has actually been continuing behind the scenes. Which does raise the question: if you do something in your life and do not blog, tweet, or update Facebook about it, can it be said that you did it at all?
The Talisman (with Peter Straub) (1984)
First off, boy did King (and Straub) really like
Lord of the
Rings.
The Dark Tower and
The Stand are King’s solo attempts at a uniquely American
LoTR, and his first of two collaborations with Peter Straub (who is perhaps best known for
Ghost Story via the
1981 movie) more
closely brings to mind Tolkein, except you don’t have to learn Elvish. Jack Sawyer, the 12-year-old son of an old,
faded Hollywood actress, finds that his mother is dying from cancer (thanks to
a smoking habit). Holing up in a New Hampshire seaside hotel during the
offseason, he encounters the caretaker of a nearby carnival, who tells him
that, to save his mother, he needs to journey to the West Coast and seek The
Talisman, whatever that is. To get there, he can slip into The Territories, a kind of parallel,
pre-Industrial Age Earth where the air is clear and fresh, and there are weird
flora and fauna. As the situation dictates, Jack flips back and forth between
these two worlds and gets caught up in unpleasant jams both prosaic and
fantastical. It’s a thick, brick of a book and I did generally like it. One of
the big problems I generally have with fantasy is that every single geography
has some kind of weird, deadly creature(s) that defy biology (yes, I know, that’s why
they call it “fantasy”), but it really does get to be a bit much. The
killer trees were pretty creepy (and
tres Tolkein), and there is a good
showdown between Jack and the force of evil (his dead father’s former business
partner—not
quite Tolkein, that). It’s a weird, crazy book that actually was worth the time it took to
plow through it. Some of the ancillary characters are quite fun (especially Wolf, a
werewolf from The Territories, who is a good guy). Ultimately, it’s a story
about the power of friendship, as many of King’s books tend to be. The sequel
Black House comes up much much later
in this series and I will be curious to check it out.
Grade: B-
Thinner (as Richard Bachman) (1984)
The last of the Bachman books before he was “outed” as
Stephen King, Thinner is actually the most King-like of the Bachman books,
especially in that it is the densest and longest, tarrying a bit more than the
fast-moving, very streamlined earlier Bachman books. In a nutshell, overweight lawyer Billy Halleck (who kind of reminded me a little of Chris Christie) accidentally runs over and kills a Gypsy woman, he had connections that get him
acquitted of any charges, so the woman’s father curses him to lose
weight...which he does, and drastically. The Battle of the [Lack Of] Bulge is
well-done, and the drastic weight loss starts off enviable and then gets creepy
and upsetting. Much of the book gets bogged down in the minutiae of Billy’s
searching for the Gypsies who cursed him, and then in the details of how an old
mob friend terrorized the Gypsies into removing the curse. The thing is, Billy
was so clearly in the wrong, and the perversion of justice so egregious that
it’s kind of hard to truly be on his side—but I suspect that was the point. (The Bachman books tended to feature anti-heroes were were unlikeable in one way or another.) The real downer ending (a Bachman
hallmark) is perhaps for the best. Also, too: the idea of a Gypsy curse. I
dunno. It’s one of those old, tired tropes (like the possessed Indian burial
ground in Pet Sematary) that would probably have been done a bit differently if
King (or anyone) were to write this today.
Grade: B-
Skeleton Crew (1985)
Another collection of short stories that, like Night Shift, is a
mixed bag of the really effective and the really bad, and everything in
between. Opening novella “The Mist”—detailing people trapped in a supermarket by the titular mist
and the mysterious creatures living within it—is probably one of the truly scariest
things King has ever written. (For this reread, I actually did read “The
Mist” while on holiday and taking the Eurostar train through the Chunnel,
which had added an extra level of creepiness.) Other good stories in this collection
include “The Raft” (college students trapped on raft in the middle of
a lake get eaten by a weird splotch in the water); “Gramma” (little
kid is scared to be alone with his perhaps dying grandmother who happens to be
a witch); and a few others. Some (“The Jaunt,” “Word Processor
of the Gods”) are okay and would have made good Twilight Zone episodes. An
okay collection but some stories were tough to get through.
Grade: C
It (1986)
This was about where SK and I parted ways back in the 80s, but
reading It for the first time in the 90s and again for this project, this is
his magnum opus (so far). It is an immense epic, but it rarely drags. The
Losers Club are some of his most endearing characters and we really get to know
them, as kids and as adults, over the course of the book. It could use some
editing and rearranging (the chapter in which all seven of the kids meet
doesn’t come until more than halfway through the book, some early chapters
are wasted detailing the lives of characters we will never meet again, and the “Derry Interludes” do seem a bit beside the point), but it/It really does keep you going for its length. Clowns are truly frightening to
begin with, so Pennywise’s earthly incarnation made perfect sense. But it’s
really a story about childhood and friendship, the last time, actually, that
King would address these themes. There was a pretty awful TV miniseries made
in the 90s that starred mostly sitcom actors, although Tim Curry stole the show
as the evil clown.
Grade: A
The Eyes of the Dragon (1987)
A young adult (sort of) fantasy novel about princes and
assassinated kings and evil magicians, written, as the story goes, for his daughter who did not are for his more typical fare. It’s a not unsatisfying read, and has
some wry takes on the fantasy genre. There are some connections to The Dark
Tower; the assassinated king is named Roland while the evil magician is named
Flagg (also from The Stand). Peter, Roland’s elder son and heir to the throne, is blamed for the king’s murder and his brother Thomas—who is not a particularly adept ruler—is put on throne so as to be Flagg’s manipulatee. (The idea of “Dragon Sand,” the poison that kills Roland, is pure, unadulterated King.) Peter’s plan to escape the tower in which he is imprisoned is, shall we say, unique. (You will never look at napkins the same way again.) All in all, a unique decidedly Kingean take on a classic genre.
Grade: B-
The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three (1987)
The second installment of The Dark Tower epic seems a bit more
directed and intentional than the first volume, which was a collection of a
couple of shorter pieces. Volume II has the sense that it’s going somewhere. At
the beginning, our gunslinger Roland has been attacked by giant mutant lobsters
(called lobstrosities, a neologism I shall have to use). Dispossessed of a
couple of fingers and toes, he is in desperate need of medicine. On the beach
on which he is trapped, there are three doors, for some reason, and through them lie the three
people he needs to choose (aka abduct) who will accompany him on his journey to the Dark Tower. All three doors
lead to our world, specifically New York City at various times, and Roland
manages to take possession of the bodies of the people who will accompany him,
battling various folk in our world before dragging them back to his. The first
is a 1980s-era 18-year-old heroin addict and smuggler (Eddie), the second is an
African-American woman from the 60s who not only has had her legs severed in a
freak subway accident but who also suffers from multiple personality disorder
(Odetta), the alternate personality (Detta) being a psychotic. The third actually is
not intended to be part of Roland’s gang, and is a psycho who gets off on
randomly injuring or killing people, including the character of Jake who ended
up in Roland’s world in the first book. He is dealt a very brutal fate,
appropriately, and his demise (he was responsible for Odetta losing her legs)
results in her two personalities merging and becoming a third person, Susannah.
(Yeah, this is where the book kind of lost me, and at about the same point where the first book lost me.) Still, I remain intrigued and
will forge ahead when Volume III comes up a few books hence.
Grade: B-
Misery (1987)
Probably
the quintessential Stephen King book, the one everyone
probably knows from the
hit movie, one of the best King adaptations, and it
really is hard to not see Kathy Bates as the psychotic Annie Wilkes. She was
perfectly cast. (James Caan as Paul Sheldon...well, not so much.) Everyone knows the plot: writer Paul Sheldon, author of a
bestselling series of Victorian romance novels about Misery Chastain, is
rescued from a road accident by his "number one fan," who then
proceeds to torture him for a) killing off Misery in his latest book, hoping to
end the series, b) having written a contemporary novel about a foul-mouthed car
thief, and c) trying to escape. At her request (via an axe), he writes a new
Misery novel in which she comes back from the dead in very Stephen King
fashion. There are some differences between the book and movie (in the book,
she chops off his foot and his thumb), but both are very well-done. This would
be the ideal gateway Stephen King novel, as it is pretty short and devoid of
any supernatural elements. I also get the sense that it would be a vicarious
thrill for any writer buttonholed into a specific genre or series—as indeed
King has been buttonholed as a horror writer.
Grade: A
Coming up...The Tommyknockers, The Dark Half, and Part III of The Dark Tower...just as soon as I clear my palate with something else for a bit.
