The short story on which the film It's a Wonderful Life was based.
It's cute, it's feel-good. The protagonist is contemplating suicide because he feels unimportant when a mysterious stranger shows him how much his being alive has changed the lives of others for the best. It's the classic tale of community in small-town America. It's very gentle. There are no grand sweeping passions (I understand that in the film, which I haven't yet seen, there is rather more at stake) and I found it difficult to understand why this ordinary bloke should be contemplating suicide when there was no great tragedy in his life. But I mustn't judge.
But I found the story as a whole rather insipid and pedestrian. Perhaps that's the point.
Selected quotes:
- “I’m stuck here in this mudhole for life, doing the same dull work day after day. Other men are leading exciting lives, but ... I never did anything really useful or interesting, and it looks as if I never will. I might just as well be dead."
- "The place you grew up in was the one spot on earth where you could really feel at home."
- "You had the greatest gift of all conferred upon you—the gift of life, of being a part of this world and taking a part in it."
November 2022, 64 pages (in the print edition, I'm told; I read it on kindle and it seemed shorter than that).
I've now watched the film 'It's a Wonderful Life' and a stage version of the radio play based on the film. These are both so much better! For a start, they introduce many extra characters, including a bona fide villain. Perhaps more importantly, the suicide scene with which the novella opens is left until the last quarter of the film; the first three-quarters being a slow explanation of the protagonist and his strengths and weaknesses, and the battle between him and the antagonist (clearly inspired by Scrooge from A Christmas Carol), and, quite late on, the actual incident which drives him to the brink of suicide. By making clear this back-story, it adds to the credibility.
The film, despite sometimes lapsing into sentimental schmaltz, had a strong storyline and the central performance of James Stewart, a fascinating mix of hesitation and leaping-before looking, was perfect.
It was also instructive to watch the radio play which I saw staged at the Grove Theatre Eastbourne on 3rd December 2022 which showed how you can translate a film with a cast of at least fifty not including the extras into a stage show of five performers and a sound effects man and still create a work of art which has its own identity and can be judged as strong as the film.
They are both miles better than this book.
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