"Shutter Island" Is Shattering

Reading the book did not shatter me in the negative sense. Instead, it shattered almost all my guesses or extrapolations at several points in the book, like what should be expected from a twist-rich and well-yarned plot-driven novel. It worked well. The last expectation that brewed in my satisfied mind after reading it would be the lingering experience that might not make me leave Shutter Island for several days. I felt that Dennis Lehane’s narrative in this novel had transported me to the secluded island off the coast of Massachusetts where I witnessed a pair of U.S. Marshals set foot on the island, battle the forces of nature and uncover a web of deception as they help search for a murderess who escaped from an asylum for criminally insane in Shutter Island. In Ashecliffe, the asylum’s name, some things are not what they seem.

This scary novel is brilliant! This is a thinking man’s suspense thriller.

A screen adaptation of this novel is being filmed by the great Martin Scorsese. The combination of Scorsese’s storytelling genius and the film’s powerhouse of experienced cast (Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Ruffalo, Ben Kingsley, Patricia Clarkson, Michelle Williams and Max Von Sydow) is hopefully a recipe for an excellent film. I’m not familiar with the screenwriter; however, if Scorsese trusted him/her, he/she must be good. The finished goods, whose title will either be “Shutter Island” or “Ashecliffe,” will be released for public exhibition in October 2009.