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The Wild Things

3.45 of 5 stars 3.45 · rating details · 4,219 ratings · 566 reviews

Max is a rambunctious eight-year-old whose world is changing around him: His father is absent, his mother is increasingly distracted, and his teenage sister has outgrown him. Sad and angry, Max dons his wolf suit and makes terrible, ruinous mischief, flooding his sister’s room and driving his mother half-crazy. Convinced his family doesn’t want him anymore, Max flees home,...more

Paperback, 284 pages

Published March 9th 2010 by Vintage (first published October 13th 2009)

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Nov 07, 2009 Ceridwen rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Ceridwen by: Dad

Shelves: books-about-books, daddy-drinks-because-you-cry, stolen-from-richard, young-adult

My dad has this really uneven track record when it comes to presents. You always know he's going to get at least one book, and he writes just achingly beautiful inscriptions in even the ill-considered stuff, the stuff that makes you think, "Dad, seriously, do you have any idea with whom you're dealing?" Then you can't even sell the book surreptitiously, evil ungrateful daughter-like, because it says this true thing even when it doesn't. So this is his most recent birthday gift to my husband, whi...more

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May 20, 2010 Caris rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: everyone who wants his childhood to be ruined like his adulthood

Shelves: 2010

I fear that I gave Dave Eggers too much credit for A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. In that book, he describes his life as the newly appointed guardian of his younger brother and their time spent in the Bay area. As it happened, I started that one just days after coming back from San Francisco. I fell in love with the city while I was there and was thrilled to have it intimately described to me while the high was still there.

That, and I’ve got a younger brother who I would be the guar...more

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Nov 28, 2010 Jorge rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. The Wild Things
Dave Eggers

This is an interesting action packed fantasy tale that involves an eight year old kid, Max who struggles with his family problems. One day he decides to escape to another place in hopes that things will be better for him. His escape turns out to become an adventurous journey where he meets seven interesting monsters on an isolated island. . It is a well told story because the author is very descriptive in writing each chapter.

The main characters involved are Max and six...more

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Jul 26, 2010 Suzie rated it 5 of 5 stars

I know a lot of people didn't like this book, their arguments being that it was an unnecessary adaptation/elaboration on Sendak's masterpiece, and a little haphazard and irresolute . . . but I think it works. Actually, I think it's perfect for the tone Eggers is trying to set. The discomfort and awkwardness of his narrative reflects the growing pains of Max, and more than once I found myself tense with the same frustration, anger and despair that he experiences on his journey. I don't know what...more

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Aug 17, 2012 Mallory rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

There's nothing wrong with this book, it's actually quite cute and it's very readable. The problem isn't with Dave Eggers' writing, either, because he's a solid writer and there are moments in the book which are adorable. The problem I had with this adaptation of Where The Wild Things Are is that I'm not sure the source material needed an adaptation at all.

I have been excited to read this book since it was published, and it's been around for a while. The concept is happy-making and the cover art...more

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Jun 11, 2012 Stephen rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I think, first of all, it's important to note that Maurice Sendak personally asked Dave Eggers to write this adaptation. It isn't some modern novelist's bastardization of the story because he saw the opportunity and took it. He didn't think himself worthy, but Sendak asked him.
As far as the quality of the book itself, it's a good read. It seems half written for children, so at first it seems like it lacks depth. But then, when you start to slip into the mindset of Max, of a child, then you reali...more

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May 06, 2012 Kirstie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I like quite a bit of what Dave Eggers does but I have had a hard time with this story as an adult. Quite clearly, it has affected many of us adults as children and has lent itself space inside the compartments of our brains for many years. I was really excited about the film, especially considering it stars Catherine Keener and there was an Arcade Fire song prominently featured on one of the trailers/previews for it. Lol, I'm a sucker for good music used in films.

Anyhow, what I saw in the film...more

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Mar 20, 2012 Matt Guion rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Genre: Fantasy, coming-of-age

Synopsis: Max is wild. Life is changing to quickly for him, his mother seems neglectful, his father is gone, and his sister doesn’t want to play anymore. One night, Max dons his wolf suit and wreaks havoc upon the house, shortly before running away and sailing out to the land where the wild things are. Max relates to these beasts, and soon enough, he is made their king, and he must find some way of controlling them, while also making them happy.

Review: This is a no...more Genre: Fantasy, coming-of-age

Synopsis: Max is wild. Life is changing to quickly for him, his mother seems neglectful, his father is gone, and his sister doesn’t want to play anymore. One night, Max dons his wolf suit and wreaks havoc upon the house, shortly before running away and sailing out to the land where the wild things are. Max relates to these beasts, and soon enough, he is made their king, and he must find some way of controlling them, while also making them happy.

Review: This is a novelization of the movie screenplay by Spike Jonze and Dave Eggers, which in turn is based on the children’s book by Maurice Sendak. The original book, of course, is simple enough: boy is punished by his parents, so he imagines an adventure to a distant land with true “wild things,” becomes their king and plays with them for a time, and then grows weary and misses his home, so leaves them behind and returns to his room, where his supper is waiting for him. So how do we take that relatively simple (and also, short) concept, and expand it into a movie screenplay . . . and subsequently, a novel?

Now, I can’t honestly say how much of the screenplay was conducive to Maurice Sendak’s original idea, but what the movie and the novel both seem to do is ask the question, “What if all the pent up emotions, confusions, passions, loves, hates, intrigues, fears, and longings of a child were to take on some living form?” Thus, we have the wild things. These beasts represent different facets of Max’s own personality, so it’s natural enough that he should relate with them and want to control them. But at the same time, sometimes they get out of hand, just as Max sometimes gets out of hand, and sometimes he hates parts of himself and sometimes parts of himself seem to hate him.

As you can imagine, this book is quite the emotional roller coaster. Sometimes things are going very well and everyone’s having a good time. But sometimes, things become angry, angsty, even dark. These moods come on suddenly, often without warning. That’s to be expected, though. Max’s beasts are driven by the emotions of a child, which are often sudden and unexpected. Throughout the novel, though, there seems to be a sort of battle between emotion and logic, as Max attempts to control the beasts, and even at times, escape them. The plot meanders considerably through Max’s various plans, but that, too, is to be expected. The land where the wild things are is a land of unplanned spontaneity and unbridled emotion. There was never any promise of a straightforward plot, which might be one of things Max himself finds so frustrating, until he has no choice but to leave the beasts behind, with no intention of ever returning.

There’s a lot of stuff going on here, and a lot within the story that we could read into more deeply. It’s one of those stories where you’re not entirely sure what’s going on, but you know that it’s important somehow, that even the meaningless activities seem to have some sort of meaning. There are portions that are, admittedly, unpleasant to read, and honestly, if I had to make a choice between the novel and the movie it’s based on, I’d pick the movie. The novel tries to, I think, make the world more realistic by describing how hungry, cold, or dirty Max is, often in great detail, which I don’t really find necessary in this story. In the original storybook, this was pretty much a dream, and even in the movie, it seemed more like a suspension of reality than something that was really happening, so it doesn’t make sense for Max to be hungry or living in his own filth.

Ultimately, what this story is is a day in a child’s playtime. Imagination and emotion runs wild, sometimes fun is had, but sometimes someone gets hurt, sometimes someone is scared, and sometimes people hate each other. And eventually, important though the wild things are, the child has to grow up and move on. This book is very well-written and it tells an excellent--if sometimes unpleasant and meandering--story.

Worth rating: Worth owning (used) (less)

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Jan 31, 2012 Eidalis Vaquedano rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I would just like to start out this review by saying that I had been wanting to read this book for quite some time and this brought me to build up expectations for it. However, it didn't exactly live up to all of them. Personally, I felt the book was too much of a replica of the movie. Of course similarities are to be expected, but it just left me feeling as of there was nothing to surprise me and that made it a bit boring for me. Even from the first chapter, I felt as if I'd read it before and...more

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Jan 04, 2012 Nicole rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I enjoyed the deeper look into Max's family life, the relationship nuances there and the presentation of each person's mentalities, despite the stereotypical roles. Arguing with teenaged sister, rebelling from mother's boyfriend, untapped energy and outbursts... Everyone in this book always changed the way they looked at each other, as if anew... And such. I did appreciate an attempt to give the Wild Things more personality, but they were still so abstract and predictable. I liked Katherine and...more

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Oct 10, 2011 Joey rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I am not sure what I was expecting when I started this book. I had taken it out with the good faith that it will be a good read because the author came recommended. To have it read like a children's book was mildly surprising, and to find out that my protagonist is a willful little boy is somewhat, well, less pleasing. I must be used to having strong female protagonists in my readings.

In any case, when I have aligned my thoughts to that of young Max, I became more understanding of his actions. L...more

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Jul 27, 2011 John Pappas rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I wanted desperately to dislike this book. Dave Eggers's novel Wild Things could not possibly be anything more than an extended ramble, given that the source material derives its power from its conciseness and psychological acuity. Based on Maurice Sendak's classic children's allegory, Where the Wild Things Are, Eggers's version almost made me think I was wrong: the first third of the book, before Max boards his boat and ventures to the island of the wild things is touching and, though flawed, h...more

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Jun 24, 2011 Maggie rated it 2 of 5 stars

While I enjoyed the beginning of this book, and all the nuances of Max’s household and his difficulty adjusting to his parents’ divorce (and all its consequences) – and the very modern/contemporary translation of the setting – I became utterly bored once he arrived at the wild island. Nothing happened. I get that they gnashed their teeth, and destroyed a lot of things, and came close to destroying each other, but I got the impression that’s what they were up to before Max’s arrival, and most lik...more

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Mar 21, 2011 Andy rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2011

I've had this sitting on my shelf since it came out. I had seen it in a few stores in Christchurch without much desire to get it until in Wellington I found the fur covered version. I had to have that. Since then I've sat on it until I saw the film (usually the other way round I know but this was based on the screenplay rather then the other way round).

So I saw the film a couple of weeks ago and liked it quite a lot. Now, having been off work sick for the last 4 days or so I picked it up as a co...more

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Jan 25, 2011 Mallory Gross rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Mallory Gross
Room 307
December 13, 2010

The genre of the Wild Things is fantasy/adventure. Max has problems with his family and runs away to an island full of beasts. The compelling literary element of the book is the characters because they are funny, imaginative and unique.

The first thing I found that was of particular interest was when Katherine ate Max (p. 268) Max was running away from another beast named Carol when he saw Katherine. Katherine’s mouth was wide open, and Max went into it to hi...more

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Jan 12, 2011 Skyler added it · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I think the genre of the book is growing up because max learns a lot about being a better person like when he went crazy on his mom he did not know how she felt only how he felt but when carol went crazy I hope that max now knew how his mom felt and how it is like to be on the other side of the table.
I think the most important literary element is the plot because it puts the story in motion and it’s the reason why people pick up a book look in the back and think it is really good and read it mor...more

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Dec 07, 2010 Queen of Bogus rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This realistic fiction book is about a boy named max who was at his home but when max’s mom ignores him, max bite’s her a runs away. He sails to an island and the first thing on the island was cheaters. Their looks were interesting. There were 2 birds named duglus and Alexander. There were 4 beast named Katherine, Carol, Ira, Judith, and bull. All of them wanted to eat him but carol because he liked his style. He lied and said that he was king but was not. He decided to make a fort for the beast...more

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Sep 24, 2010 Mike Lawson rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I was hesitant to pick up Where The Wild Things Are by Dave Eggers because I’m so in love with Where The Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak. I was afraid that Eggers was going to ruin the beloved chidren’s book.

It was hard to think that any author – even Eggers – could capture that whimsy that accompanies the original picture book. Maybe Eggers could get the whimsy, but could he also get the message of how powerless youth are, and how liberating their fantasies can be?

In short, yes he could.

Dave...more

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Sep 08, 2010 Shira Karp rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Who among us doesn't remember reading "Where the Wild Things Are" as children? Who hasn't roared their terrible roar or gnashed their terrible teeth along with Max? There are so many valuable themes in that book, mainly that as fun as it is to be "wild" it is comforting to be able to come home to people who love you, boundaries and all. Upon hearing that a movie and then a novel was being made from this story, I was excited as there was so much more material to work with than a 37 page picture b...more Who among us doesn't remember reading "Where the Wild Things Are" as children? Who hasn't roared their terrible roar or gnashed their terrible teeth along with Max? There are so many valuable themes in that book, mainly that as fun as it is to be "wild" it is comforting to be able to come home to people who love you, boundaries and all. Upon hearing that a movie and then a novel was being made from this story, I was excited as there was so much more material to work with than a 37 page picture book conveys.

I read this book without having seen the movie. However, I'm a big Dave Eggers fan so I figured I'd like this book, that it would make me laugh. I have to say I was somewhat disappointed. There were some funny and endearing parts, but all in all the book felt a bit dry and forced. I felt like there were plenty of missed opportunities in this book. I had the feeling that each Wild Thing was supposed to stand for something, some emotion or part of a psyche, but this was never fully explored. And the book ended so abruptly. Part of what kept me reading once Max got to the island was that I wanted to find out what happened once he finally got home, if he had learned from his experience and how he would behave around his family upon his return, and that was basically non-existent. I also got confused with how Max was written. The parts that describe how his brain works in kid-mode were great and very insightful, but then there'd be thought processes of Max's that seemed WAY above his age and much too logical when compared to his earlier thought processes in kid-mode. It also seemed ridiculous how long Max appeared to not only survive, but have boundless energy and lose no cognitive abilities without eating or allowing himself to take off his wolf suit long enough to go to the bathroom.

I knew going into this book that Dave Eggers had been ASKED to write this book to flesh out the movie, and I knew that a project an author was asked to do may not convey the same tone in writing as a project the author has decided on his own to do and worked on passionately. Perhaps it was this different tone that put me off.

All in all, this book left me wanting. There were too many elements that were under-developed or only half explained. (less)

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Aug 21, 2010 Brandon Will rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

Dave Eggers knows just the right things to do to tap into the deepest wishes of our pop-culturally-conditioned hearts, placing emotion within the kinds of neat things we didn't even knew we desired to see developed.

For instance, movie novelizations have always been kind of a joke. They were more popular before home video came into the picture, but still lingered with some popularity for about a decade after. So many of us grew up reading them, and sometimes they'd be neat -- for instance, the "...more Dave Eggers knows just the right things to do to tap into the deepest wishes of our pop-culturally-conditioned hearts, placing emotion within the kinds of neat things we didn't even knew we desired to see developed.

For instance, movie novelizations have always been kind of a joke. They were more popular before home video came into the picture, but still lingered with some popularity for about a decade after. So many of us grew up reading them, and sometimes they'd be neat -- for instance, the "Back to the Future" novelization by George Gipe has some interesting scenes not in the movie, and Earl Mac Rauch's "novelizations" of his own scripts "The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai..." and "New York, New York" seemed to be the perfect venue for the screenwriter to delve deeper into the characters and world he created.

But usually, novelizations have always kind of been a joke, an aside, mostly for kids, or people who don't really read much. Eggers took this to the next level, in a way similar to Earl Mac Rauch. He uses this alternate venue as a means to explore the characters and ideas from a different lens, an internal one. Where the film is emotionally breathtaking due to it's unbelievably believable visuals, here it's because we see into the characters, we feel through their cells and their big beastly hearts -- these characters we grew up with, characters that originally only had a dozen or so pages and even less words devoted to them, yet sparked generations of imaginations.

Carol the wild thing is an amazingly complex character -- needy, overwhelmed with fear and confusion, stuck in his hulking, awkward body, with his hulking, awkward feelings, a rage brought on by fear at the world's Mexican-standoffish stare and the loneliness that creeps up during -- this rage and this loneliness keep Carol from getting truly close to anybody, or being able to accept the comfort of the love his beasty family and friends all have for him. He's a tragic, complex, very real character. Ever since the back flap was closed, I'm still a bit haunted by him, and last images of him. And I hope he'll be okay. I guess that means I hope we'll all be okay. We're all just big, confused kids, really, when it all boils down to it. I think that's what Eggers is doing here -- the bastard -- playing out the emotions born in us in childhood that never fully leave us through these beasts, these big furry, horny kids, who are also magical and sillily articulate -- the beasts' being very articulate in nature gives them the means to make voice to the exact feelings kids have, kids just like Max who have all these feelings, and their frustration compounds because they cannot express them, don't have the language or the maturity to, yet.

Reading this, I felt things, remembered feelings from being a kid, feelings and memories I haven't thought of in years. That's a pretty fantastic thing for a book to give you. (less)

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Jun 28, 2010 Krista rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: adult-fiction

A good effort and overall an interesting exercise in reimagining a classic for a new intended audience (although there is definitely critical debate about that, i.e. was Sendak's picture book even child appropriate and was it more suited toward an adult's look back on childhood). Also, Eggers' story was a little bit more violent than I expected, especially in the final chapters and the "end of the world" scenes. Yet, there were moments of beauty in the description of the imaginary land of the wi...more

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Jun 23, 2010 Mariah rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Fuck everyone who disliked this book; I don't understand why.

Okay, I don’t even really like David Eggers (I find his writing style too dreamy and abstract) but I picked this book up at the library because its based off of Where the Wild Things Are, which is a book I remember as a kid and a really moving movie. The book is based off the screenplay actually.

I own two book by Eggers, or like my sister does, but I’ve read them like they are my own, which are: A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Geni...more

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Jan 16, 2010 Jack rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Perhaps my childhood was a little too comfortable - Sendak's original children's book kind of slipped my mind. My childhood friends loved it, for sure, and as I grew up, my adult friends remembered it with the kind of fondness usually reserved for first-time crushes on television stars.

I started out loving this book, but maybe that is because I'm an adult living with a couple of kids. Of course I'm looking for solid explanations for inexplicable behavior and emotional current.

I didn't know where...more

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Dec 03, 2009 Amanda rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I was really excited about this movie. I thought it was a really interesting interpretation of a childhood favorite. The original Where The Wild Things Are always seemed to me to be a novel of escape. To escape from an unsatisfactory home, Max dreams up this wild place where it's all fun and no rules and all love, warm and furry. The movie takes that idea and expands upon it, and with the movie comes this book. Now, I haven't seen the movie yet, but I do know the book diverges slightly from the...more

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Oct 29, 2009 Erin rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

i'd actually give this closer to 3.5 stars. like some other reviews i've read, this starts off sooo strong. max is this wonderful, young, spontaneous, imaginative, creative, emotional creature that kind of awakens the child in you when you open up the book.

the reason this is not a 4 or 5 star book is simply that the book felt... rushed... maybe is the right word. there's not much development of the monsters at all in the book -- which i firmly believe to be intentional, as this story IS about m...more

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Jun 13, 2012 Cyd rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: didn-t-finish

Okay...in fairness...I couldn't make it all the way to the end and it was really more like 2.5 stars.

Where the Wild Things Are was not a staple of my childhood and while we owned it I only read it occasionally to my daughter. I do like the idea in general of different perspectives on familiar works, and I really enjoyed Zeitoun by Dave Eggers, so it was in that spirit that I picked this up. While it started off being just fine to have all this deeper more "grown up" background on what was going...more

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Jan 04, 2011 Jon Holland rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Another reviewer perfectly stated my expectations regarding this novel; namely, that it would provide additional information, exploration and amplification of the Wild Thing characters as they exist in the film. Eggers and Jonze are known to have fleshed out the wild things in much greater detail than is shown in the film and I had hoped some of that detail had found its way into the book. The novel does not deliver in this regard but instead introduces multiple changes to the characters and muc...more

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Jan 01, 2010 John rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Yeah, the movie version of this novel -- with screen play co-written by this author and movie director Spike Jones -- is my favorite movie of 2010. Meanwhile, the book diverges somewhat from the script which diverges still from the original by Sendak (which really needs no introduction.) Are these adaptations better than the original? (Oh come on now, really? Are you really asking that?) But, both the movie and the book add dimension, modernize, fill in back story and generally extend Sendak's o...more

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May 22, 2013 Cristina rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Spike Jonze decidiu um dia, adaptar para o cinema o livro de Maurice Sendak, "Where the Wild Things Are", publicado em 1963, e convidou Dave Eggers para o ajudar a escrever o argumento. Foi no decorrer da adaptação que Sendak convidou Eggers a escrever um guião a partir do material até então reunido.
O livro conta a história de Max, um rapaz indisciplinado e sensível que se sente incompreendido em casa e decide fugir para o sítio das Coisas Selvagens. Max vai ter a uma ilha onde encontra criatura...more

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Jan 15, 2011 Eme rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2010

I picked up The Wild Things by Dave Eggers. I’ve heard various things about Eggers as a writer, but never having read anything by him, I think I made the right choice in choosing The wild Things to lost my Eggers-virginity to. I finished it and wrote a blase review, but I thought I should do the book some justice and actually properly write down, in a coherent fashion, my thoughts concerning the book. I don’t know who the target audience really was, except the backstory to Egger’s book was that...more I picked up The Wild Things by Dave Eggers. I’ve heard various things about Eggers as a writer, but never having read anything by him, I think I made the right choice in choosing The wild Things to lost my Eggers-virginity to. I finished it and wrote a blase review, but I thought I should do the book some justice and actually properly write down, in a coherent fashion, my thoughts concerning the book. I don’t know who the target audience really was, except the backstory to Egger’s book was that he was asked by Spike Jonze (the director of the film) to write an accompanying story (almost a novelisation) to the film, to which Maurice Senzak consented to. So it’s not really a book for adults and I don’t know whether it’s a book for kids. It’s perfect, however, for that in-between stage where you’re not sure whether you’re still growing up or whether you want to resist the urge for as long as possible.

To quote Oscar Wilde, “youth is wasted on the youth” – and while I’m certain Wilde was referring to those kids in my age bracket, 20-somethings, who are out living out life like it’s a great party, I think it can also be applied to the real kids. The tiny ones who make make me envious to be little with no responsibilities and obligations, those that can truly “wild”, like Max is. As a little kid, though, I was never as wild as Max, though, and I wish I had been. I lost the chance to be as crazy as I wanted to be back then, and I wish I possessed the ability to be so wild, or find myself in a situation where the wildness could be exposed to me. (It must be a wonderful place, don’t you think? A place where you survive solely on your wits). Max’s role as King of the Wild Things means that he assumes an adult or a higher, authoritarian role amongst the society and he gains responsibilities through that title that he must accomplish in order to survive.

Roald Dahl, whose biography I picked up the other day and am working my way through, is known for tackling the theme of childhood authentically: “The Edwardian Children’s writer Edith Nesbit thought that the most important quality in a good children’s writer was an ability vvidly to recall their own childhood. Being able to relate to children as an adult, she believed, was largely unimportant. Roald Dalh could do both. His seductive voice, the subversive twinkle in his eye, and his sense of the comic and curious gave him an ability to mesmerise almost every vhild who crossed his path – yet he could also remember and reimagine his own childhood with astonishing happiness.” (Storyteller: The life of Roald Dahl by Donald Sturrock)

Most childrens authors actually operate in the same way, but most intrinsically, the point the author made is “….what never failed him was an ability to instinctively to recreate and understand the child’s point of view”. And despite the fact I was shocked by the violent tendencies in Max sometimes, it was because I think I had forgotten to understand how a child might see these things – how they might not see things in terms of the consequences afterward, rather live in the moment of doing the action. This doesn’t mean you label them as ‘good’ or ‘bad’, rather just as children.

In that same instance, Eggers is a pretty good writer because he does a great job of feeling Max’s loneliness, desire for rage and anger, happiness in the same way any child experiences it – It is absolute, and not partial. As a “grown-up”, I always find myself in the position of weighing things against each other. Everything is relative. What is absolute? Who sees things as black and white? What person wants to be that naive?

In Eggers’ version, the wilderness is a dangerous and scary place, where the wild beasts change their minds irrationally and possess the destructive force of a tsunami. What i forgot is that being a kid is a scary deal, and to quote Bernard Black“everything is new to them, that’s why they’re always surprised!”, and in a completely different context too. Alas, my point being that every confrontation is dangerous. In Max’s winderness, confrontation and disagreement means physical danger and death. He constantly has to resort to stories, made-up fantasies, to reassert his own place in their world (his world? I don’t know). His values become more human-like the more he begins to value the things that are important to him, like his own safety. This mean, in turn, he rejects some of the lifestyle that the Wild Things are so prone to, like self-destruction or irrational anger – perhaps suggesting that Max grows-up (inevitably) through the experience.

Overall, however, I think Sendak’s 21-line version might be a lot more about children than Eggers’ book could be. Probably because kids would actually read it. Maybe that why this book isn’t for children and isn’t for adult, sort of bridging or talking to those isolated in between the two.(less)

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About Dave Eggers

Dave Eggers is the author of six previous books, including his most recent, A Hologram for the King, about a struggling businessman pursuing a last-ditch attempt to stave off foreclosure, pay his daughter's college tuition, and finally do something great. In this novel the author takes us around the world to show how one man fights to hold himself and his splintering family together in the face of...more

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A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius

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Quotes from The Wild Things

“Maybe he hadn't thought the war through. It had seemed like simple fun when he had first pictured it, with a glorious beginning, a difficult but valor-filled middle, and a victorious end. He hadn't accounted for the fact that there might not be much of a resolution to the battle, and he hadn't imagined what it would feel like when the war just sort of ended, without anyone admitting defeat and congratulating him for his bravery.” — 6 people liked it

“One might think that a boy who was out in the snow for so long would get cold, but Max was not. He was warm, partly because he had on many layers, and partly because boys who are part wolf and part wind do not get cold.” — 5 people liked it

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The Wild Things

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