Ordinary People
Judith Guest
(Guest Reviewer - Margot Lamson)
1983 Penguin
ISBN: 0140065172

A family deals with the accidental drowning in Lake Michigan of the oldest son, & their emotional journeys afterwards.

The Jarrets are a typical American family. Calvin is a determined, successful provider & Beth is an organized, efficient wife. They have two sons, Buck & Conrad, but now they have one.

Guest Student Reviewer Margot Lamson writes:

Ordinary People by Judith Guest was first published in 1976 & received much praise for its touching portrayal of the survivors dealing with the tragic death in their family.

In 1980, Ordinary People was made into a movie, directed by Robert Redford, with Donald Sutherland as Calvin. It too received praise & won the Oscar for Best Picture. The plots of both the book & the movie differ only in minor changes. Due to the movie's superb acting & added scenes, much of the book's meaning is brought out with more clarity.

When reading the novel, I had a hard time getting a sense of the mother's character. Beth's negative aspects are hidden under her positive outward image. Her son describes her appearance during breakfast with “her face as soft in the morning, flushed, slightly rounded, younger than her thirty-nine years -- Beautiful hair, the color of maple sugar. Or honey. Natural too.” (P.6). The word “natural” seems to imply that Beth has no hidden or fake qualities. The movie, however, displays her true nature. Acted by Mary Tyler Moore, Beth is always charming in public life. In reality though, she is superficial & cares too much about her family's appearance. She is unable to accept that her family has problems because she does not have a solution to them.

A scene from the movie which is not a part of the book that better explains Beth's character takes place at Con's grandparents' house. Cal wants to take a picture of just Con & Beth, but Beth insists on taking one of all the men instead. After arguing back & forth, Con finally explodes & yells, “Just give her the goddamned camera!” It is obvious Con is being torn up inside over his mother's stubbornness. From this scene, I gained a sense that Beth dislikes Con, or that she was ill- at-ease standing beside him for a family photograph that no longer includes her dead son, Buck.

Con's character is shown perfectly in the remarkable acting of Timothy Hutton, for which he won an Oscar. In the climax, where all of Con's feelings stream out, Hutton shows such pain & emotion making it very easy for the viewer to understand & sympathize with him. This scene, where Con talks to Dr. Berger, his psychiatrist, is almost identical in the book, yet the movie provides a better feel for Con's pain.

Many times Hollywood has created movies based on popular novels. Some attempts have proven successful but many have failed. Often, because they fail to capture the importance of a book. However, while watching Ordinary People, I felt that I could see into the minds of the characters just as well as I could from the book. I was always absorbed while I read Ordinary People, & it is one of my favorites. The movie was certainly no letdown.

More from Judith Guest:
The Tarnished Eye
Errands
Second Heaven
(05/23/04)

Guest Reviewer - Margot Lamson
2004©Margot Lamson


[Editor's comment: I first saw the movie & then read the book. Both made a deep impression on me. The movie was passionately made & all the acting superb. What most impressed me, however, was that it addressed a vital process -- the psychology of dysfunctional families & of getting counseling through recovery from trauma -- Judd Hirsch intensely played the psychiatrist. Almost everyone, in the books I review, could do with a dose of counseling, although it is the rare author who takes this process seriously or considers it worth writing about, & I know from personal experience: counseling does heal, if you use it with that intention.]