Coincidence ?

or maybe not..

Recently I saw the James Ivory acclaimed movie 'Howards End'...decent movie..Emma Thompson is good...nothing much for Anthony Hopkins to do though..
I havent read the book , so I dont know how the movie compares to the book...but seems that it must be lacking characterisation, which are specialities of such books I believe...

And..recently I took up reading the latest Zadie Smith - 'On Beauty' ..
Pages and pages on , I realised that its very similar to 'Howards End' !
Now..the funny thing is that Ive seen the movie 'Howards End' , while now Im reading a book which is based on the book on which the movie is made..

So , since I dont have the narrative style for reference...this book seems such a copy ! Why would anyone do that ?? I mean the plot is the same..you are just telling it in a different way..and then what do you get so much appreciated for ? for the style ? well..this might as well could be a disassertion on the original book..how can you call it a new novel ?

or is it acceptable ? seems very strange to me ...