Book vs Movie: Me and Earl and the Dying Girl
It is time once again to answer the age-old question: Which is better, the book or the movie? I have always been a fan of young adult fiction. This week I read Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews and thought it was much more than just a YA novel. After enjoying the novel so much I decided that I needed to watch the movie. The following are my thoughts about each.
Me and Earl and the Dying Girl is a relatively old novel, but I never got around to reading it in my high school years. It took this blog for me to finally pick the book up. I didn’t really know what to expect because I decided it would be best to go in with as little information as possible. I found out rather quickly that this book deals with some heavy themes such as drugs, socioeconomic status and death.
The whole book is narrated by Greg Gaines, a chubby, rat-faced boy with a love of film. Greg doesn’t really know who he is or who he wants to be and this is clear through his writing style. He mixes bullet points and typical script format into his narrative. He also uses quotes from other classical texts to inspire him. This can be seen in the first line, “It is a universally acknowledged truth that high school sucks.” The first part of the sentence comes from Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. Greg begins a journey to find himself and it all starts with a girl named Rachel.
Rachel has Leukemia. This is why she is lovingly referred to as “the dying girl” on the cover of the novel. Greg’s mother forces him to hang out with Rachel to help her feel better. He definitely does not want to be forced to hang out with anyone. In fact, his whole life has been spent pushing away from every person he meets. However, Greg gives in and embarks on a relationship much deeper than friendship. No, they don’t fall in love and get ripped from each other just as the buds of passion bloom. Through their hang outs Rachel helps Greg understand what it means to be a friend. He also is forced to confront the idea that to belong is to perish.
So, where does that leave Earl? As you know, there is a third name in the title and I would be remiss to leave him out. Earl is referred to as Greg’s coworker countless times throughout the movie. He is a kid from lower income family in a neighborhood near Greg’s who just so happens to share Greg’s love of film. The two bond over watching the great movies, but soon begin to collaborate on their own. The films of Earl and Greg are a major fixture in the novel as they are massively important to Rachel in her last days.
I won’t give away the ending, but the relationships of these three characters grow throughout the novel which takes place across less than a year. By the end, I was committed to this little trio of misfits. I found the novel refreshing in terms of YA. Most YA novels that I’ve read are committed to tropes that I find redundant like star-crossed love and the chosen-one. This novel observes the lives of teens in a much more real way.
With all that being said, how does the movie hold up? I watched the movie because I wanted to see how much it matched up with the story I had created in my brain. The film does a wonderful job of mixing different film techniques just as Greg does in his writing. There is claymation, stop motion and sock puppeteering. In this way I felt the film was incredibly true to the book.
The movie also does an amazing job at developing the relationship between Rachel and Greg. When they first meet the awkward energy is tangible, but in subsequent meetings the two feel comfortable. Earl, too, is a powerful character that influences the way Greg thinks and makes decisions. If I had one thing to say about the movie it would be that Madison was made into a potential love interest. Madison is a friend of Rachel’s that Greg thinks is pretty. In the book she is merely a passing crush, but in the movie she is a possible girlfriend. Greg almost goes to prom with her. I think this love-interest takes away from the greater meaning of the film.
Me and Earl and the Dying Girl is a relatively old novel, but I never got around to reading it in my high school years. It took this blog for me to finally pick the book up. I didn’t really know what to expect because I decided it would be best to go in with as little information as possible. I found out rather quickly that this book deals with some heavy themes such as drugs, socioeconomic status and death.
The whole book is narrated by Greg Gaines, a chubby, rat-faced boy with a love of film. Greg doesn’t really know who he is or who he wants to be and this is clear through his writing style. He mixes bullet points and typical script format into his narrative. He also uses quotes from other classical texts to inspire him. This can be seen in the first line, “It is a universally acknowledged truth that high school sucks.” The first part of the sentence comes from Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. Greg begins a journey to find himself and it all starts with a girl named Rachel.
Rachel has Leukemia. This is why she is lovingly referred to as “the dying girl” on the cover of the novel. Greg’s mother forces him to hang out with Rachel to help her feel better. He definitely does not want to be forced to hang out with anyone. In fact, his whole life has been spent pushing away from every person he meets. However, Greg gives in and embarks on a relationship much deeper than friendship. No, they don’t fall in love and get ripped from each other just as the buds of passion bloom. Through their hang outs Rachel helps Greg understand what it means to be a friend. He also is forced to confront the idea that to belong is to perish.
So, where does that leave Earl? As you know, there is a third name in the title and I would be remiss to leave him out. Earl is referred to as Greg’s coworker countless times throughout the movie. He is a kid from lower income family in a neighborhood near Greg’s who just so happens to share Greg’s love of film. The two bond over watching the great movies, but soon begin to collaborate on their own. The films of Earl and Greg are a major fixture in the novel as they are massively important to Rachel in her last days.
I won’t give away the ending, but the relationships of these three characters grow throughout the novel which takes place across less than a year. By the end, I was committed to this little trio of misfits. I found the novel refreshing in terms of YA. Most YA novels that I’ve read are committed to tropes that I find redundant like star-crossed love and the chosen-one. This novel observes the lives of teens in a much more real way.
With all that being said, how does the movie hold up? I watched the movie because I wanted to see how much it matched up with the story I had created in my brain. The film does a wonderful job of mixing different film techniques just as Greg does in his writing. There is claymation, stop motion and sock puppeteering. In this way I felt the film was incredibly true to the book.
The movie also does an amazing job at developing the relationship between Rachel and Greg. When they first meet the awkward energy is tangible, but in subsequent meetings the two feel comfortable. Earl, too, is a powerful character that influences the way Greg thinks and makes decisions. If I had one thing to say about the movie it would be that Madison was made into a potential love interest. Madison is a friend of Rachel’s that Greg thinks is pretty. In the book she is merely a passing crush, but in the movie she is a possible girlfriend. Greg almost goes to prom with her. I think this love-interest takes away from the greater meaning of the film.
I thoroughly enjoyed both the novel and the movie. Consider picking up Me and Earl and the Dying Girl. Or maybe just watch the movie.
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