Title: Slumdog Millionaire (aka Q&A)Author: Vikas Swarup
If I picked up Vikas Swarup's novel when it was published under the name Q&A, I wonder how long it would have taken me to realize that it was actually the novel on which Slumdog Millionaire was based. Some of the basics are the same-- there's a quiz show, the questions the main character answers seem almost cosmically determined based on experiences he had in his life. There's someone named Salim in the book and a bad guy named Maman. Other than that, almost everything is different. If you're a fan of the movie, I recommend reading it, just for the sake of contrast. I can't decide which telling of the story I like better-- I loved the film, and the story of the brothers and their divergent paths and final "it is written" summation. I liked the way the love story started in early childhood. That wasn't part of the book. In fact, I'm not sure whether Ram Muhammad Thomas (the protagonist) has more of Jamal or Salim in him. I think that if I had read the book first, I may not have liked the movie as much. It reminds me of the film v. book versions of A Beautiful Mind, which captured the spirit, but not the events, of the book. Either way, read the book and watch the film. Both are worth it.
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