The Channeling of the Novel

The New York Times explores the explosion of television shows (particularly on HBO) that have come from novels.

From the article...

Novelists have long lusted after movie adaptations. “It’s extra income,” says Egan, who’s seen one of her previous books become a movie and another get stuck in development. Recently, however, authors have found themselves pursued less by Hollywood than by HBO. The cable network has optioned a number of widely recognized literary works, including Karen Russell’s “Swamplandia!,” Chad Harbach’s “Art of Fielding” and Mary Karr’s memoirs. “At some point in the last year,” says Michael London, the indie-approved producer whose Groundswell Films brought “Goon Squad” to HBO, “everyone in the business had an epiphany that the DNA of cable television has much more in common with novels than movies do.”

This makes sense. After all, what people like about post-“Sopranos” cable TV — its complexity, its density, its moral ambiguity or even depravity — lines up with what they like about literary fiction. (It doesn’t hurt that Hollywood seems less interested than ever in serious fare.) What may be surprising, though, is how many authors are working on their own shows. “It’s not just that novels make good adaptations,” London says. “It’s that novelists make good adapters.”