Wonder Boys the movie, from the book of the same name by Michael Chabon.

Michael Chabon is probably my favorite living writer that I’m not married to.

His book, “The Yiddish Policeman’s Union” is maybe my favorite book ever.

This book/movie, “Wonder Boys” is so flipping’ perfect.

To me it’s a bit of a spoiler to say exactly what the title means, and it’s slightly left to the audience to decide for themselves.

But, it’s about a guy, Professor Grady Tripp who had a critically acclaimed hit novel 7 years ago and can’t seem to find the end to his current work.

He notes that it was supposed to be a small book, about 250-300 pages.

In the scene, he threads the paper in the old fashioned typewriter and types the page number in the upper right corner, like they taught us.

He types 261.  Then he looks at the manuscript, piled behind him, noting the last page he finished.  He adds a “1” to his page number.

2611 pages.  In a later scene, his crush asks him if it’s “all single spaced?”  It is.

Hannah Green is not quite Lolita-esque  (an inaccurate description, but she’s young, winsome, willing and crushing hard on Professor Tripp) but she’s definitely an ingenue.  She denies her ingenuity.

She gently tells Grady that she’s read the book and it’s beautiful but she wonders, tip-toeing through the barb wire of criticism of someone she loves and respects, if maybe he needs to follow his own advice and make choices when he writes, and that it might be better if he weren’t under the influence all the time.  She points out that the genealogy descriptions are incredibly detailed.  She then lets it slip that she’s talking about the bloodlines of the horses in Grady’s novel.

I’ve already given way too much away.  It’s a character driven dram-com with some rom for spice.

There is at least one more candidate for the Wonder Boy of the title, and that would be James Leer.  James is EMO with a capital E and either a pathological and talented liar or the most prolific author anyone has ever met.

Spice it up with Grady’s editor, Crabtree, who has an impolitic taste for sex partners, and Grady’s mistress, who is also married to Grady’s boss.

It is FLAWLESS.  e’s friend who hated “Lost in Translation”, to give you an example, wouldn’t even hate this thing.

It wanders nowhere fast, arriving right on time, and making you smile the whole way.

#literature