One of the few books I've found that wasn't as good as the film version. The film, starring Sidney Portier, is one of my favorites. I've seen it several times. The few changes of the story from page to screen are good ones, actually making the story better, in my opinion. Most screen plays have to condense a book for a two hour film. Seldom can anything be added, but James Poe was able to write an outstanding script, adding dialogue that worked even better than the book in fleshing out the characters. In combination with Portier's Oscar-winning performance under director Ralph Nelson, we get a gem of a film that takes us beyond the book.
I see this has become a review of the film when I'm supposed to be writing about the book. Pardon, please.
The book is good all by itself. Perhaps it could have been longer. When I really like a story, I want to linger in it--savor it. But, this book is more of an over-sized short story. My copy has just 127 pages. It's a wonderful story of concise writing, with a nice addition of pencil sketches by Burt Silverman. There are excellent life lessons to be learned or revisited. I highly recommend the book and the film. I do think you'll like the book better, and appreciate the film more if you read the book first.
This book frequented high school English classes in the 60's and 70's. It certainly wouldn't hurt the youth of today to learn a few of these lessons. Might make the current climate less divisive and a lot nicer if folks took these lessons to heart and acted upon them.