Whalefall

 So I picked this up because I recently read an article that announced it had been picked up for screen adaptation, and I got curious. It was being pushed as a thriller, and after reading the summary, I wanted to know how this would play out if it were adapted for the screen.
The thing is, I???m honestly not sure how they???re going to pull this off in a visual medium. This novel is largely made up of flashbacks and Jay Gardiner???s musings, punctuated by spurts of harrowing (and I mean HARROWING) action as he tries to get out of the whale before he runs out of air. And the point of this novel isn???t really the action, but what???s going on in Jay???s head: the ???demons??? the summary says he???s trying to escape.
See, when I picked this up I thought it would be along the lines of The Martian, wherein a scientist finds himself stuck on Mars and has to find a way to get back to Earth before he reaches the limits of his problem-solving ingenuity. With that in mind I thought this novel???s one-hour time limit would create a more frenetic, compressed story than what was presented in Weir???s novel, with Jay pushed to the very limits of his ingenuity trying to find a way out before he died in the whale???s guts or his air ran out. But that???s not what this novel???s about. In fact, comparing it to The Martian wasn???t right, either. It???s a lot more like the Book of Jonah - which, yes, I realize is VERY on the nose in this case, but the two align thematically in ways that I didn???t expect. Just as Jonah finds himself in the belly of the whale because he???s trying to run away from doing the things God wants him to do, so too does Jay (and don???t those two names parallel each other?). The difference is, Jay isn???t running from God, but from his fraught history with his father (which is kind of the same thing, come to think of it).
So what this novel???s about, aside from the bits about trying to get out of the whale, is about Jay trying to navigate and negotiate his complicated relationship with his father, trying to find closure. This novel hones in on that relationship, and though it???s hard to relate to the specifics of Jay???s relationship with his father, the shape of it will likely be familiar to a lot of readers. Because this novel isn???t about trying to escape the belly of a whale in an hour, but about the complicated relationship of parents and children: the ways each can shape the other, for better and for worse. It also asks questions about forgiveness, and grief, and how those two things are made even more complicated and bittersweet when one believes one was hurt by one???s parents as a child. And most importantly, it???s about bridging that gap: finding a middle ground between the child-who-is-now-an-adult and the parent, finding ways to finally see each other eye-to-eye.
And I have to say, it pulls that aspect off pretty well. The chapters are short and choppy, jumping from past to present, in a way that???s kind of reminiscent of how time tends to get weird when one is a dangerous situation. That trick with time gives the story some breathing room, lets the story unfold on its own and lets the reader really come to understand Jay???s relationship with his father. It also ties Jay???s past and the whale escape together in a way that is very emotionally impactful - enough that I actually got choked up in certain points. This is the aspect of the novel that I worry might not translate very well onscreen, because I think it???s the beating heart of this story and it would be sad to see that get flattened or ripped out completely.
It also helps that the characters are easy to latch onto. Jay is, frankly speaking, kind of pathetic but in a relatable way: so deeply wounded by his past with his father, and now also deeply regretting not going to see him in his last moments, that he dives headlong (sorry) into a hare-brained scheme that lands him in the belly of the whale. His memories of his father are initially very unflattering, but as he manages to recover more and more of his memories, he begins to realize that maybe, just maybe, his father isn???t the only one he can blame for the way his life turned out. His father is not COMPLETELY innocent, of course, but Jay slowly comes to realize that maybe, just maybe, he didn???t completely understand his father, just as his father never completely understood him.
So overall, this novel is very definitely worth a read, but don???t expect it to be all high-octane, MacGyver-esque situations. While there ARE a few thrilling (and admittedly gross) moments of action, this book has a deeply emotional core that I hope will be translated well to the small or big screen. Readers who have (or had) a fraught relationship with their parent/s and/or parental figure/s will likely have a very strong emotional reaction, so having a box of tissues nearby is recommended.