Peter Benchley’s Jaws

I was about 8 years old when I read Jaws. I got it from my mother’s bookshelf. I’m not sure if I read it before or after my parents took my little sister and me to see it at the drive-in.

I judge my mother.

Anyhoo, it was the mid-70s and the cover of the book had a swimming naked lady above a giant shark with a gaping mouth full of shark-y teeth. Irresistible.

The 70s loved a scantily-clad or naked woman in peril.

 

Cover Art

They don’t make covers like that anymore. I felt the cold New England, Atlantic water even though I had never been there. The perspective of the size of the shark contrasted to little naked Chrissie (that’s the naked lady’s name!) made me think of a school bus mowing me down. I remember thinking, “how deep was this water to allow a school bus to turn into such a position and get up to speed to eat this naked lady?” I spent a lot of time looking at this cover.

 

There’ve been many covers. This one is the first one:

 

This is the current one:

But mine was the best.

 

His First Novel a Blockbuster

Jaws is over 40-years old (like me). It was Peter Benchley’s first novel and he received an advance of $1000 for four chapters. Doubleday published the book in 1974. The movie, directed by Steven Spielberg, released a year later.

Google discussions about the book vs. the film and you’ll see many praising the movie above the book. But for me, the book was the best. I think the reason is that the first time I watched the movie, my eyes squeezed themselves shut under a blanket and my fingers poked themselves in my ears. So I guess I actually did not see or hear the movie until many years later.

With a little more separation from the action in the book, my mind filled in enough details to make it scary, but I could still look up and away from it.

After becoming a conservationist, Benchley said that he regretted making the shark so menacing and portraying his shark as a mindless killing machine. To the late Mr. Benchley, I say, “You can chill. Sharks are pretty menacing outside of your book. Bears, both grizzly and polar, tigers and great white sharks–they all have the same I-will-eat-you-vibe. It’s not you. It’s them. All them. They brought it on themselves because of all the people they’ve eaten.”

Jaws is still news. The sequels are coming out on Blu-ray. I’m thinking backyard film fest this summer.

But the original is always the best and the original was the book. Did you know that Mrs. Chief Brody and Hooper had an affair? YES THEY DID IN THE BOOK. You won’t get adultery in the movie.

After you read the book, there’s a great list of 21 Random Facts About Jaws. This will get you re-excited about the classic movie and inspire your own film fest. Download my Party Book for more help.

You may be wondering what got me thinking about Jaws on a snowy April day. I had a parent/teacher conference and we talked about The Boy’s advanced reading level. His teacher cautioned me about finding books for him that were on his reading level but may be too mature for him.

I thought about Jaws.

Happy summer.

There’s a lot of great classic 70s movies from books. If you have any suggestions for me, I’d love to hear them.