Tribute: Peter Benchley

Categories: Books

Peter Benchley may have written only one great book, but that was enough to seal his immortality. His 1974 novel Jaws and the classic Steven Spielberg movie adapted from it the following year have been scaring people off of beaches for a generation. Benchley, who died at 65 of a lung ailment on Sunday, wrote several more underwater thrillers, including The Deep, Beast, White Shark, and Creature, but many reviewers thought he’d stayed at the same feeding spot too long. Still, go back and read Jaws, which is full of meaty subplots Spielberg left out, and it’ll still scare you out of your bathtub.

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Bloke
Mon 02/13/06 3:47 PM

When Dick says duck, you duck!

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dub
Mon 02/13/06 6:03 PM

i have been an admirer of Mr. Benchley’s work for years and, though not as mechanically sound as Jaws, i find his other novels pretty great. White Shark is a wildly-absurd, twistedly-delightful story about a relic nazi super-soldier, a man-shark hybrid (no, seriously) that begins terrorizing a small coastal town upon its discovery and accidental awakening; The Deep is a standard treasure hunting thriller; Beast is mostly a knock-off of Jaws (though still very enjoyable), with a giant squid standing in for the shark (whose royalty demands for a sequel were too-costly); but The Island is a stand-out, a macabre tale about modern-day pirates (for want of a better word) that terrorize the Caribbean, with lots of LOST-eque goings-on. the one thing that really sets all these books apart is the way the ocean is employed as a character, rather than a locale. Benchley’s passion for the water is always displayed with vivid clarity which adds depth and life to his novels- all of which are worthy of recognition.

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Lucas Jensen
Mon 02/13/06 6:29 PM

I found the movie to be infinitely better than Jaws, as I preferred Richard Dreyfus’s character NOT sleeping with Brody’s wife. I also didn’t miss the endless town meetings about the shark.

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of doping at
Tue 08/01/06 8:18 AM

Landis: Don’t Judge Me

levels, and asked not to be judged until a study can show he is innocent of doping at the Tour de France. He is awaiting

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