The Descendants: A Novel by Kaui Hart Hemmings - Random House Movie Tie-In Edition - Perfect for Book Clubs & Movie Lovers

When I saw that this book was the basis for Alexander Payne's upcoming movie, I rushed out to buy and read it before the film hit the screens here. Payne's films - About Schmidt, Sideways, and my personal favorite, Election - are small masterpieces of storytelling. I can see why Kaui Hart Hemmings' debut novel appealed to Payne: it's just his size. It's a small, very well told story with equal parts of tragedy and comedy. I can't say for certain that Ms. Hart Hemmings had dreams of George Clooney as her Matt King, but she tucked a neat little throwaway into the book indicating she was thinking about it (Matt's daughter Scottie wears a t-shirt that says simply "Mrs. Clooney"). Regardless, you'll read the book with Clooney in your head saying the words. Again, like Payne and the story, Clooney and King seem a perfect match.At its heart, this book relates the unfolding of a tragic event. But there are nuggets of pure, sly comedy on each page. It's nothing over the top. If you're invested in the stories and characters, you stumble over these small lines and simply laugh at how perfectly realized they are. I flagged this one on p. 138 (paperback movie tie-in edition) as what I found to be a great encapsulation of what I mean: "We follow Ralph to the parking lot. I force my shoulders down and take a deep breath. I watch my family walking in front of me. They look normal from the back. They look good."The humor in that, of course, is at that point of the story, you know Matt thinks of his family - threatening to come apart at the seams - as anything but normal. But from behind...who can tell? Little gems like that abound in the book.My judgment is that, movie or not, the book stands on its own merits as an excellent work. It's surely one of the best novels I've read this year, right alongside Ann Patchett's State of Wonder.