Woof. I know that Jaws is often talked about as one of those books wherein the movie is way better than the novel. Still, I somehow made the decision to read it and, yes, I can confirm that this sentiment is very true. There are actually some interesting seeds of what makes the film brilliant in here—in particular, the opening, which I think Spielberg adapted to match the feel of what happens in the book very well. But there so much extra crap in here that does not add to the man vs. nature element of this story.

I'll break down some of what drove me batty about this book. I'm not going to spoiler tag, so proceed at your own risk.

1. I remember hearing about the affair between Brody's wife and Hooper when hearing about the sub-par nature of this book, but as awful as that sounds, the execution of it is much more atrocious. Benchley doesn't write women well at all and there's a bit of a dirty old man streak running through several parts of this book and it really hits its peak when, in trying to flirt with Hooper during lunch at a restaurant, Ellen starts talking about her rape fantasies. It was incredibly cringe-inducing even before it got a little racist.

2. For some reason, there's a side plot line between Brody's buddy and town official (he's kind of the Mayor character from the movie, but a lot less compelling) who got mixed up with mob debt and so he keeps pushing Brody to open the beaches because his and the mob's money are all tied up in Amity real estate. It's needlessly complicated and resolves in a very "huh, so I guess that happened" way. And, if you've seen the film and lived in America, you know that it doesn't take some giant land scheme to manipulate town officials into this kind of action. It's even more strange because the book harps on even more about how much Amity depends on summer revenue and that everyone in the town will be on welfare by winter if the beach money doesn't come through. It's completely pointless and boring storyline.

3. The real issue is that none of these characters are remotely likable. Brody bears no resemblance to the affable Roy Scheider. He's hot-tempered, jealous (not without reason, his wife is cheating on him) and he doesn't have that fresh-on-the-island fear of the ocean to make him relatable (which means there's no "it's only an island if you look at it from the water"). Hooper doesn't get that giddy excitement about the shark until way late in the book and before then he's rich cad who doesn't have any of the charm Dreyfuss added to the character...he's also painted as something of a lady's man that all the Amity women are swooning over, which just feels weird. Quint doesn't show up until very late in the book and while there might be more similarities to his film character than the other two, it's still missing any of the charm.

And part of the reason the charm is missing from all three of these dudes is that they all absolutely hate each other. You don't get the scar swapping scene. You don't get Quint's monologue about the USS Indianapolis. They just bicker about the right way to catch and kill the shark until all but one of them are dead and the book abruptly ends.

If anything, I'm kind of amazed at that they spun such a compelling film and such iconic film characters out of this thing because it has nothing like the heart and soul at the center of the movie. But I guess that's why Spielberg is one of the most well-regarded filmmakers of his time and Peter Benchley is known for...writing a book that was worse than the movie it was based on.