Published April 2nd by Washington Square Press first published More Details Original Title. The Graduate 1. Other Editions Friend Reviews. To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.
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Showing Average rating 3. Rating details. More filters. Sort order. Start your review of The Graduate The Graduate, 1. Rarely do I prefer film versions of a book over the book itself, but there's no contest here. Love or hate The Graduate - the cult s film - you gotta agree it has heart, or at least that almost intangible something that burns it into memory. To me that something has always been the very ending of the film, that final scene that adds a new dimension to otherwise lovely but okay film - those last moments on the bus with Simon and Garfunkel's The Sound of Silence in the background, with close- Rarely do I prefer film versions of a book over the book itself, but there's no contest here.
To me that something has always been the very ending of the film, that final scene that adds a new dimension to otherwise lovely but okay film - those last moments on the bus with Simon and Garfunkel's The Sound of Silence in the background, with close-up on the faces of Ben and Elaine, so exhilarated from their on-the-spur-of-the-moment decision - but, as the camera lingers, we see eventual slow fading of the happy grins and uncertainty setting in, and the slightly confused awkward apprehensive glances at each other - now what?
Add to it amazing performances by Dustin Hoffman and Anne Bancroft, breathing life into what otherwise could have been wooden characters, and the rest of the lovely soundtrack by Simon and Garfunkel - and the cult film is born. This heart, this humanity, this something is what Charles Webb's first novel The Graduate completely lacks , even though superficially it is not that different from the film based on it.
The plot is the same - a bored and disillusioned affluent recent college graduate starts an affair with an older woman, then promptly falls in love with her dishrag-personality daughter, madly pursues the above mentioned daughter and breaks up her wedding to another affluent young man, all while unsure of his place in life in the s. The scenes are the same as in the film, the dialogue very similar - but where the film soars, the book drowns like a brick. You see, separated from the humanity brought to it by the amazing Hoffman and Bancroft performances, the book feels desolately empty and meaningless.
It's seems to mostly consist of awkward circular dialogues that go on forever, full of filler with nothing actually being said, with people droning on an on meaninglessly, constantly asking each other, 'What? By overemphasizing emptiness around Benjamin, the book becomes quite empty itself. Braddock closed the door behind him. Benjamin shook his head and walked to the window.
He refuses to understand anyone, refuses to have meaningful communication with anyone, places himself into the center of the Benjamin-centric universe, judges everyone except himself, sees no consequences for his actions, and, after deciding - arbitrarily, it seems - to fall in love, basically badgers the most vapid love interest ever to pay attention to him.
He is ridiculous in his pompous quasi-disillusioned snobbery, and very quickly progresses from annoying to simply just an ass. The movie treats this scene as suffocated cry of a lonely soul. In the book, Ben Braddock is a bored and rude self-absorbed twit. Throughout the story he sounds not like a talented almost-prodigy college graduate. No, he sounds like a perpetually pissed-off snappy overpampered fifteen-year-old teenager, angry for the sake of anger.
Where film-Benjamin is confused and lost and humanly vulnerable, book-Benjamin is simply irritatingly full of himself. Benjamin stood. Exactly right. Written by a very young 24 years old! The book is devoid of any kind of internal monologue of characters, of any hints at their mental state, their motivations - nothing except for what's on the surface and what gets across in the empty endless dialogue. I can see how that could have been conceived as a literary device, but too much of it makes the book too shallow and empty and meaningless.
At least in the film Hoffman and Bancroft's acting brought life to the characters, filling in what was unsaid with body language and facial expressions, thus creating something behind the actions of the characters. Devoid of this, the book does not provide an alternative - it simply provides nothing. The expressions of the bus people at the end were probably exactly what my expression was by the end of this book. And the ending - MY film ending that brings in subtlety and subverts so much of the film - no, of course it was not here.
It would have been silly to expect subtlety from such a dull book. It ends just as flatly as it began, woodenly and purposelessly. She turned her face to look at him. For several moments she sat looking at him, then she reached over and took his hand. Lovely evening guaranteed. Half a star. View all 25 comments. Jun 21, Mainon rated it did not like it Shelves: kindle-books , made-into-tv-show-or-movie. I am sure I can write a review in the style of this book.
I read most of it on a subway and then on a bus. I stopped and stared at the words on the pages sometimes. Then I would talk to myself. Are you trying to seduce me? I just want you to unzip my dress because I can't reach the zipper. But really, are you enjoying this book?
I mean it's interesting in the way that truly awful things are always int I am sure I can write a review in the style of this book.
I mean it's interesting in the way that truly awful things are always interesting. But it must be better than I think because it's so famous.
But no, I guess I'm not really enjoying it. I'm just going to sit here and keep reading. Why would you read a book you're not enjoying? What's wrong with you?
You need to do something. You should have a plan. A definite plan. I'm going to worry about you until you have a definite plan. So I guess my answer is maybe. But I might have decided to marry someone else by then. But then I realized how much the above dialogue summed up the book for me. I had to take away the second star. View all 14 comments. The 60s were great. I think. A world where a middle-aged woman seduces a boy who is barely out of his teens and it becomes one of the most enjoyable and humourous books of the decade.
I adored The Graduate. I was so invested in The 60s were great. I was so invested in this book that I nearly missed my stop on the bus. View 1 comment. It was a sensation. Okay, we all know these facts. Let's leave the movie alone and just focus on the book. The plot is simple: a disenchanted, recently graduated, well-to-do young man has an affair with an attractive, well-to-do, older woman whose husband just so In a young man by the name of Charles Webb published a book called THE GRADUATE, a story that was supposedly based on a true story.
The plot is simple: a disenchanted, recently graduated, well-to-do young man has an affair with an attractive, well-to-do, older woman whose husband just so happens to be business partners with the young man's father Got that?
Because there really is not much else going on in the book. And, to be honest, it was not the story that made me like this novel. No, it was the way in which it was told that made me like this novel.
Charles Webb was 24! This was his first foray into writing. Pretty impressive, even with all the flaws. You see, what attracts me to this story is how Webb created, and sustained, entire scenes by using dialogue. Sharp and ironic and sometimes haplessly mundane, these exchanges between the characters create scenes that evoke a sense of time and place.
Additionally, the reader can really feel the isolation and alienation of all the characters through what they say This often lead me to want to brain a character, especially Elaine. Where are your brains, woman? I could be wrong, that happens. Regardless, Webb wrote a brilliant, sardonic, and ludicrously funny novel that illustrates a moment in time.
The one flaw I see of the novel that is jarring to the reader is the ending. Perhaps Webb puttered out, stopped the story at a place that made sense to him. For me, there needed to be more. Not much, just enough that I knew where Ben and Elaine were headed on that bus.
View all 6 comments. It tells the story of Benjamin Braddock, who, while pondering his future after his graduation, has an affair with the older Mrs. Robinson, the wife of his father's business partner.
Well, yeah! I don't really mind a boy who tries to break free from the brutal boredom of the American Conventional Dream. Actually, I find it quite interesting that he dares to see the meaninglessness of repeating empty patterns over and over again. I don't mind the affair between him and Mrs Robinson either. After all, soothing the pain and filling the inner void with sex is way more healthy than doing it with endless booze, which seems to be the only other solution that their community can come Well, yeah!
After all, soothing the pain and filling the inner void with sex is way more healthy than doing it with endless booze, which seems to be the only other solution that their community can come up with. Awkward silence inevitably followed by the fake-cheerful urge to get just a little bit more drunk: "Have a short one? Curing poisoning with poison? Well, let's just say, I can see the new vicious circle on the horizon already.
Why can't we be happier in each other's company? Because we try plan A over and over again, equally surprised each time that it doesn't work A depressing piece of literature, but still, there were moments of comedy relief! View all 8 comments. What surprised me most about the novel was how similar the dialogue between the characters seem to be from my strong memories of watching the film.
I should also mention how wonderfully flawed and interesting the character of Mrs Robinson is and helps drive the plot along. Oct 14, Jeanette Ms. This book is pointless and inane, but I had to satisfy my curiosity.
The best thing I can say about it is that it's short. I might have given it 2 stars if it actually had an ending. ANY kind of ending. But it does not. It just stops, like it's the end of a chapter and more is coming. Don't bother looking for more pages. It really IS over. I've never seen the film, but I remember when I was a kid those mo " I've never seen the film, but I remember when I was a kid those movie posters of little Dusty H.
And it was such a big deal that this young fool has an affair with a woman twice his age. I am now somewhere in the same age range as Mrs. Robinson, so here's a little hint for you young guys who like older women: Do NOT tell her, "I think you're the most attractive woman of all my parents' friends. The theme of the book had potential in a Richard Yates sort of way. William Daniels Mr. Braddock as Mr. Murray Hamilton Mr. Robinson as Mr. Elizabeth Wilson Mrs. Braddock as Mrs.
Walter Brooke Mr. McGuire as Mr. Norman Fell Mr. McCleery as Mr. Alice Ghostley Mrs. Singleman as Mrs. Mike Nichols.
More like this. Watch options. Storyline Edit. Benjamin Braddock returns home to California after successfully completing college. He gets a hero's welcome from his parents but Ben isn't quite sure what to do with the rest of his life. He is soon seduced by Mrs. Robinson, the wife of his father's partner, who methodically pursues the inexperienced young man. Soon, they are meeting regularly in hotel rooms. Warned by her to stay away from her daughter Elaine, his father goads him into taking her out on a date.
He finds he quite likes Elaine but when she learns he's been having an affair with her own mother, she'll have nothing to do with him. He's smitten however and pursues her. Did you know Edit.
Trivia During rehearsals of Dustin Hoffman 's and Anne Bancroft 's first encounter in the hotel room, Bancroft did not know that Hoffman was going to grab her breast. Hoffman decided to do it because it reminded him of schoolboys trying to nonchalantly grab girls' breasts in the hall by pretending to put their jackets on. When Hoffman did it, director Mike Nichols began laughing loudly. Hoffman began to laugh as well, so rather than stop the scene, he turned away and walked to the wall.
Hoffman banged his head on the wall, trying to stop laughing, and Nichols thought it was so funny, it stayed in the finished film. Goofs When Ben is seen crossing the Oakland Bay Bridge on his way to Berkeley he is driving on the upper of the two decks of the Bridge which only carries traffic westbound from Oakland to San Francisco and thus would be taking him away from Berkeley.
The only way to get to Berkeley by way of the Bay Bridge is to drive Eastbound, and all such traffic is carried only on the lower deck of the Bridge. Quotes Benjamin : Oh, my God! Robinson : So? Alternate versions There are two versions of the first encounter between Ben and Mrs Robinson. When Ben turns around after Mrs Robinson locks the door to her daughter's bedroom to make a proposition to him.
Connections Edited into Comic Relief User reviews Review. Top review. What a ride Warned by her to stay away from her daughter Elaine, his father goads him into taking her out on a date. He finds he quite likes Elaine but when she learns he's been having an affair with her own mother, she'll have nothing to do with him. He's smitten however and pursues her. After a successful stint away at an eastern college, twenty-one year old Benjamin Braddock returns to his parents' Los Angeles area home a graduate.
Although the world should be his oyster, Ben is instead in a state of extreme anxiety as he has no idea what to do with his life, which is made all the more difficult since everybody asks him what he plans on doing or tells him what he should do. In his confused state during which he would rather be alone to wallow in self-pity, he is easy prey for the aggressive Mrs.
Robinson, the wife of his father's business partner who he's known all his life and who seduces him. Thinking about and then eventually succumbing to her advances only adds to his anxiety and confusion as he hides what they're doing from the rest of the world, and as he needs more than just sex in a relationship, sex which is all she wants from him. His confusion is lessened but his life becomes more complicated when he is reacquainted with Elaine Robinson, the Robinsons' daughter who too is home from college at Berkeley and who he has not seen since high school.
Despite a rocky start directed largely by the wants of Mrs. Robinson, Ben and Elaine start to fall for each other.
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