Jaws
By: Peter Benchley
My Rating: Four out of Five Stars
Best for: Adults

Ahh, the 70’s

It’s shameful, I know–I didn’t realize Jaws was a book before it was a movie. The movie followed the book only after one year, and the movie is such a classic I can easily see how the book could hide in the movies shadow. But still. I should have known.

Something else weird? The title. Jaws. JAWS. It’s firmly ingrained in American culture. I’m not sure about other countries, but say Jaws to any American and they’ll know exactly what your talking about, AND feel just a little tingle of terror. But guess what? The word Jaws as a name, a title, a descriptor, an epithet, or otherwise is not in the book. Not once! This edition has a hand written list of titles Peter Benchley was considering, and Jaws wasn’t on the list. So? Where’d it come from? Who came up with it? It’s brilliant, but only in hindsight. Jaws was not a scary word before the movie! Fascinating.

Anyway.

At this point a review of Jaws is probably pointless. You know it’s about a huge Great White Shark that terrorizes a beach community. You know people are going to get eaten. You know it’s scary. You know it’s also fun to read about people getting eaten (as long as it’s on a page and not in real life).

What you might not know–but probably suspect–that there is a whole lot more that happens in the book vs the movie, outside of the water in particular. There’s a love affair. There’s even a mafia storyline.

But that’s extra. It’s even kind of boring. The real fun happens in the water, and that’s what makes Jaws worth reading.

You may want to know there’s a whole lot of strong language and strong sexual content. The book is best for adults.

Happy Reading!