First, I thought this was a terrific post.

Although I didn’t read the book, I thought the HBO series was terrific. Not once did I feel Adams was portrayed as a buffoon, in fact, I felt his complexity was transmitted very effectively. I thought the series put meat on the bones of the characters (Abigail, Jefferson, Washington, Franklin) many think of as cardboard characters in our history books. It was hard to leave the series and not have a deeper appreciation and love for the men and women who gave us this great gift, our country and its form of government.

Not having read the book I can’t dismiss the comment, however, I’ve found that books that are turned into movies or series are rarely given great reviews. Now I’ll have to go buy the book.

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Chris,

Thanks for the review. I don’t get HBO and I didnt’t see it. Doesn’t it figure that they would want to slant against this great man at a time like this? The reviews were so glowing, one could apparently be deceived. Thanks for the insights.

As you testify, the book is long but well worth reading. I just read 1776 too by McCullough. What a good writer he is for that crucial period of time!

mlajoie2

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I loved the book and was appalled by the movie. I couldn’t believe that McCullough was the consultant and searched for remarks about how he viewed the final product. I wasn’t able to find much and assumed he ceded control for the most part so long as too many gross historical errors were not made – limiting it to things like bogus scenes from war time voyage to Europe and a sea battle complete with Adams cowering below decks with the wounded or creating a new ending for his son-in-law’s life.

Adams is shown mostly as an indecisive, flawed, buffoon who spent the Revolutionary War in Holland with a mind altering fever or disapproving of Franklin and the French court. Most cartoon characters are better developed than the Adams shown in that movie.

In the book, Adams is a complicated, fully developed man whose positive attributes far outweigh the frailties. The book contains much more historical perspective than the soap opera treatment of the movie that devotes inordinate time to made up family scenes and conflicts often loosely based on facts. Many of the stories of his children’s lives are interesting but are kept well in the background in the book, which is appropriate.

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