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In this corner: the Book. A collection of words that represent ideas when filtered through the lexical systems in a human brain. From clay tablets to bound collections of wood pulp to units of stored data, the book has been around in one format or another for some 3,800 years.

And in this corner: the Movie. A 112-year-old kid born in France to a guy named Lumiere and raised primarily in Hollywood by his uncle Charlie "the Tramp" Chaplin. This young upstart has quickly made a huge impact on society, rapidly becoming the most financially lucrative form of storytelling in the modern world.

Both square off in the ring again as Box Office Prophets presents another round of Book vs. Movie.

I Don’t Know How She Does It

Charming British teacher and advertising salesperson Allison Pearson had the good fortune to become a professional TV critic for The Independent, a morning tabloid paper out of London. Her success there managed to land her what quite a lot of us critics long for: a book. In 2002, a mere ten years after she started writing for The Independent, she published her first novel. I Don’t Know How She Does It was a huge success and centered around a woman who is the mother of two and hedge fund manager. Pearson’s analysis of the modern business world and motherhood were a big hit, quickly becoming a best-seller in both England and America.

Although it is often glossed over as a side item in films and TV shows and such out of Hollywood, the subject of high-powered, white-collar motherhood was something of a novelty. Hollywood film producers, including the Weinstein Brothers, became interested in turning the British novel into an American film. Screenwriter Aline Brosh McKenna (The Devil Wears Prada screenplay, Morning Glory) was brought-in to Americanize the book in Hollywood style. A post-Sex In The City Sarah Jessica Parker was cast in the role. British novel, Hollywood movie - how do the two compare?

The Book

This is a novel by a charming British woman, written in the first person with all kinds of cleverly witty turns of phrase. As an American, my first impression instinct is to compare Allison Pearson to Helen Fielding (Bridget Jones’ Diary.) And as I read the book, I tried to distance myself from that notion, but… Pearson’s prose style really is a lot like Fielding’s. So there. I’ve said it. I’d say it again if I had to. With that firmly behind me, I can move on…

The first-person perspective that the book is told from is that of one Kate Reddy, a woman who grew-up in a lower-class area in northern England. She has worked hard and promptly grown to become a very successful hedge fund manager with a big company known as EMF. (Not to be confused with the European Monetary Fund, or for that matter, the British indie dance band.) Reddy is very successful. She lives in a nice place and has a couple of kids and a husband who works the kind of job (an architect) that allows him plenty of time to act as day care (and evening care) for the kids when Reddy is away acting as the primary source of income for the family.

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