Reading the whole of Maas’s Crescent City in March didn’t put me off the big books, and I dived straight into a re-read of Stephen King’s ‘The Stand’
It’s been eleven and a half years since I last re-read this book, which seems incredible, given how much I’ve loved it from the start. But time passes quickly, and I am wondering if there’ll be another re-read, not because I don’t love this book, but because so much time passed without me noticing it fly by. I have noticed that I’m drawn to different scenes now. My favourite bit used to be Fran on the pier with Jesse, so conscious of how he looked and how she felt. Now … it’s Stu and Tom and Kojak making their epic trip. Yeah, I still love this book.
In a complete change of direction, I went for Jules Oliver Wilkinson’s ‘A Touch of the Whimsy’.
There is more than a touch of the whimsy to this book. It’s probably the most whimsical book I’ve ever read, including Scalzi’s ‘When the moon hits your eye’.
So, there’s these conditionally immortal chaps who are observing humanity. They’re called Dave and John. There’s CeCe, an amazingly unselfconscious Yorkshirewoman who gets washed overboard from her cruise ship and deposited on a tropical island. Then there’s Eric / Heracles, created by Dave from ‘spare’ cosmic matter and instructed to interact with CeCe. A supporting cast of various baffled sea creatures carries the story onwards quite happily, and very whimsically. I enjoyed this.
The Stephen King re-read binge continues with ‘Christine’.
This is the fifth novel in my King re-read binge. Unlike Carrie, Salem’s Lot, The Shining and The Stand; Christine was not a book that I re-read often. Having said that, I enjoyed it this time round. The ending feels a bit fumbled, but everything does get tied up more or less satisfactorily.
There are points in common with other King works. ‘Christine’ is a book that could easily have been born from short stories ‘The Mangler’ and ‘Sometimes They Come Back’; whilst the ending reminds me of a later short story, ‘The Road Virus Heads North’. There are parallels, too, with The Stand. Arnie and Harold have a similar story arc, but somehow the tragedy of it hits harder with Arnie, perhaps because he’s not living in a post apocalyptic world, because he could so easily have had it all.
The female characters, even Leigh, the love interest, are barely more than sketches, when they could have been so much more. We know that King can do better, which makes it all the more disappointing.
All that aside, the story is a good one, and the horror of it all is well conveyed until right at the end. No spoilers, but I just couldn’t help but find it amusing.
Next book. ‘The List of Suspicious Things’ by Jennie Godfrey. This was a gift, and I can understand why the giver thought I’d enjoy it. It’s set in Yorkshire in the 1970s, when Peter Sutcliffe was getting away with murdering thirteen women. It’s told from the point of view of a girl growing up in that area, and seeing the impact it had on women and girls … and their menfolk. I grew up in Lancashire, in a working class home, I’m only six or seven years older than the author, and was well aware of the crimes, and that the killer had struck in Manchester, not far from where I lived. Walking home alone wasn’t something that was undertaken lightly back then.
So, yes, I should have identified with the book. It carefully and respectfully covers issues of rape, racial abuse, mental illness and bereavement, with a touch that is neither too light nor too heavy.
I finished it, and I liked the characters, but … and this is no fault of the author’s … it’s just not my genre. I’ve passed it on my mother, and she loves it.
My last book of May was my third Stephen King book of the month.
Another re-read, it’s been way too long. ‘The Bachman Books’
Rage, The Long Walk, Roadwork and The Running Man
This is definitely a book that changes every time I read it.
‘Rage’, infamously, is the novella that King has requested not to be reprinted or republished, following a string of USA high school shootings that seem to echo the fictional one in the book. The story is very much that of a teenage boy with issues, and is told from that point of view. The murders and serious assaults of teachers are glossed over, as if they’re not really people so far as the protogonist can see, just opponents and targets over which he needs to prove his superiority. It was written by King when he wasn’t much older than the protagonist. Weirdly, the second teacher to be shot is named J D Vance.
‘The Long Walk’ is a heartbreaker of a story. It’s recently been filmed, that much I know, but I’ve not seen the film. It’s a dystopian tale in the same vein as the later ‘The Running Man’. A hundred boys and young men walk for days for the ultimate prize. It’s a perfect story, and always hits hard.
‘Roadwork’ sees King try out a slightly older protagonist. Our hero is forty, married, no kids. He’s not in a good place, his only child has recently died, and the city has plans to put a new road through his neighbourhood, demolishing his workplace and his home. His comfortable life is falling apart and he’s running on autopilot.
‘The Running Man’ is another story, set in a future 2025 and a dystopian USA with a massive social divide between the haves and have nots. The have nots are invited to compete on some very nasty game shows on ‘The Network’ where they put their health and life on the line for the chance to make a bit more money. The top show is ‘The Running Man’, where the competitor has to hide and survive for thirty days. Nobody has ever won.
