Typically, my book reviews provide a brief synopsis of the first half of the story and end with such questions as “Will the detective solve the murder?” or “Will the heroes accomplish _____ in time to save ____?”
In the case of JAWS, do I really need to do that? Well, believe it or not, I know a few people who have never seen the film. For them, I shall summarize.
A great white shark has staked a claim in the waters just off the shore of Amity, a fictional beach town on Long Island, NY. Despite pressure from Mayor Larry Vaughn and the selectmen of the town council, Police Chief Martin Brody closes the beaches after the shark kills three swimmers including twenty-something Christine Watkins, a young boy named Alex Kintner, and a 60-year-old man.
Harry Meadows, editor-in-chief of the town newspaper, recruits an ichthyologist named Matt Hooper from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute to assist in investigating the incidents. Meanwhile, local fisherman Ben Gardner is hired to catch the shark. Later, his boat is found abandoned a few miles offshore, but Gardner is never seen again.
Hooper borrows Gardner’s boat to patrol the waters in search of the shark and at one point after Brody reopens the beaches, another young boy narrowly escapes the shark while Hooper tracks it toward shore.
During this crisis, Amity’s economy declines rapidly. Summer home rentals are down, businesses suffer, and Mayor Larry Vaughn is unable to pay his “business partners” aka the Mafia. All the while, Chief Brody begins to suspect that his wife, Ellen, might have had an affair with Hooper not long after they met.
Finally, Meadows recommends that Brody hire a local shark fisherman named Quint to hunt down and kill the leviathan. Despite Hooper’s objections, Brody makes the call. Quint agrees, but doubles his fee. Brody and Hooper join Quint on an expedition that takes place over several days. Finally, after the second or third day, the shark reveals itself but eludes Quint’s harpoons. Surprised by the shark’s intelligence, Quint and Hooper try different tactics to bring the shark in closer for the kill—but will their efforts prove fatal to themselves as well as the shark?
I had not read JAWS in probably 25 years and had forgotten just how disappointing the novel is compared to the film, which I’ve seen well over 200 times by now and can quote almost verbatim. With possible exception of Chief Brody, none of the characters in the book are likable. They range from the annoying and vain (Ellen Brody) to the callous (Quint, Meadows, even Chief Brody and Hooper at times) and despicable (Vaughn). There is absolutely no character development at all, and I can see why, while reading the novel back in 1974, Steven Spielberg said that he was rooting for the shark to win.
Overall, the narrative and dialogue are lackluster, but the descriptions of the shark attacks and the final showdown in the last two chapters are compelling. Some chapters ended in brief vignettes that are completely unrelated to the plot, but were intended to show the dire effects of the shark’s presence near Amity. I found these to be unnecessary and distracting.
Without spoiling the novel, I would like to point out just some differences between the book and the film since the latter contained over 20 scenes that were not in Benchley’s original story.
At the behest of Spielberg, the characters as depicted in the film were far more affable. The subplot of the mayor’s ties to the Mafia was eliminated, as was Ellen Brody’s familiarity with Matt Hooper.
In the novel, it’s Hooper who does most of the chumming aboard the Orca, not Brody, and at the end of each day, Quint brings the boat back to port. He sees no need to remain on the water overnight, as was done in the film. Chief Brody never says the famous line, “You’re gonna need a bigger boat,” and Quint never addressed the citizens at the town hall meeting, nor was he a survivor of the USS Indianapolis.
Also, the Brodys’ three kids are barely featured in the novel, and even then, only at home. That wonderfully tense scene of the shark attacking the sailboat in the “pond” and knocking Brody’s oldest son into the water was created strictly for the film.
There are many other differences, surrounding Hooper and the fate of the shark, but I’m done telling this fish story!
