content; Adair was said to have told Bertolucci at some point to "be totally unfaithful" to the novel. Now here's where it gets interesting: Adair had decided to re-write the novel at the same time he was working on the screenplay ("to write the novel I'd always wanted to write," he said), and so the book that was published (as "The Dreamers") to coincide with the film's release was neither a simple "tie-in" nor a "novelization" per se, but this re-written version -- in effect, the author's third version of the story. It seems unlikely, given this unusual story-development track, that the novel will ever be reprinted with its original text.. Near Fine in Near Fine dj .
Offered for US$ 400.00 by: ReadInk - Book number: 13032
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