Based on Books - "Under the Skin" by Michel Faber

Having read "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" last week and afterwards re-watching and comparing the book to Blade Runner in my review was so much fun that I'm repeating it this week with another book, and I even found a goodreads friend, Debbie, who is ready to read with me the book on which a famous movie is based off on a regular basis. We will then try and watch the movie around the same time and compare the works, but the focus will of course be on the book since I'm a bookworm and not a film critic in no way. And I'm opening a new column called "Based on Books" to sort these reviews in.

Back around the time it was first released (2013-2104?) I had tried to watch the movie Under the Skin but unfortunately fell asleep while watching and so I couldn't claim I watched it. That was before yesterday, because after finishing Michael Faber's book I succeeded in watching it and here are my thoughts on both.

A few stray drops of rain spattered the windscreen, and the wipers smeared two filthy monochrome rainbows across her line of vision.

There aren’t many books for which the author managed to find a perfect title that makes perfect sense on various levels and leaves you in awe whichever way you look. Under the Skin definitely is one of those rare books which literally (or figuratively) goes under your skin. I finished reading it yesterday and I’m still thinking about it with a pang in my heart.

Most people would rather know the movie adaptation by Jonathan Glazer from the year 2013 in which the audience could admire Scarlett Johansson’s perfection, there's no other word to express it, and that perfection includes her acting. Well, the original work is written by Dutch author Michel Faber, who chose to write in the English language and did so with perfection himself.

We’re following Isserley, a woman who has an appealing effect on men thanks to her pronounced sexual physique, but also has something appalling and inapproachable, uncanny even. The story which starts with her and the hitchers she gives a ride and their mutual impressions of each other, slowly evolves into much more than the tip of the iceberg which are these car rides. I will need to leave it here because it is the point and pleasure of this book to slowly palpate and discover Isserley’s reality, which I shouldn't blurt out to you here.

I have a soft spot for tormented main characters in books. A protagonist who has a tragedy, a sacrifice, a humiliation, a violence in their past which echoes into their present state is madly compelling to me. Isserley spoke to that spot in me, but not right away. It took me some time to get to know and warm up to this weird individual and when I did, her account was all the more painful for me.

I sometimes think that the only things really worth talking about are the things people absolutely refuse to discuss.

This isn’t Isserley’s personal tragedy only, though. Through her eyes does the reader see and re-discover a myriad of bigger themes, from the meaning of humanity, gender and class inequality, immigration, to treatment of animals, which, at the end of the day make up, or rather lay the groundwork for each one of us’ individual tragedy. Maybe the only little critique point I would have would be that it feels like towards the end, the author doesn’t quite know what to do with the story anymore and the ending doesn’t sit quite right, but still makes sense.

There are some pretty rough things happening in here, so if you’re ever triggered by gore, meat processing, sexual assault, rape, injustice and probably more, maybe it’s best to stay away. I’m usually not triggered by things and still I feel like I have been slapped in the face by this story.

I watched the movie right after finishing the book, and I have to say that although I like both versions, I see them as different stories. It is fact that Glazer really cut down a lot of aspects from the book and reduced it to the sexual aspects of the dangers of a hot woman traveling alone (which in fact Isserley isn’t) at night, which is only a fragment of what Faber’s book is about. And I have to say I still liked the movie plot also. The movie being shot in rural Scotland felt really authentic and apparently the men asked to hitch a ride with Johansson behind the wheel weren’t even real actors, but real-life people they fished from the street, which gives a certain fun factor to this tragic story. I also really enjoyed the feel of the film, the slow pace. I'm proud to say I didn't fall asleep this time.

So, if you asked me if I prefer the movie or the book, I will go with the book this time just because the backstory, the universe even, is so much richer and the writing itself is exquisite. A story that can shake your soul is rare and that, Faber's Under The Skin certainly does.