Author:  Dave Eggers

Title:  The Wild Things

Publisher:  McSweeney's Publishing    

Monsters rumble across the pages of The Wild Things, a new literary adaptation of the 1963 children's classic Where the Wild Things Are by Dave Eggers. Eggers expands the few sentences of Maurice Sendak's original illustrated book into novel form, crafting a backstory for the original and expanding the interactions between a young boy named Max, and his ferocious imaginary friends.

Eggers also teamed up with Spike Jonze to write the screenplay for the recent film adaptation, also titled Where the Wild Things Are. Since the same author wrote both the novel and the screenplay, it shouldn't come as a surprise that the novel form of the story has Hollywood's fingerprints all over it. While The Wild Things does not pass for well-crafted literature, the story contains a streamlined symbolism that will touch the heart of readers familiar with the difficulties of growing up in a broken home.

In Eggers' adaptation, the frightening hairy beasts of Sendak's story are not the only monsters Max must face. Before Max travels to the imaginary island where the wild things live, we are introduced to the rambunctious boy's suburban surroundings. He's a latch-key kid in a broken home. His older sister holds Max in contempt and his well-meaning but inattentive mother is too busy with her loser of a live-in boyfriend to notice that Max's frequent bouts of misbehavior are just his attempts to be noticed.

The neglect and misunderstanding Max experiences at the hands of the adults in his life create a mixture of feelings inside the boy that express themselves as anger. Max has one solace where he feels free to express himself—the wolf costume his parents gave him the Christmas before they split up. So on a wintry night, Max dons the costume, assumes the persona of a wolf, runs amok in the house, and runs away into the woods.

Through those woods, Max begins his journey to a magical island populated by the fearsome wild things. At first the monsters want to eat Max, but they end up making the boy in the wolf suit their king.

Through the scary misadventures Max experiences on this island, The Wild Things becomes a symbolic story about a young boy navigating the hazards of living in a world filled with forces outside of his control and in a family that has given him too much control. A lack of attention—and boundaries—from his divorced and distracted parents has made him a very frightened and lonely "king" of his family.

The moody monsters he's living with on the island are the embodiment of his rocky home-life with his human family. Sometimes they threaten to destroy Max. Sometimes they're cuddly and endearing. In the end, he's unequipped to save these unpredictable creatures from themselves.

The Wild Things is a whimsical, sometimes funny tragedy that looks into the mind of a boy caught in the middle of a world of failing adults. With such touching themes and its basis in such a memorable children's classic, it is a shame the novel itself manages to be so forgettable.

Its lineage as a screenplay is very transparent throughout the work, giving the novel a decided "Hollywood" feel. A well-written story immerses the reader in the plot. By contrast, in The Wild Things, the reader continually has the impression that they are outside observers. We are told the story, we do not explore it.

Like a mid-grade motion picture, descriptions of places and events come across like theatrical staging instructions, and characters are two-dimensional figures which rely on stereotypes to fill in the details. The Wild Things amounts to a film script in narrative form. With these unfortunate flaws, it is difficult to be wild about The Wild Things.

Parents will want to steer clear of The Wild Things due to numerous language issues and a plot that's too mature for kids. Older readers may find within it a meaningful metaphor of growing up as a child in a world of "monsters." Or, you may wish to stick to Sendak's original and allow your own imagination to fill in the details. Your personal journey to the island where the wild things are might make a more inspiring adaptation.

**This review first published on November 2, 2009.