One of my guilty pleasures is the movie of High Road to China staring Bess Armstrong and Tom Selleck.
After reading North to the Orient I was wanting more adventures from the 1920's. That book reminded of the movie. Somehow I discovered it was based on a 1977 novel.
As the saying goes, "The book was better." In this case the book was very different. The basic plot was the same; daughter must rescue father and needs the help of a pilot. Tom Selleck's version of O'Malley was certainly funny but noting like the source material.
The book had a terrific love of travel and adventure. Every time they had to put down for fuel, they would be entangled in the circumstances they literally landed in.
Cleary's writing was crisp and I enjoyed how he changed the points of view and narrators in a consistent way. Each chapter was broken into sub-chapters from these differing angles.
In my view, movies do not have to follow the books as scripts. A different take on a story can be just as entertaining and there is something to be enjoyed by each version.
Like I said, I have a soft spot for the movie of this book. Now that I've read the novel I can appreciate what the film lifted and made a new story from it.
Great summer read.
Because it is a period piece the book stands the test of time.
I usually want a paper edition of my books but I really did not want to wait for a copy to arrive in my mailbox. I download the eBook version from Kobo partly because I really liked the cover art.
Through this I've now discovered a new author to explore. Sadly Jon Cleary is no longer with us but he left many books behind. I am glad he did.
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