Dewey Decimal Project: 635.934 ORL The Orchid Thief

I knew this book first from the movie Adaptation and when I finally saw Susan Orlean in person and she didn’t look especially like Meryl Streep, I was somewhat disappointed.

And the lack of resemblance between book and movie (or perhaps it’s more accurate to say the funhouse mirror resemblance between book and movie) goes beyond the appearance of Susan Orlean. Although it’s been almost twenty years since I saw the film, it was still fresh in my mind when I was reading the book and I was surprised a bit at how much of the book actually made it into the movie despite the excursions into screenwriting and the bizarre chase scene at the end of the film.