false547094031286504X978031286504795201567I Am Legend (And Other Stories)
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/547094.I_Am_Legend
8726Richard Matheson15728256130trueSat Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008Tue Jun 03 02:36:02 -0700 2008Tue Jun 03 08:24:20 -0700 2008 The first 57 pages of the book were so tedious that I almost stopped reading. I have a general rule about books that use the words "burning" and "loins" in the same sentence, and it was a long grueling ordeal as we learned how alone, oh, how so alone, our protagonist was. Hint: he was very alone. And guess what he missed most? Yep. The sex. Apparently the male of our species is a very simple creature, and his poor, poor burning loins had nothing to satisfy them. I would think with all that burning at least a little masturbation would have entered into the picture, but no such luck. Just a lot of alcohol, depression, self-loathing, and anger. It was a regular romp of fun. Then, finally, at page 57 he and the book turn a corner. Neville starts trying to figure out what caused the disease and begins doing research to see if he can perhaps find a cure. And that's when the book gets interesting.
I think it is important to note that the book's protagonist is not a scientist (interesting that in both the Charlton Heston and Will Smith film versions of the book he is). Neville is just your average, hard working Joe. A blue collar factory worker who decides to use logic to figure out what took everything he knew and loved away from him. The idea of a cure is loosely in his head, but he is plagued by self-doubt and his own limitations of knowledge. Yet he perseveres. I will say that there is a dog in the book, and while the story was vastly different from the Will Smith movie, that aspect was equally poignant and I feel they captured the spirit of what the book was trying to do by introducing the dog.
The ending was much, much, much, much better than either of the film versions I watched and I simply cannot understand why they made the changes they did. It didn't make the movies better or appropriately convey the idea behind the original story, which alone made this book worth reading.