'The Cider House Rules'

A grand example of when the book is exponentially better than the film. Having seen the latter before the former, I thought it would carry the same emotional impact of a handshake, but instead it is a great story elevated by the flashbacks of Dr. Larch (you just don’t wake up and decide to become the leading abortion doctor in New England), the story of Melony and expanding the impact of the secondary characters (particularly Wally and the seasonal workers) makes it a very rich story.

Appropriate of nothing, author John Irving never met his father, who split with Irving’s mother in 1942 while in utero. Later, Irving’s father was shot down over Burma during World War II, a fact Irving did not discover until 1981 and a plot added into Wally’s story in The Cider House Rules.