Back in the year this was published my Mum took a pre-teen me for a lunchtime treat at a fish and chips restaurant at the top end of town where we normally only ever ventured coming home from the cinema a couple of doors away. Sitting on a table opposite from us was a man reading this book whilst eating his cod and chips. Once we got over the irony of a man reading about a man-eating fish whilst eating fish I became aware of how totally engrossed he was with this book. He couldn't move his eyes away from the text, his food consumption was mechanical. I had never seen this before- an adult so involved with a book. It made a huge impression on me and it wasn't long after this that seeing the book in a shop I persuaded my Mum to buy me a copy, seeing the effect it had on the reader persuaded her to get it probably thinking I was too young to get through it but that maybe she would read it herself to see what had so captivated the man that day.
Within a very short time "Jaws" was everywhere. I'd read it and been to the cinema to see the film . It was the first adult book I read. (My memory is unsurprisingly hazy here- I might possibly have read an Agatha Christie or two by then but this was certainly the first contemporary adult novel I read). The book has been eclipsed by the movie over the decades. When I went to see it I was really just there for the jump-out-of-the seat moments (of which there's a couple but not as many as I'd anticipated). I don't think that even back then I was totally convinced by the shark and subsequent viewings over the years confirm that aspect of the film hasn't dated well. I've never re-read the book. I do remember reading Benchley's "The Deep" when that came out but I really wanted it to be "Jaws 2" and it wasn't. Approaching 50 years from its first publication I thought it was time for a nostalgic trip back into the water.
You know that I'm going to say it hasn't dated well don't you but then show me a contemporary novel from the mid 70s that has. There's a straight, white male entitlement that runs through the whole thing. Whilst main character Brody obsesses over keeping the visitors to the fading seaside town of Amity safe his wife plots the seduction of ichthyologist Hooper, a younger brother of an old flame. There's a discussion of female fantasy which is straight out of the less liberated 1970's girlie mags. There's casual chauvinism and throwaway offensive comments towards LGBTQ+ people but perhaps less than might be expected from such a macho tale.
There's less shark than I remembered also. Brody's wife Ellen's unhappiness with her lot is a central theme as is the politics surrounding hushing up the horrific events on the beach. I think time might have had me thinking this as a horror genre novel but there's a lot more going on. This time round I felt a great deal more sympathy towards the shark than I would have done as a blood-thirsty adolescent. It's not the attacks that are the most stomach-churning it's the details of the capture, the "chum" used as bait, the smells and the sounds which the main character likens to the sound of "diarrhoea" as it is continually ladled into the sea to attract the shark.
Minor character are too one-dimensional but Brody feels fully-rounded and his dilemmas and the situations he is forced into make for compelling reading. The anticipation of the shark striking remains really effective.
So, a pivotal book from my past which confirmed to me the power of reading just at the time when boys are moving away from books so I have a lot to thank that 1974 man in the restaurant for. I hope he enjoyed his fish and chips.
"Jaws" was published in 1974. I read a Pan Macmillan e-book edition.
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