If You Liked x, Read Y: 2018 Oscar Winners Edition
Confession time: we may not have been able to stay up through the whole of Sunday’s Oscars broadcast, but we sure will be up late reading these three literary follow-ups to three of the winningest films at this year’s ceremony.
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Check out the three books we recommend for fans of Oscar-winning films The Shape of Water, I, Tonya, and Call Me By Your Name.
The Shape of Water = = = Clara Awake by Melinda Vandenbeld Giles (Inanna Publications)It’s no surprise that Guillermo del Toro’s gorgeous science-fiction-cum-romance The Shape of Water snagged a bunch of Oscars for directing, score, and production design – and, of course, Best Film itself. For fans of weird, beautiful love, we recommend Melinda Vandenbeld Giles’ debut, Clara Awake. About a PhD student discovering there’s more magic – and romance – than she’d imagined when landing in Brazil for field work, Clara Awake is a deeply sensual novel that echoes Del Toro’s gorgeous filmmaking, sure, but also his ability to find the extraordinary in the everyday.
I, Tonya = = = Arguments with the Lake by Tanis Rideout (Wolsak & Wynn)With a Best Supporting Actress statuette under its belt, I, Tonya‘s telling of the Tonya Harding story is much happier than the story itself. We liken the rivalry between Harding and fellow US Olympic figure skater Nancy Kerrigan to that of cross-lake swimmers Marilyn Bell and Shirley Campbell, as detailed in Tanis Rideout’s poetry collection Arguments with the Lake. The crimes and personal tragedies that came to define Shirley Campbell’s life post-attempted lake crossing are similar to the myriad disappointments Harding faced both before and after the attack on Kerrigan in her life.
Call Me By Your Name = = = Polari by John Barton (Goose Lane Editions)Obviously, we pay special attention to winners of the Best Adapted Screenplay category – Call Me By Your Name is no exception. We took inspiration from the film’s Italian setting and queer themes and picked John Barton’s collection Polari as a follow-up: “polari” being an adaptation of the Italian parlare, once used by gay men to signal each other in public spaces. A collection of the poet’s experience with language and ranging on a wide variety of topics, Polari, like Call Me By Your Name, is unapologetically queer, sexual, and beautiful.* * *Do you have any literary Oscar followups to recommend? Let us know in the comments below. For more If You Liked x, Read y, click here.
