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Happy New Year to all our Book Chat readers and a special welcome to our new subscribers! We have Hollywood to thank for this very special edition of Book Chat where we discuss the wonderful HBO adaptation of Liane’s novel, Big Little Lies.
It was back in 2013 when Liane got the idea for Big Little Lies while she was away on book tour in northern NSW with Ber and Di. Find out more below, along with Di and Ber’s thoughts on the series. It’s been a strange, surreal journey that started in a little country town and ended with a Number 1 New York Times bestseller and a star-studded TV series!
You could win a signed special TV tie-in edition of Big Little Lies. See below for details.
Enjoy!
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Liane Moriarty
A BIG LITTLE TRIP TO HOLLYWOOD
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I’m thrilled with the HBO adaption of my book Big Little Lies. Directed by Jean-Marc Vallee (who directed Wild) and adapted for the screen by the wonderfully talented David E. Kelley, it features an incredible cast. I especially adore the performances of Nicole Kidman and Reese Witherspoon. In the very first scene where Nicole appears, before she even says a word, she has Celeste’s jittery demeanour exactly as I described and imagined it, and I don’t want to admit how many times I’ve replayed the scene where Reese, as Madeleine, says the line from the book about tending to her grudges like little pets. I’m proud of that line and she delivers it so exquisitely. Of course, it’s not an exact replica of the book. It’s steamier (my sister refused to watch it in the same room as my parents) and more glamorous, it’s set in California instead of Sydney, the characters are wealthier and some didn’t make it on to the screen (poor Fred) but I love it, and it was a fantastic experience to walk the red but blue carpet for the premiere. Here are some photos. My favourite is my husband’s selfie.
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Ber Carroll
THE MAGIC PEARLS
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While Liane was walking the red (except it was blue) carpet in Hollywood, I was walking down the distinctly unglamorous aisle of the school hall. She was wearing a gorgeous frock, I was wearing a denim skirt (along with some fetching dog hair). She was sandwiched between Nicole and Reese, I was sandwiched between snickering Year 9s. I tried to mentally transplant myself from Harbord to Hollywood, where Big Little Lies was premiering. Had they changed the plot? I hoped not. They'd better not have changed the ending either. Or the Audreys. I didn’t want them to change a single thing, but of course they would and should.
I have a special connection with Big Little Lies because I was there the moment the book was conceived. The story goes like this … There was a trivia night at my children’s school, the theme was ‘movies’, and the mums on our table decided we would all dress up as Audrey Hepburn. Liane and I had some free time on a book tour (in Taree, a little coastal town about three hours drive north of Sydney), and she very kindly helped me find the perfect strand of pearls for my outfit. A year and a bit later she published Big Little Lies. Something about the idea of a table of mums dressed up as Audrey Hepburn sparked her imagination, and her wonderful novel sparked the imagination of Hollywood producers and writers, the result being the new television series with a stellar cast and renowned script writer, David E. Kelley.
Now, having watched the first three episodes, I'm both reassured and in awe of what has been done. All the characters I know and love are there (it doesn’t seem to matter that some hair colours are different!). The Audreys appear with comforting regularity, blowing kisses to the camera (They look every bit as glamorous as me and my friends). I cannot take my eyes off Shailene Woodley, who steals the show as Jane. The husbands are more prominent, there’s lots of snappy dialogue, new side plots and ... ahem ... sex scenes (I watched episode 2 with my father-in-law in the room, and sympathise with Liane's sister).The series has a different, edgier feel, and I love it in a completely different way to how I loved the book. Maybe in another episode or two, I’ll stop making comparisons and enjoy it on its own merits.
All my concerns at the school hall (when I should have been listening to vital pieces of information about Year 9 instead of imagining myself in Hollywood) have been allayed. I feel very privileged to have had a tiny little part in the journey of Big Little Lies. I like to think those pearls must have had a little bit of magic in them.
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The 'original' Audreys. (I'd like to stress that there was no murder scene at our trivia night.)
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