A Review of the Novel

I just read Marti Leimbach's novel, "Dying Young." My dear friend Kirsten loaned me her copy (thanks Kirsten!).I had a vague idea that this was going to be different from the movie. I knew it was written from Hillary's point of view.  That's about all I knew. It was interesting ... alright, I didn't like it.

The movie presents the story in a linear time progression.  First we see Hillary and Victor in San Francisco, then in Mendocino, and finally at Estelle's party.The book jumps right into the middle of the story, after Hillary's fallen in love with Victor. She proceeds to have an affair with Gordon, and she is ambiguous about her love for Victor.

There are superficial similarities between the novel's characters and the movie's. Some dialogue is used verbatim from the book. Victor: "The room is spinning." Gordon: "I'm knocked out..." Same circumstances: Cappy owns a bar. Estelle has a large home with a maid named Annabel and an English maze, which Victor successfully navigates. Hillary contacts Mr. Geddes when Victor's condition worsens. They attend a party and Victor leaves to return home. Victor's nickname for Hillary is "Hils."

I liked the characters in the movie. They had a certain dignity and refinement. I empathized with them and I rooted for each of them. I felt for Victor's isolation, his desire to get away from his father and from his illness. I understood Hillary's need to love and be loved.

Here are the differences between novel and movie:
 

Hillary is "plump" (her words).	Hillary is Julia Roberts who has never been identified by that adjective.
Victor wears glasses.	No glasses.
Gordon has blond hair.	Vincent D'Onofrio is a brunette.
Estelle is a diminutive woman who wears flashy clothes and gaudy makeup.	Estelle is played by statuesque earth mother herself, Colleen Dewhurst.
Mrs. Bickle is "a black lady."	Mrs. Bickle is Caucasian.
Hillary and Vincent take residence in an apartment in Hull, Massachussetts.	They live in a house in Mendocino County, California.
Gordon has a video-game business.	Gordon is a handyman.

These are minor and don't affect my feelings for the characters. What does bother me is that the genteel Victor that I knew and loved in the movie doesn't exist in this book. Victor is greatly disrespectful and hostile toward his father. Because of his illness, Victor has uncontrollable outbursts of temper, and constantly lashes out at Hillary. The novel's Hillary is far from angelic; she is cheating on Victor and she's a kleptomaniac.

In defense of the novel, the characters are more complex, more coarse; they're basically regular folk. I credit the filmmakers and the actors for the characters that emerged in the movie. I concede that the movie has left such an indelible impression on me that my bias prevented me from judging the book on its own merit.