Normally I would cringe at the idea of a book adaption of a movie. This opinion is 40% bookish snobbery, because who does that? I mean, really? I ask you... And 60% experience, because, in my youthful ignorance, I've read some truly awful novelizations that near ruined beloved films. But we won't talk about those...
That said, I typically avoid movie-to-book situations. But I always, always make an exception for Ian Doescher, because his adaptions are not simply glorified movie scripts where a ghost writer takes all the credit. Rather, these are entertaining, quirky, and literary. Yes, guys, literary! That's because Doescher takes popular movies and spins them into Shakespearean masterpieces. And let me tell you: I've never had so much fun reading Shakespeare! Or... something written in the style of Shakespeare.
I first became a fan of Doescher's writing because of his William Shakespeare's Star Wars saga. But lately he's been branching out to put the Bard's spin on such cult classics as Back to the Future, Mean Girls, and Clueless. OMG, you guys... Clueless! As if I would miss that one!! And The Taming of the Clueless has got to be Doescher's best yet! All the comedic drama of this story's plot lends itself perfectly to the Shakespearean treatment and I thoroughly enjoyed re-experiencing Cher's misadventures in matchmaking and makeovers as filtered through iambic pentameter. So much that I promptly had to rent the movie (which is also available through Oxford Public Library).
Fun Fact: For those unaware, Clueless is actually a modern-day adaption of Jane Austen's Emma. So that would make The Taming of the Clueless an adaption a movie that was an adaption of a book. So technically I guess the book came first and this is really NOT a movie to book adaption after all.
I highly recommend BOTH the book and the movie on which it is based.
-- AJB
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