1. The Corrections - Jonathan Franzen (2001)
Length and content are the two major factors that make me think Franzens The Corrections is better off staying on the page than it is moving to the big screen. Since its publication, The Corrections has been floated as both a feature film and miniseries (a pilot was recently rejected by HBO), but thus far nothing has come of it. Its probably best that it stays that way. A sweeping story of a family slowly disintegrating in the face of the new millenium, The Corrections is full of great characters, insights, and commentary on how we live today; but theres just too much of it to fit inside a single film. Franzen is one of the most accessible writers of intelligent fiction, and while The Corrections is (at least for now) his masterpiece, the sheer length of the book and intensity of its content (especially the sexual scenes) are probably too much of an undertaking to be ever done proper justice by a film or television adaptation. Certainly, someone could make and release some version of The Corrections, but its hard to imagine any adaptation truly capturing all of the power that the novel had. The story needs everything, all of its intricacies, rough parts and dirty bits to function properly. Unless someone is able to magically fit all of that in, it's impossible to think that an adaptation could measure up to the book. Obviously these are only a select few novels that I personally hope never make it to the screen. A film library is much easier to grow and curate than a literary one, so Im sure there are plenty of other books that Ive forgotten or not even read that should stay what they are. Feel free to comment with any books or stories that youd like to keep off the screen.