Alicia Erian, Author of the Novel Towelhead
When Alan first called me to talk about adapting my book, he said, “I promise if you agree to this, I'll make sure it stays funny.” I haven't forgotten that because it was particularly important to me. As Alan pointed out, without humor, an adaptation of the book could result in a maudlin abuse story.
Though there are many things that delight me about the film version of “Towelhead,” the aspect that pleases me most is that he really kept his word. The material is dark, to be sure, but there's plenty of dark humor to match. I think it's incredible that Alan was able to take a novel's worth of material and condense it without diminishing the impact of the story. When I first saw the film, I hardened myself a little, not wanting to feel bad about the inevitable edits. After a while, though, I stopped thinking about it. Alan's sense of story is impeccable. His cuts were not only painless, but quite ingenious in parts. A couple of times, I felt like I actually learned something as a writer from what he left out.
When writers sell their books to be made into movies, it's best that they detach from the process. I feel that I did an excellent job of this. The big surprise was that it was utterly unnecessary. I love what Alan did. My characters have remained my characters, only now even more so, having come to life.
Alicia Erian is the author of a collection of short stories, The Brutal Language of Love (Villard, 2001/Simon & Schuster 2008), and a novel, Towelhead (Simon & Schuster, 2005), a New York Times Notable Book.
She lives in Boston.
