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One more thing about the two run-off books. Even before these were the two left standing, I had thought both reminded me of other media.
In its set up of an older, independent, intellectual and literary-minded woman dying alone in hospital from cancer and thinking on her life, Moon Tiger brought to mind Wit. The similarities seem to end there, but those are some strong similarities! Wit was a play that was turned into I think it was an HBO film. Judith Light from Who's the Boss fame (and I think she was more recently in Transparent) played the main character on stage, but Emma Thompson took over for the film.
For The Immortalists, I couldn't help but think of an old reality television series (later viewed as the very first reality series) called An American Family that aired on PBS, which despite being before my time is a series I've seen and really enjoyed. There was an English version of the series too called The Family that I've also seen; it wasn't quite as captivating and felt much more cramped but was still fascinating in its own way too. Anyway, An American Family followed a family living in California so the opposite side of the U.S. to where The Immortalists begins, but it was still similarly a family with a lot of somewhat close-knit children growing up in the late 60s/early 70s. In the series there were three boys and two girls compared to the book's two boys and two girls. As well, the description of the book hints that one of the boys might end up gay, the one who ends up living in San Francisco. An American Family had a gay son as well, and his openness about it in the series was viewed as a landmark. This son, Lance, moves to NYC in the series and travels Europe, and I think goes to San Francisco as well near the end. The parents separate during the series and later divorced.
After the series the mother, Pat Loud, moved to NYC. Lance got AIDS at some point and he and his mother moved back to California and lived either together or very close to one another either in L.A. or San Francisco in his last years. He died sometime around 2000, when they aired a final special on the family for his last days and funeral. Pat later published a book of Lance's artwork and writings. The father from the series died a few years ago in his mid-90s. But what is wild is that after nominating this book and being reminded of the television series, I read that the mother, Pat, died in her sleep just a couple of days ago on the 10th of January. Also being in her mid-90s she'd live a long life but it was still sad to hear, and I couldn't help think about when Lance had died that she'd said she couldn't wait to see him and be with him again when she goes herself.
Anyway, long story short, to me some of those similarities really stood out despite the rest of the book seemingly being very different.
Also, as it happens, HBO made a film about An American Family as well called Cinéma Vérité. It was interesting but in such a short running time couldn't really fit in everything worthwhile about the original series and family so it doesn't compare to the original series.
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