I loved the movie so I had to check out the book. The book turns out to be for adolescents but has more curse words than the movie. You know how when books turn into movies. they have the poster or logo of the movie on the cover? I have a Jurassic Park and Forrest Gump that is like that. Now, what was weird is that the movie-cover version of the book was a dollar cheaper than the original cover! It is the same book, only that this one contains 8 color pages of pictures from the movie. They are basic ones you can find on IMDB but it nice to see them glossy. The book is told in first-person from Nick and Norah. one chapter is Nick and another is Norah and so on, so on.Of course there are going to be changes, there is a lot of changes in fact. The biggest is that in the movie, Norah is the one who initiates to kiss Nick, but in the book Nick is the one to initiate it. Thom has a boyfriend in the book, his name is Scot. In the movie, Thom is boyfriend-less. There is not much characterization of Thom in the book, in the movie he's Asian, this is not mentioned in the book. There is a lot over the 'h' in his name, which he added and a delightful rant between him and Norah in which she says her name is Pnorah but the 'P' is silent. Dev doesn't have a boyfriend and flirts around. In fact, Dev is the reason why they have no drummer. He is the dog and you can kind of feel that in the movie. In the movie, Dev is the one who gives Norah a pep talk and gives her a bra. In the book, Thom does the talk, no bra, no uniboob but he does give her 5 dollars! I am surprised she wasn't insulted to be like a hooker. But Thom's intentions were noble.
In the movie, Dev's potential guy Lothario is the one who has the jumper cables around his neck like a boa, but in the book it is Scot. In the book, Dev is the one who holds Nick's hand and quotes the Beatles. In the movie, it is Thom, I am glad it is their incarination fo Thom, it gave him more to do. So bascially, in the book we were shown Thom in a steady relationship and Dev being the flower bee, in the movie Thom is single and Dev is in a potential relationship. The movie has been congruatled for Nick's attitude around his gay friends, having no qualms about being called gay or holding a guy's hand. Nick, in his inner monologue does express that he has no problem about, it kind of feel as though he is trying to explain himself to the straight aduience. I feel that for the character of Nick, he wouldn't be thinking that. The chapters of Nick and Norah is hard to tell if they are being dictated or writing in their journal, for sure it is not 100% their inner monologue.
The narrative is erratic, there is a lot fo run-on sentences, but it is very authentic to teenagers. there is a lot of information that I find as filler and just a range of up-and-down emotions that gets tiring. The book starts out at the Fuckoff's show (in the movie, they are the Jackoffs) where Nick spots Tris and then kisses Norah. The movie starts before that. They were smart to do that. When chapter ends, one character might start right where the other ended or a few minutes before to share the moment on their two points of view or go off on a slight tangent. There are few flashbacks, if they can call that because they are short. The Where's Fluffy show is not at the end but the middle, they attend it and both feel their love for them is ruined. There is no real search for them, but I love that in the movie there is. I also like that they miss the show and we never really see the band, brilliant--it can be anyone's dream band.
Norah's friend Caroline doesn't get lost, she is described a lot but not much action happens to her in present time. But there was a lot of her charater description that was picked up to be in the movie. Unfortunately or Fortunately, there is no throw-up-cellphone-in-toilet-recycled-gum scene in the book! Triss is less a caricature, more caring. The real reason she broke up with Nick was he was head over heals in love with her and she didn't feel the same way and wanted him to find his love one. She does try to sabotage the two but not as much as in the movie. It is also revealed that when Norah had a pregnancy scare over Tal, Tris was there for her. Norah's ex Tal appears earlier than he does in the movie and appears in shorter scenes that he does in the movie. He is more of a jerk and doesn't really persue Norah as much. When the parents don't physically appear in the movie, Norah's father does talk to her on the phone.
I also got to mention that Nick is a bit more confident than in the movie. Norah is the same fiery smart quick-glib girl but a little mroe aware of herself and she is her worst enemy, she is the hardest on herself. What I do like about the book although it has messy sentences and narrative, the dialouge is key, it does move the story along. I love when dialouge does that. In the end, both the movie and the book are worth a look and their own creatures. Very creative and musical creative beasts. And funny! I am SO glad that the movie kept that Norah is Jewish and that Nick is a non-queer bassist in a queercore band. The movie COULD have made it a big conflict of that fact but THANK GOD they didn't. Also got to add that for a Jew, Norah sure does say 'Jesus' a lot in the book.
