Book Club: The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

Recently I participated in a discussion where we were asked if we had ever seen a movie which we preferred to the book on which it was based. A number of suggestions were made, including The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.

I remember Colleen McCullough stating after the release of The Thorn Birds miniseries, that she couldn’t recognise her own work, but admitting that could happen if you sold the rights.  It is purely my opinion, not backed up by any statement of the authors, that this is what happened to Deborah’s book.

On her webpage, Deborah gives the following insight:

This book came about because I’d been thinking a lot about growing older, about what is going to happen to us all. The population is ageing – for the first time the over 50s outnumber the rest of us – and it’s getting older. Where are we all going to live? Care homes are closing, pensions are dwindling, and life expectancy is rising. ….. “Geography is history.” 

Whilst her words are about Britain, they can easily be applied to Australia or the USA, so the premise of the story resonates not only with Brits.

I read The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel over a year ago for the first time and then reread if for this month’s book club.  It did not suffer from a second outing and my liking for many of the characters, including Evelyn, Dorothy and Muriel increased.  They have dimension, are identifiable and their reasons for ending up in Bangalore are mostly, believable. As a book, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel fulfills the brief Deborah Moggach set herself; she has written positive older characters, albeit with flaws, some regrets and doubts. Yet in their own way they also have courage.   …. And so to the film ……

Here is a delightful story, beautifully filmed in Jaipur with an absolutely outstanding cast.  Its problem from my perspective is that it misses the serious intent of the book.  The character of Madge suffers least in the transition from book to movie; Muriel’s story is quite tragic in the book, whereas, if not for the superb Maggie Smith, she would be almost a caricature in the movie. One of my favourite characters, Dorothy, has completely disappeared.  If I were the author, strong words would have passed with the scriptwriter for leaving her out.  Grahame is entirely different, for better or worse I leave to you. So saying I loved the movie and have watched it a number of times on DVD.

So did I prefer the movie or the book?  I thoroughly enjoyed both, but as they are very different stories in many respects, I’m sitting on the fence.  They both appeal to me in their own way.

Please share your thoughts on both the book and/or the movie.  The Starts at Sixty Book club is here for us to share discussion – love to hear your point of view.

This review was done by Karen O’Brien-Hall, one of the co-ordinators of our Book Club at Starts at Sixty.