 | |
| Author | Ayelet Waldman |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Doubleday |
Publication date | 24 January 2006 |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover) |
| Pages | 352 (Hardcover) |
| ISBN | 0-385-51530-8 |
| OCLC | 57186438 |
Love and Other Impossible Pursuits is a novel by Israeli-American author Ayelet Waldman and released in 2006.
Emilia Greenleaf is an attorney living in New York city with her husband, Jack Woolf. Emilia is the stepmother to Jack's remarkably intelligent eight-year-old son, William Woolf. William lives primarily with his mother, the medical doctor Carolyn Soule. It is Emilia's job, however, to pick up William from his nursery school every Wednesday afternoon. When she picks him up, Emilia is often subjected to snide glances and whispers from the other mothers because, it transpires, her relationship with her husband began when he was still with his wife. They had an office affair, and eventually the marriage dissolved. Later, the reader discovers that Emilia and Jack have recently lost their daughter, Isabel. They kept the little girl for 3 days, then she died during the night of SIDS in her mother's arms after being fed.
The bulk of the story deals with the results of Isabel's death, including the strain this puts on Emilia and Jack's marriage, as well as Emilia's feelings towards William. Emilia does not particularly like William (in fact, she describes him as "insufferable" early on in the story), but tries to be a good parent to him. This is hindered by the fact that William serves as his mother's mouthpiece, and sometimes speaks in a very matter-of-fact way about Isabel's death.
A film adaptation of the novel has been made with Natalie Portman starring in the lead role. The film was directed by Don Roos and also starred Scott Cohen and Charlie Tahan. Jennifer Lopez was initially signed to play the lead role, but Portman replaced her after she abruptly dropped out of the project. Production began in November 2008. After a successful screening at the Toronto Film Festival, the movie received only low dollar distribution offers because of the subject matter. The financiers decided to recut the movie and ended up with the released version which was panned by critics and which was contrary to the vision of the filmmakers. [1] [2]
Natalie Portman is an Israeli-born American actress. She has had a prolific film career from her teenage years and has starred in various blockbusters and independent films, receiving multiple accolades, including an Academy Award and two Golden Globe Awards.
Beautiful Girls is a 1996 American romantic comedy-drama film directed by Ted Demme and written by Scott Rosenberg. Its story follows New York jazz pianist Willie Conway, as he heads back to his hometown of Knight's Ridge, Massachusetts for his high school reunion, where he finds his friends evaluating their lives and relationships. It stars Matt Dillon, Noah Emmerich, Lauren Holly, Timothy Hutton, Rosie O'Donnell, Martha Plimpton, Natalie Portman, Michael Rapaport, Mira Sorvino and Uma Thurman.
Anywhere but Here is a 1999 American coming-of-age comedy drama film based on the novel of the same name by Mona Simpson. It was directed by Wayne Wang from a screenplay by Alvin Sargent, and stars Susan Sarandon, Natalie Portman, and Shawn Hatosy.
Where the Heart Is is a 2000 American romantic drama film directed by Matt Williams and starring Natalie Portman, Stockard Channing, Ashley Judd, and Joan Cusack with supporting roles by James Frain, Dylan Bruno, Keith David, and Sally Field. The screenplay, written by Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel, is based on the best-selling 1995 novel of the same name by Billie Letts. The film follows five years in the life of Novalee Nation, a pregnant 17-year-old who is abandoned by her boyfriend at a Walmart in a small Oklahoma town. She secretly moves into the store, where she eventually gives birth to her baby, which attracts media attention. With the help of friends, she makes a new life for herself in the town.
East Lynne is an English sensation novel of 1861 by Ellen Wood, writing as Mrs Henry Wood. A Victorian best-seller, it is remembered chiefly for its elaborate and implausible plot, centring on infidelity and double identities. There have been numerous stage and film adaptations.
The Hours, a 1998 novel by Michael Cunningham, is a tribute to Virginia Woolf's 1923 work Mrs. Dalloway; Cunningham emulates elements of Woolf's writing style while revisiting some of her themes within different settings. The Hours won the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the 1999 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, and was later made into an Oscar-winning 2002 film of the same name.
The Hours is a 2002 psychological drama film directed by Stephen Daldry and starring Meryl Streep, Julianne Moore, and Nicole Kidman. Supporting roles are played by Ed Harris, John C. Reilly, Stephen Dillane, Jeff Daniels, Miranda Richardson, Allison Janney, Toni Collette, Claire Danes, and Eileen Atkins. The screenplay by David Hare is based on Michael Cunningham's 1999 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name.
The Other Boleyn Girl is a 2008 historical romantic drama film directed by Justin Chadwick. The screenplay by Peter Morgan was adapted from Philippa Gregory’s 2001 novel of the same name. It is a fictionalised account of the lives of 16th-century English aristocrats Mary Boleyn, mistress of King Henry VIII, and her sister, Anne, who became the monarch's ill-fated second wife.
Night and Day is a novel by Virginia Woolf first published on 20 October 1919. Set in Edwardian London, Night and Day contrasts the daily lives and romantic attachments of two acquaintances, Katharine Hilbery and Mary Datchet. The novel examines the relationships between love, marriage, happiness, and success.
Rebecca is a 1997 British-German television drama directed by Jim O'Brien. The teleplay by Arthur Hopcraft is based on the 1938 novel of the same name by Daphne du Maurier. The serial was filmed for Carlton Television by Portman Productions in association with WGBH and Tele München. It was broadcast in the United States as a presentation of Masterpiece Theatre on PBS.
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? is a 1966 American drama film directed by Mike Nichols in his directorial debut. The screenplay by Ernest Lehman is an adaptation of Edward Albee's 1962 play of the same name. It stars Elizabeth Taylor as Martha, Richard Burton as George, George Segal as Nick, and Sandy Dennis as Honey. The film depicts a late-night gathering at the home of a college professor and his wife.
The Chapman Report is a 1962 American Technicolor drama film starring Shelley Winters, Jane Fonda, Claire Bloom and Glynis Johns. It was made by DFZ Productions and distributed by Warner Bros. It was directed by George Cukor and produced by Darryl F. Zanuck and Richard D. Zanuck, from a screenplay by Wyatt Cooper and Don Mankiewicz, adapted by Gene Allen and Grant Stuart from Irving Wallace's 1960 novel The Chapman Report. The original music was by Leonard Rosenman, Frank Perkins and Max Steiner, the cinematography by Harold Lipstein, the color coordination images and main title design by George Hoyningen-Huene, and the costume design by Orry-Kelly.
Countess Sophia Andreyevna Tolstaya, sometimes anglicised as Sofia Tolstoy, Sophia Tolstoy and Sonya Tolstoy, was a Russian diarist, and the wife of writer Count Leo Tolstoy.
The Other Woman is a 2009 American drama film written and directed by Don Roos. It is based on the Ayelet Waldman novel Love and Other Impossible Pursuits and stars Natalie Portman, Lisa Kudrow, and Charlie Tahan. It was released in the United Kingdom as Love and Other Impossible Pursuits. It was distributed by IFC Films in the US.
Anywhere but Here is a novel written by American novelist Mona Simpson. The book was a commercial success and earned the author the Whiting Prize for her first novel. The book was adapted by Alvin Sargent into a major motion picture of the same name in 1999. The film starred Susan Sarandon and Natalie Portman, and was directed by Wayne Wang.
Annihilation is a 2014 novel by Jeff VanderMeer. It is the first entry in VanderMeer's Southern Reach Trilogy and follows a team of four women who set out into an area known as Area X, which is abandoned and cut off from the rest of civilization; they believe they are the 12th expedition, with all previous expeditions falling apart due to disappearances, suicides, aggressive cancers, and mental trauma.
A Tale of Love and Darkness is a 2015 drama film written and directed by Natalie Portman in her directorial feature debut. Based on the memoir of the same name by Israeli author Amos Oz, it takes place in Jerusalem in the last years of Mandatory Palestine and the first years of independent Israel. It stars Amir Tessler as Oz, and Gilad Kahana and Portman as his parents. It was screened at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival and in the Special Presentations section of the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival.
Jackie is a 2016 biographical drama film directed by Pablo Larraín and written by Noah Oppenheim. The film stars Natalie Portman as Jacqueline Kennedy. Peter Sarsgaard, Greta Gerwig, Billy Crudup, and John Hurt also star; it was Hurt's final film released in his lifetime before his death in January 2017. The film follows Kennedy in the days when she was First Lady in the White House and her life immediately following the assassination of her husband, United States President John F. Kennedy, in 1963. It is partly based on Theodore H. White's Life magazine interview with the widow at Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, in November 1963.
The Days of Abandonment is a 2002 Italian novel by Elena Ferrante first published in English in 2005, translated by Ann Goldstein and published by Europa Editions. The novel tells the story of an Italian woman living in Turin whose husband abruptly leaves her after fifteen years together.
Jane Foster is a fictional character in the film and television franchise Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) portrayed by Natalie Portman, based on the character of the same name from Marvel Comics created by Stan Lee, Larry Lieber, and Jack Kirby.
 | This article about a 2000s novel is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. See guidelines for writing about novels. Further suggestions might be found on the article's talk page. |