#thomas savage

[elennemigo]

✦ GIFTOBER 2024 | Day 30/31: RELAXING

THE POWER OF THE DOG (2021) Directed by Jane Campion.

[queereads-bracket]

Older Queer Works Book Bracket: Round 2A

Choose a book:

Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit (1985) by Jeanette Winterson

The Power of the Dog (1967) by Thomas Savage

Voting ended onDec 13, 2025

Book summaries below:

Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit (1985) by Jeanette Winterson

This is the story of Jeanette, adopted and brought up by her mother as one of God's elect. Zealous and passionate, she seems destined for life as a missionary, but then she falls for one of her converts.

At sixteen, Jeanette decides to leave the church, her home and her family, for the young woman she loves. Innovative, punchy and tender,

Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit is a few days ride into the bizarre outposts of religious excess and human obsession.

Literary fiction, autobiographical novel

The Power of the Dog (1967) by Thomas Savage

Phil and George are brothers, more than partners, joint owners of the biggest ranch in their Montana valley. Phil is the bright one, George the plodder. Phil is tall and angular; George is stocky and silent. Phil is a brilliant chess player, a voracious reader, an eloquent storyteller; George learns slowly, and devotes himself to the business.

Phil is a vicious sadist, with a seething contempt for weakness to match his thirst for dominance; George has a gentle, loving soul. They sleep in the room they shared as boys, and so it has been for forty years. When George unexpectedly marries a young widow and brings her to live at the ranch, Phil begins a relentless campaign to destroy his brother's new wife. But he reckons without an unlikely protector.

From its visceral first paragraph to its devastating twist of an ending, The Power of the Dog will hold you in its grip.

Historical fiction, literary fiction, psychological drama, Western, 1920s, adult

[okjii]

there is something so special about using a rabbit to symbolize the main character as being helpless and meek, as being a runner, as being prey and then getting to watch as that rabbit finally learns to use its nails.

[depleti]

My library is doing a contest where you create art relating to a book and doing any non-comic thing feels like such a rare occurrence for me that I wanted to try something. This is really more of a mock cover than an illustration but The Power of the Dog is one of my favorite books and I always wanted to do something for it.

The colors might seem random but they're actually inspired by the original cover art:

Fun fact: the cover artist, Milton Glaser, is the same guy who designed the "I Love NY" and DC Comics logos?? Perhaps it does always come back to comics.

[the-tenth-arcanum]

book dedication in the power of the dog by thomas savage

[in-love-with-movies]

The Power of the Dog (2021)

[wellntruly]

focusfixated replied to your post:

these are some super interesting thoughts on book v film and i will put both of these on the list and take your recommendations into consideration!

One of my boldest stances, I know! To expand, I recently read another book where I'd seen the movie first, Thomas Savage's The Power of the Dog, and I was so struck by how the tone and just, idk, feel? energy?? of the writing was sooo similar to that same quality in the movie, one of the most indefinable aspects of adaptation that Jane Campion fucking nailed, and I'm sure if I'd already read the novel I would have found seeing that translated to the screen so thrilling.

And yet! In the book was also this whole other side plot that does not appear in the adaptation (naturally, time constraints are different in these mediums), and if I knew of that I would have undoubtedly been having moments of stepping outside of the experience of watching the piece of art that Campion made to be thinking about how it seemed to be skipping that bit, as opposed to just being In It (and Staggered), as my not having read the book first allowed me to be. Nothing was taken from her movie, and then when I read his novel, I just got more of it than I even expected.

But then there are other times like The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie where I do think reading the novel first would be the superior experience order, so it's not strictly cut in stone!

bakingblues replied to your post:

Have you read gentlemen and players by Joanne Harris? It’s one of my favourite indulgent reads and it references this book (which I have not read and have now immediately added to my list for this years Campus Novel September)

I have not and this sounds very engaging. Campus Novel September is perfect and beautiful, I am actually doing an Academic Winter moment myself with this and my to be announced (intrigue!) next title, incidentally another where I've already seen the movie, which is how I know it is February-set.

[adaptationsdaily]

THE POWER OF THE DOG (2021) dir. Jane Campion