Elizabeth L. Silver's "The Majority"

Elizabeth L Silver is the author of the new novel, The Majority, as well as the memoir, The Tincture of Time: A Memoir of (Medical) Uncertainty, and the novel, The Execution of Noa P. Singleton. Her work has been called “fantastic” by the Washington Post and “masterful” by The Wall Street Journal, has been published in seven languages, and optioned for film. The Execution of Noa P. Singleton was an Amazon Best Book of the Year, the Amazon Best Debut of the Month, a Kirkus Best Book of the Summer, Kansas City Star Best Book of the Year, and selection for the Target Emerging Author Series. The Tincture of Time was featured on PBS and NPR, and was an O Magazine/Oprah’s “Ten Books to Pick up Now."

Here Silver dreamcasts an adaptation of The Majority:

If The Majority is adapted, I see it as a series or mini-series because it is a fictional memoir and covers the life of one woman’s rise to power over the 1940s, 60s, 70s, and 80s, as she fights to become the first woman on the United States Supreme Court.

That said, because the book does follow Sylvia from age 12 to 50, with an 80-something-year-old framing the book in retrospect, there could be multiple actresses taking on the role. A young teenager for “Young Sylvia” and then a different actress in her 30s to play Sylvia in her 20s, 30s, and late 40s with the magic of makeup.

My dream Sylvia Olin Bernstein would be Carey Mulligan, who I think not only looks the part, but also sparkles with a sense of quiet intelligence, providence, strength that I respect in literally every project she’s ever done. If they film it as a retrospective with the 80-something year old Sylvia looking back, Queen Jane Fonda is picture perfect for it in every way.

My dream Linda Loving is Kerry Washington. Full stop. No questions asked. She is Linda incarnate. Stunningly gorgeous, brilliant, magnetic perfection.

Mariana Olinovsky is Rachel Weisz in every way. Like Linda’s casting, she is perfect to portray the nuance, influence, and internal turmoil of this Holocaust surviving mother figure.

Joe Bernstein, Sylvia’s husband, could be played by Daniel Radcliffe. I can see him as the loving, bright, and somewhat goofy nice Jewish boy-turned-lawyer, who falls head over heels in love with Sylvia, and tries as he might to be a role model for equity and equality.

James Macklowe could be played by Matt Damon, the “Harvard man” of a certain generation, who believes in his worth, and yet his presumption comes across with a painful sense of entitlement.

Learn more about the book and author at Elizabeth L. Silver's website.

My Book, The Movie: The Execution of Noa P. Singleton.

The Page 69 Test: The Majority.

--Marshal Zeringue