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| 195353418X
| 9781953534187
| 195353418X
| 3.91
| 10,717
| Jul 05, 2022
| Jul 05, 2022
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really liked it
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I know that the family who now lives in that house ripped down the sweat lodge and built a swing set in its place. Reading this work is like experienci I know that the family who now lives in that house ripped down the sweat lodge and built a swing set in its place. Reading this work is like experiencing an entire lifetime through fragmented moments in a life. As in life, even the small moments, the monotonous bus rides, the visit to a grandparent, have impact. One way I know a story speaks to me is if I feel transported into the world seamlessly. I felt myself transported to these houses; I found myself thinking back on my own childhood and realizing I had been in similar houses, similar situations. This is a collection of short stories about one ordinary mans coming of age on a Penobscot Rez, weaving back and forth through time from boyhood to adulthood. The central character is known as "David" in childhood, and "Dee" in adulthood, he experiences highs and lows framed by his Penobscot heritage, even in moments where he doesn't embrace his heritage. Here’s my little soapbox caveat then back to the review: *It is important to note this is a coming of age story with a character that happens to be Penobscot; the characters in this book aren’t representative of an entire culture. The experiences and emotions in this work are universal, they don’t represent the entire indigenous experience. Don’t go into this book expecting to learn all about the Penobscot culture – you’re not going to, and a piece of literature shouldn’t have to carry the weight of an entire culture anyway.* While this is a short story collection, it reads more like an episodic novel; the themes are the same, our main character is the same. These stories are the lessons of a life, the crushing truth of bad decisions, the reverberations of addiction, the facets of colonialisms still pervading our “modern” times. The stories are imbued with failings – parents fail their children, children fail their parents, society fails everyone. One of the largest themes in the collection is the cycle of addiction. Talty sums this up so well in a quote from THE NAME MEANS THUNDER: "I didn't know, or couldn't conceptualize, how dependency transitioned from one body to the other, how all those actions had consequences." At one point David asks “How’d we get here”, and that is the over arching question Talty relays to us through this work, how did we get here? How did society? Perhaps this question reflects back on the author. I can imagine this would be cathartic to write. “How’d we get here? That’s Fellis’s question, but it’s mine too. How’d we get here? I’m starting to think that each time I ask it, each time I consider an answer, I wind up farther away from where I should be, from where I was. Where I had been. I left a lot of things behind. Or maybe that’s not it—maybe it’s that a lot of things had left me behind. Friends. Family. Relationships.” He later extends this thought: “I wonder if How'd we get here? is the wrong question. Maybe the right question is How do we get out of here? Maybe that's the only question that matters.” This becomes the question that we ruminate on through the stories. Talty shows us Reservation life in modern times without shying away from the darkest parts; He sugar coats nothing. Instead, Talty shows us a life plagued with problems –like methadone clinics –thrust on them by white faces, while also remaining true to Penobscot spirituality, folklore and mythology. I was so impressed with his ability to interlace mundanity with these elements of spirituality. One of my favorite instances of this is a scene where teenage David and his friends are looking for a "monster" in the woods. The monster comes from Penobscot myth. It reminded me of times spent walking in the woods as a child, afraid Bigfoot would appear around every blind corner. When David and his friends finally encounter the monster, they discover it isn't a creature of legend – It is just David's sister, moving zombie-like through the woods, in the power of substances and alcohol. In this way, addiction becomes the true monster. In terms of character, all of the characters are realistic and grey. No one is all good or all bad. The female characters are particularly well done –– they don't feel like cardboard cutouts. David's Mother and Sister are deeply nuanced, difficult characters that deal with loss in different ways. Because the characters are grey – and as they age they change – David experiences conflicting emotions regarding the adults in his life. At one point, his impromptu father figure does a very, VERY, unforgivable thing. Later, David reflects on this, with a cadence that I found sobering: "There is that terrible memory, surely, but so too are there sweet ones, the tiny memories with the tiny details that are milder in climax, no doubt, but equally powerful, like how Frick would pick me up from detention and take my backpack from me so I could climb into his high truck, and how I would always forget my backpack there, yet by some point in time the backpack would always be in my room. Or how my bike’s chain was always kept greased, or how if my toy men broke he would fix them, glue their legs or arms or heads back on. Or how, even when he was drunk, he would carry me to bed if I fell asleep on the couch." This is not one of those short story collections that you can piece through and read a short story here or there, this is a collection meant to be devoured. I loved every story and admired the writing. Of all of the stories, my favorites were BURN, THE BLESSING TOBACCO, SAFE HARBOR, EARTH,SPEAK, NIGHT OF THE LIVING REZ, and THE NAME MEANS THUNDER. NIGHT OF THE LIVING REZ and THE NAME MEANS THUNDER were so powerful, those two stories alone make this a five star read for me. After I finished this collection, I watched an interview Morgan Talty gave at The Center for Fiction. He talks about how this novel is in a way “Auto-fiction” meaning that many of the stories have layers to them, vignettes and moments from his own life, approached through fiction. I really admired this admission, the vulnerability it shows. These short stories are vulnerable and valuable. Talty manages to fabricate memory without harming anyone, while still giving the stories justice. He also talks about how white publishers and readers demand Indigenous culture to be put on display, to be performative and entertaining, rather than the actual reality of Indigenous life, the actual people living real lives. Talty did such a wonderful job writing about his Penobscot culture without using stereotypes, without providing entertainment. Instead he created a work that opens a doorway into a life and moments that many of us can relate to despite not sharing the culture. The poverty, the addiction, the happy moments playing as children. Night of the Living Rez is one of the best books I have read this year. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Nov 10, 2022
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Nov 15, 2022
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Nov 03, 2022
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Paperback
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| 1982102314
| 9781982102319
| 1982102314
| 3.64
| 140,809
| Oct 30, 2018
| Oct 30, 2018
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really liked it
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When I first looked at my copy of Elevation, all I saw was the night sky. Now I see so much more. Elevation was published in 2018, in a time where we w When I first looked at my copy of Elevation, all I saw was the night sky. Now I see so much more. Elevation was published in 2018, in a time where we were divided as a nation. A time before COVID, before quarantine, but still a time where our world was infected by disease –– but a disease that goes by hatred. This novella is slim but has huge messages for humanity about how we treat ourselves and how we treat others. Elevation is rooted in acceptance – accepting others and ourselves, accepting our lives and even our deaths, accepting the things that we can change and those that we cannot. It's also about friendship and the families that we find along the way. It's about the things we will leave behind when we die and how we should live our last days. It's about rising above hate. It's about transcending. I would recommend Elevation to everyone. Plot Scott Carey notices something peculiar is happening to him. He's losing weight. No matter how much clothing he puts on, he weighs the same in his clothes as he does out of them. Scott has been gifted or cursed (that's up to the reader to decide) with an ailment no one can understand, least of all himself. While this is happening, unsettling things are happening in town of a more domestic variety. Castle Rock, Maine has two new residents in town: Deirdre McComb & Missy Donaldson. They’ve raised a few conservative ––Well a lot of conservative –– eyebrows, because not only are they gay, but they are openly gay –– and this is just what the town can’t stomach. Scott’s got his own problems with the new couple, but it has nothing to do with their sexual orientation. We go on a journey with Scott as he tries to change the town’s attitudes towards the couple & befriend them, all while he has a ticking clock counting down his “zero” day, or the day he will be weightless. Conclusion Nothing about Elevation is scary, in the traditional sense. The public at large, and even casual King readers equate his name with Horror. In fact, Elevation even WON the 2018 Goodreads Choice Award for Horror; this is a testament to how faulty the voting system and categories for the awards are. Elevation is not a horror novel –– it wasn't even marketed as one. But still, when people got their hands on Elevation and found out it was far from the fright fest they were expecting, they were disappointed. It's like ordering a sweet tea and realizing they gave you unsweetened after you take a sip. It's a let down; I think thats what causes a lot of the negative reviews for this work. A lot of the other negative reviews are those that don't like "King inserting his political agenda into his fiction" These complaints crack me up because King has been doing this far, far before trump. Politics and societal problems at large have appeared all the way back to at least The Long Walk (And maybe even before that, but I haven't read all of his early works yet). This story is hopeful. It's almost a cozy mystery, in some ways, but it's more contemporary than anything else by King I have read. I'd liken this work most to The Shawshank Redemption: Different Seasons, though Elevation has obvious supernatural and spiritual aspects that Shawshank does not. "Everything leads to this, he thought. To this elevation. If its how dying feels, everyone should be glad to go. When I first saw the cover of Elevation I saw the night sky. Now I see fireworks. I see life's beauty. I marvel at how I saw the end of Scott's story before I had even began. I think that was intentional, that the intention is for us to think about our own mortality, about what we want to do with our time on Earth – we're already on the road to dying, we might as well get on living the best we can. There's something morbid in this, but also incredibly romantic. Hopeful even. Who knows, maybe the marketing team just thought it made a pretty cover. I'd like to think it's more than that. Connections to The Kingverse Like with The Long Walk, a big portion of the tiny novel is concerned with exercise. The town’s annual Turkey Trot culminates in a turning point for Scott, the Town, and Deirdre and Missy. Other works set in Castle Rock: Cujo, The Dead Zone, The Body, Four Past Midnight: The Sun Dog Pennywise reference pg 64 It The Shawshank Redemption: Different Seasons - no direct link, but thematically they are connected. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Jan 29, 2022
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Jan 30, 2022
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Jan 29, 2022
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Hardcover
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| 1501147420
| 9781501147425
| 1501147420
| 3.93
| 156,429
| Nov 1992
| Oct 02, 2018
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really liked it
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What to say about Dolores Claiborne... Well, she was a bitch. She might have been a murderer, but she was also a caring mother, and sometimes a woman c What to say about Dolores Claiborne... Well, she was a bitch. She might have been a murderer, but she was also a caring mother, and sometimes a woman can be all three. Dolores was a hard working, overwrought and under appreciated woman, a woman that did her best to provide for her children in the face of her husband's selfishness. Dolores loses a lot over the course of her life, including nearly losing herself. She’s held captive for years first by the presence of her husband, and later by his memory. In this novel King shows us how she frees herself. The opening of the novel explains that Dolores is the sole caretaker for a woman named Vera Donovan. Unfortunately for Dolores, Vera has died in a suspicious manner and Dolores is looking guiltier than sin in the eyes of the townsfolk of Little Tall Island. It's long been whispered that Dolores killed her husband Joe St. George. No one really cares too much that she got away with it because he was known to be abusive. In the towns collective subconscious they decide to ignore her guilt because of their own guilt; Perhaps they recognize their complicity in seeing signs of abuse and doing nothing. But this time is different. Vera was a harmless old woman. The people of Little Tall won't let Dolores get away with this again. This is the day of her reckoning. In what follows is Dolores's confession – but not the confession of Vera's murder. Instead Dolores leads us through the dark waters of her family's past, navigating the mystery of marriage and the bondage of memory. This confession is also a rebirth – it is a chance for Dolores to reclaim her name and regain her life. Beyond the startling ties of her family, this novel also follows the unusual relationship between Vera and Dolores and the circumstances that bind them. This novel is almost purely a suspense thriller. It does have horror sprinkled throughout but they are mostly human scares -- though there are some supernatural elements sprinkled throughout. This novel is scary because it could be real. It could happen. Things like this happen every day. I work in mental health, and the number of children I have taken care of that have been sexually abused SPECIFICALLY by someone they should be able to trust is astounding. This isn’t supposed to be a comfortable read because the themes present here are very real for many readers. This novel could be triggering for some. But for others, it could be like Dolores is speaking just for them. SK has said in interviews about this book that it goes “in.” He’s said that his books are split in two categories, those that go “out” and those that go “in”. I think what he’s saying is that this book is psychological and emotional. The horrors in Dolores are not supernatural – they are not the boogeyman in the closet or the monster under the bed. The horrors here are the real monsters of flesh and blood forever embedded in your memory; it's the abusive partner or the criminal parent, it’s the moments you were really scared of another human – of what they could do – or maybe it's the moment you were afraid of what you could do. This work goes "in" in the way it makes you feel, the memories it conjures up. Structure At the beginning of my copy of Dolores Claiborne is a foreword that touches on the connection between Gerald's Game and Dolores. The eclipse that occurs in these two works happens to fall over two opposite portions of Maine, casting both Dark Score Lake and Little Tall Island in darkness. In that darkness two people come face to face with real evil and in their moments of terror they see each other. Over miles and miles of land, two people who will never meet find each other, and know that the other is in more than just a physical darkness; they are in a totality all their own. This section is wonderful and serves as the precursor to the novel. It is the last page break for the next 300 plus pages. Dolores Claiborne is written in a fast paced narrative style reminiscent of something SK tried in Cujo. There are no chapter breaks, page breaks or even changes in character perspective. The entire story is a monologue narrated by Dolores as she is being interrogated by two officers Frank & Andy, and a lovely stenographer named Nancy. Because of the conversational style, everything is written in a singular island dialectic that is very particular to Dolores and at times very cumbersome to read, especially in the beginning. Over time it becomes easier to swallow, and while I didn’t personally enjoy it, it did bring the character alive. I think this would be a wonderful audiobook. The novel ends with a section titled “Scrap Book” which is really just snippets from news articles. It serves as an epilogue, and gives readers an idea of how the characters are doing after the revelations Dolores makes in her confession. The ending of the novel is the weakest part of the work, in my opinion. Not because of how it ends, but because of how it is written. History Dolores Claiborne was published in 1992, not long after Gerald's Game. Dolores and Gerald's Game were meant to be different sides of the same thematic coin, bound under the cover of a novel tentatively titled “In The Path of The Eclipse.” It made sense, as both feature two woman irreparably bound by the events that befall them on the night of a once in a lifetime lunar eclipse. Both feature women who have been taken advantage of by men that should have been their protectors. Both feature women held fast to the wreckage of their memories and nearly drowned by them. It was the best selling novel in 1982. Overall this one did better than its sister story Gerald's Game. In my edition of Dolores Claiborne, SK dedicated the work to his mother. This is a touching choice, as Dolores is a hard working women, essentially filling the role of mom and dad for her children, much in the way SK’s own mother probably raised him. Characters I was going to say that this book is character dominant, but i think it would be more accurate to say it is relationship dominant. This is not one of SK’s works like It or The Stand with a large cast of characters. This story is focused on one family. Dolores is the main character and hers is a voice we don’t get a lot in SK’s fiction (or fiction in general of this kind). We see her relationship with her daughter become fraught, and we get to see her struggle to save Selena’s life. We watched her relationship with her husband disintegrate. We watched Vera and Dolores struggle for dominance. Themes This is one of Kings shorter works, and yet it doesn’t feel underwritten. It is packed with so many critical themes, all connected by the stand that Dolores makes during the eclipse, and later in the interrogation room. The actual eclipse is a metaphor for an eclipsed life, and I held my breath as I waited to see if Dolores would free herself from the darkness. On Overcoming Personal Demons & Emotional Bondage All of the female characters in this book carry dark secrets. This work discusses how they overcome those traumas and how they free themselves from emotional bondage. Vera has her own secrets packed away that she takes with her to the grave. Selena confides in her mother but ultimately is held hostage by nightmares long into her adult life – she never marries, she turns to alcohol, and she is unable to face the town that she was raised in. Dolores goes head to head with her demons, and is imprisoned by their memory until she tells her truth. They lie to themselves and they lie to each other. All of these characters go about their shame in their own ways, and we learn lying sows nothing but pain. It is the truth that sets Dolores free. Domestic Violence and Sexual Abuse This is the driving force of the novel. If these things hadn't happened to the characters, there wouldn't be a story. Dolores is a harrowing study of domestic violence and sexual abuse. SK does a remarkable job painting these delicate topics in the tones they deserve. It doesn't feel cringey, instead it feels like SK really took the time to enter these women's minds, and feel the emotions they must have felt. Struggles with Alcoholism and Addiction One of the most haunting scenes in the novel for me involves Joe and his request for a final drink. On Time and Memory: Through Vera’s story we see how in old age people regress to childhood. We also see how the older these characters get the more they look back on life, we see their regrets and their mistakes. We see how memory is tainted by the passage of time and sometimes swallowed up by it. SK ruminates on how the past affects us and the way we reflect on our youth when we are older. Two of my favorite quotes: “Time’s a reach, too, you know, just like the one that lies between the islands and the mainland, but the only ferry that can cross it is memory, and that’s like a ghost-ship–– if you want it to disappear, after awhile it will.” “I don’t guess any of us here know what it is to be that old, and to have devils after you you can’t explain, even to yourself.” While not the primary focus, the physical and mental toll of caregiving is illustrated really well through scenes with Dolores and Vera. There's a lot in this book about falling down things. Wells, bad habits, stairs, the passage of time, depression, you name it. The image of someone falling down, or the threat of falling is prominent in this work. (Joe and the well, Vera and the stairs, Selena falling over the ferry railing, etc) “I have digged a pit for mine enemies, and am fallen into it myself.” Family/Motherhood /Marriage I think I've talked enough about this, so I'll just leave this quote that is one of the best in the novel “But it’s natural enough, as long as you remember that the inside and outside of a marriage aren’t usually much alike. What I'm gonna tell you now was on the inside of ours, and until today I always thought it would stay there.” This tells you all you need to know. On gender roles, gender inequality, generational inequalities and a great comment on feminism This is the most feminist book I’ve read of SK’s to date. I don’t typically curse in my reviews, but the significance of the word bitch is at the heart of this story. It isn’t used here in a disparaging way; the characters in this work own the word and give it a new power that only they harness. It’s a word that's been hurled at them by men in their lives as a curse, and instead of a curse they wear it with honor. Dolores and Vera are two strong women that have been hardened by a society that did not protect them from evil men. Dolores will only take shit for so long before she gives it right back (SK literally emphasizes this with the shit scenes at the beginning of the book that I really didn’t understand the full importance of until the book was over and I was looking back over my notes) Facing the truth and the importance of facing yourself There is an overwhelming connection to water Veras children - the island - references to time as a sea - major scenes occurring near water or near an absence of water (the well), dolores's repeated requests for something to drink. One of my favorite quotes: “her eyes so drowned in her own tears that they swam like rocks when you look down and see em in a stream.” And finally and perhaps most importantly, this work is about making a stand. SK writes about this idea of making a stand in a lot of his works, and i think it is so evident here with Dolores. Her tale is common: She’s an ordinary woman made mistress to her generation and gender. She's expected to take shit but not expected to dish it out. Her husband beats her and no one bats an eye – instead they stare and gossip about what silly thing she did to deserve it. In this book Dolores takes a stand against her husband, but the subtext is that she’s taking a stand against the patriarchy. She’s taking a stand against a generation devoid of strong women and a society oversaturated with controlling men, against a world filled with drivel about how women can't do what men can, against a world where men can take, and take and take until women have nothing left. This story is about Dolores taking back HER power, HER truth, and as it says in the synopsis – her name. With this unburdening she takes back her birth name and gives the St. George name its final burial. She baptizes herself in truth and escapes the darkness that plagues her. Conclusion 3.5 stars Dolores is painful and honest in the face of a lifetime of lies. It felt like I was being led through a web of family secrets and coaxed onwards by a foul mouthed grandmother. I enjoyed spending time with Dolores, but I didn’t love it in the way I’ve loved some of King’s other works. This was a hard book to read, with difficult topics that hit home for me. It serves as a reminder that you don’t always know what's going on in someone's family life, small town gossip isn’t always spot on, and you shouldn’t judge others until after you judge yourself. I think that SK did a phenomenal job writing from this perspective, but at times his voice did seep through and take me out of the story (looking at you Atropos.. This doesn’t seem like something Dolores would know, but SK sure would.) I do think I will reread this someday, probably after I read Gerald’s Game. I wouldn’t recommend this for children. This story has too many grown up themes, it is violent, and besides the abuse in it – many younger readers simply would not be interested in Dolores story. There is no real action for quite a while. I’d love to write a whole essay on the contrasts and comparisons of Dolores Claiborne & Geralds Game - the generational differences and expectations of married women, the abuse dynamic and what happens in the brain, memory distortion... oh me oh my. Connections Gerald's Game- Dolores and Jessie Burlingame are connected through the eclipse. Jessie is the main character in Gerald's Game. Selena St. George & Jessie are connected through the abuse they both suffer. They are all locked in their own labyrinths and have to find a way out. 'Salem's Lot - Jerusalem's’ Lot is mentioned in passing by Dolores The Dead Zone - Vera and Frank are names used in TDZ Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption- Andy is a name used in this work and shawshank prison is mentioned in the novel. 11/22/63 - passing references to JFK’s upcoming assassination as the eclipse and Joe’s murder occur in 1963. Cujo - lack of chapter breaks, writing style is similar (though i think where cujo failed with this style, Dolores succeeds) The Body- Writing style is first person the entire time. Storm of the Century– same setting as Dolores Claiborne, Little Tall Island Short story The Reach, King has called this a precursor for Dolores Claiborne. Thematic connections - a lot of SK’s stories deal with traumatic abuse within intimate relationships and the family unit. Addiction is also prominent. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Sep 18, 2021
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Sep 19, 2021
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Sep 18, 2021
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Paperback
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| B07S4L3G3N
| 3.93
| 42,013
| Sep 24, 1990
| Nov 12, 2019
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really liked it
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Something you have to know about me is I love reading Stephen King’s work from a readers perspective and from a writers. I just love the way this man
Something you have to know about me is I love reading Stephen King’s work from a readers perspective and from a writers. I just love the way this man thinks and the craft he has created. From a reader's perspective this is a fast paced mystery where not much happens, but yet somehow everything happens. But from a writers perspective? This is a profound character study on pressure, grief and the things that hold us back from really living. The Langoliers is about the essence of life and death and the reckoning of those two colliding. And because I know someone reading this will say “Is she really saying this about that one Stephen King miniseries with the weird flying black balls of hair and teeth?” Yes, I am. The graphics sucked –– blame a low budget production made in the nineties. Don’t blame the story. I remember watching The Langoliers miniseries when I was a child, or perhaps a teen, or maybe someplace in between. I loved it, I didn’t find it to be profound, but from my perspective it was creepy and somehow engaging despite not much actually happening. It was the lack of action, that creeping ever present dread, that kept me watching. It was much the same way with my reading experience. This is a weird, optimistic novella. It’s cosmic horror, it's science fiction, it’s mystery, it’s drama. But beneath all the weirdness, it's a story about living in the present instead of being haunted by the past. A reminder to keep moving forward, instead of looking backwards. A reminder to live in the present instead of worrying about wasting time. Plot A plane full of passengers on a red eye flight departs from LAX en route to Boston. Somewhere over the desert, the northern lights gleam. Somewhere over the desert, the waking passengers disappear, leaving behind jewelry, dental fillings, and pacemakers. Those that were sleeping wake to find that of a plane full of people, only eleven remain. Sweet dreams are most certainly not made of these. Of our passengers, one of them just happens to be a deadheading pilot, another a British government attaché, one a blind girl, another a lonely woman, an addicted teen, a wild west obsessed musician, an unhinged businessman who didn’t really have a grip on reality to begin with and of course a mystery writer. The rest simply aren't important. They begin to speculate on their situation, and decide to divert from Boston to Bangor, Maine. Because it wouldn’t be a King novel if it didn’t involve Maine. This doesn’t sit well with our resident unhinged basket case, Craig Toomey. A bad situation goes from bad to astronomically catastrophic -- because now instead of just having to deal with the little matter of accidentally ending up in a reality where no one else exists, they also have to deal with a very high strung and honestly kind of bad business man who’s one man self destruction mission has been derailed and as a result super might murder someone if he doesn’t get to his business meeting in Boston so he can be fired, because if he slacks off for a second the Langoliers will come and gobble him right on up. Seriously. I’m not even kidding. That’s the plot. And it’s wonderful! Is it weird? Oh yeah, but it’s shooting stars only around here. King is a master of writing the nuances of hysteria. The way it preys on the mind and the soul, and eventually consumes them. The setting of The Langolier is rife for breeding hysteria – most people are inherently nervous on flights, and the Langoliers vast emptiness has a quality of liminality about it that is unsettling and suffocating. History Published in 1990, The Langoliers was first included in a short story collection Four Past Midnight. King has said that this one came to him initially as just an image of a woman holding her hand over a crack in a commercial jetliner. He knew nothing about planes, and so he tabled it and let the image rest. But the woman just kept coming back to him, and eventually he realized that she was a ghost, and he knew that he wanted to write her story. That woman ends up being Engle’s deceased ex wife, and his entire reason for being on the doomed American Pride Flight 29. Conclusion At times the writing is beautiful, in a way that is quintessential King. What makes this novella even more of a joy to read is that you can just tell King had fun writing this. "Never believe a writer. Listen to them, by all means, but never believe them." I had fun reading it. Connections to The Kingverse Dinah Bellman seems to have some variance of the shine, and is also a blind character, one of many King has written. Connects to The Shining The Shop, a shady and inept government organization linked to The catastrophe in The Mist as well as Firestarter, The Stand and The Tommyknockers. Mentions preventing the JFK assassination as an impossibility of time travel.. all most an inverse theory to the plot of 11/22/63 (interesting to see how this keeps cropping up, as 11/22/63 was not written until 2011. King kept it under his hat for a long time). Literary References The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - The Speckled Band by Arthur Conan Doyle p. 58 Robert Heinlein, John Christopher and John Wyndham J.R.R. Tolkien p75 A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens p225 "This little girl, blind and badly wounded, had made a dreadful decision inside her darkness." ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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May 10, 2021
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May 12, 2021
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May 10, 2021
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Kindle Edition
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| 1982155752
| 9781982155759
| 1982155752
| 4.50
| 45,855
| Aug 27, 1982
| Sep 29, 2020
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it was amazing
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I was hesitant to read this one because in general I don’t like to read/watch anything about prison or incarceration. It makes me uncomfortable. But I
I was hesitant to read this one because in general I don’t like to read/watch anything about prison or incarceration. It makes me uncomfortable. But I wanted to know the story behind one of King's most famous film adaptations. (And I wanted to read something short for February) So Alas, we begin at the start of a very emotionally potent story. We start in darkness but we end in light. Somewhat of a rarity for Mister King, but one facet of his writing ability that he does well, even if in moderation. This may be the first King I’ve read that doesn’t include any typical horror motifs. This is a human story, and it goes to show King’s extensive range as a writer. It doesn’t have to always be psychic kids and eldritch terrors. Sometimes the beauty is in simplicity. History RH&SR first appeared in a collection of novellas titled Different Seasons with each novella corresponding with a season of the year. RH&SS was written for Spring. Different Seasons was published after his first foray into the Dark Tower and just before Christine. Rita Hayworth & Shawshank Redemption - Hope Springs Eternal Apt Pupil - Summer of Corruption The Body - Fall from Innocence The Breathing Method - A Winter's tale King has gone on record as saying that at the time he wrote these, there really wasn’t a market for non-horror novellas. People simply weren’t reading them, and society really only saw him as a horror writer. Different Seasons was King’s chance to show readers and critics that he shouldn’t be labeled as just a horror writer. In between writing novels, King would often crank out a novella or two. Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption came after he finished The Stand . Big shoes to fill. And yet, even after writing an expansive, all consuming novel, RH&SR is still an excellent feat of human resiliency and emotion. Hope Springs Eternal is a wonderful subtitle for Shawshank. Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption is the embodiment of Hope. If resilience was a person, it would be Andy Dufresne. Plot The story is narrated at some point in the future by Red, an inmate at Shawshank Prison. He’s the man that can get it for you. He’s in for life, and he comes to know and befriend Andy Dufresne. Red tells us the legend of Andy Dufresne through little vignettes of his time in Shawshank Prison. He lets us know up front that a lot of the stories he heard second hand, but some of them he witnessed. Every man in Shawshank will tell you he’s innocent, but Andy is one of the few Red every believed. "So, well, if you ask me for a clear answer to the question of whether I am trying to tell you about a man or the legend that grew around that man like the pearl does around a grain of sand, I would have to tell you that the the answer lies somewhere between man and legend." Both of these men are in prison for murdering their wives, but only one of them actually committed the crime. These two men develop a friendship far beyond the typical bond of two people stuck in the same place; they become true friends. Despite being falsely imprisoned, raped, and beaten, Andy doesn’t lose hope. He continues to hope he’ll be able to escape the storm, that the wrongs perpetrated onto him will be righted. But along the way, Andy realizes he will have to take back what has been taken from him, if he ever really wants to escape Shawshank. In 1948, Andy came to Shawshank. And in 1975, Andy escaped. Red details their time in prison, and all that comes after. Structure At barely over 100 pages, Shawshank spans the story of twenty seven years in a blink of an eye. Time passes slowly in prison, but Red makes pit stops along the past to tell us stories of Andy that ultimately, culminate in his redemption. The first (and largest chunk of the novel) is told by Red about Andy’s time in prison and eventual escape. The second half is Red’s story –– The story of what comes after. This half is interesting because it shows the complete failure of the prison system to reform inmates. Red is paroled, but he struggles to survive in a different world than the one he left thirty years ago. We see his struggle with adapting to society –– his coming to grips with his on institutionalization and hopelessness. "They give you life, and that’s what they take––all of it that counts, anyway." Themes RH&SR is a beautiful story of resilience, redemption, patience and friendship at its forefront. There is something so beautiful and innocent about Andy’s story. He dares to dream of a life on the beaches of Zihuatanejo, where he can be warmed by the ocean breeze. The pacific ocean has no memory, and Andy Dufresne hopes its' waves can wash his past away. A past where he has been broken in every way possible, but a past where he still came out on top and held on to hope even in the depths of soul crushing darkness. King sets this story of hope in one of the least hopeful places –– prison. He also makes a sound decision in Andy’s innocent and Red’s honest guilt. Andy is easier to humanize with than Red, but by the end of the story readers have a hard time not empathizing with Red. Despite the odds and the circumstance, King shows us that hope is possible even in the worst storms, and redemption is possible for those that deserve it. This is also a story about prison culture and the complete lack in actual successful prison reform. The prison doesn’t seem to help reform any of the inmates, if anything it creates criminals (Red was imprisoned for murder - by the end he’s smuggling, Andy is falsely imprisoned for murder - by the end he’s helping launder money). The library, an area that could be used for personal improvement for the inmates is scantily stocked. These prisoners are not nourished–– mentally or physically; they are left in filth. King touches on the hopelessness of reform and the crippling reality of recidivism due to institutionalization. Sometimes it's easier to be caged – especially if it's all you’ve ever been. “Some birds are not meant to be caged, that's all. Their feathers are too bright, their songs too sweet and wild. So you let them go, or when you open the cage to feed them they somehow fly out past you. And the part of you that knows it was wrong to imprison them in the first place rejoices, but still, the place where you live is that much more drab and empty for their departure." Conclusion And I have to tell you, if I was hesitant at the start, I was ravenously flipping the pages after about the first five. King laid the groundwork so fast and heavy that this story feels like it is so much bigger than the mere 111 pages it contains. By the end I was sobbing, but not out of sadness, out of joy and hope. This is a feel good story hiding in a really dark, hopeless setting. It feels like rain in the sunshine, and it's beautiful. Connections to the Kingverse: Shawshank Prison is in Maine Shawshank Prison mentioned in Later Red's crime is committed in Castle Rock Steve Dubay is mentioned from It ...more |
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Feb 11, 2021
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| 0582418178
| 9780582418172
| 0582418178
| 4.29
| 43,592
| 1982
| Dec 20, 1999
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really liked it
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The ways in which kids feel pain, and love and loss are distinct. The Body is an adventure from the outset, a tale of friendship and a coming of age n
The ways in which kids feel pain, and love and loss are distinct. The Body is an adventure from the outset, a tale of friendship and a coming of age novella about the loss of four young boys innocence. Do the people you surround yourself with hold you up, or do they hold you back? Will they stand by you? This theme is questioned throughout the book, notably from the wiser than his years Chris Chambers. One of my favorite scenes in the book comes near the end, when the boys are making their stand against Ace Merrill and his crew. Vern and Teddy abandon Chris, but Gordie stands with him. "Stick with me, Gordie," Chris said in a low, shaky voice. "stick with me, man." "I'm right here." This scene solidifies Gordies decision to stick with Chris, because Gordie realizes without him, Chris will drown. This is followed through at the end of the book, when Gordie discusses studying with Chris for college, while Teddy & Vern goof off and get high. This novella is as much about friendship as it is about growing up, and I love it for that. Friendship isn't always easy, and it doesn't always last. Friends are like seasons – they come and go. This is a poignant novella to read as an adult, and would be a wonderful introduction to SK for a younger audience, despite all the swearing. The themes here are important, relatable, and prominent. Connections: Castle Rock Story Chamberlaine, Maine is the town that Ray Brower is from - same town Carrie is set in Possible The Shining reference pg 41 "A Gordon Lachance halfway along in the process of losing the shine" most likely indicating a loss of innocence, but interesting wording for constant readers Bannerman - not present but discussed - Character in Cujo & The Dead Zone Ace Merril - Pop Merrill's nephew. mentioned in The Sun Dog , Needful Things , Skeleton Crew: Nona Vern Tessio - Skeleton Crew: Nona Teddy Duchamp - Character w/ same name mentioned in Carrie , as it is established in The Dead Zone, that Carrie is a fictional story with in the SK universe, possible that Gordon Lachance is the fictional writer of Carrie? A stretch but fun hypothesis Emporium Galorium- owned by Pop Merrill The Sun Dog Shawshank redemption mentioned (and coincidentally where Ace Merrill eventually ends up) Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption: A Story from Different Seasons Possible Night Shift reference on pg 75 "We knew about the night shift" when talking about a book of scary stories The Dead Zone reference pg 110 "The Wheel of Fortune" Mentions Derry, Jerusalem's Lot & Lewiston - all locations used in SK's works Aunt Evvie Chalmers - referenced in The Sun Dog , Cujo , Needful Things Literary References The Invisible Man review to be updated ...more |
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Jun 04, 2020
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Jun 10, 2020
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Jun 04, 2020
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| 1416524290
| 9781416524298
| 1416524290
| 3.63
| 165,205
| Apr 06, 1999
| 2000
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really liked it
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The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon is a unique look at the choices that people make, and the consequences they have to live with. TGWLTG is about a broken f The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon is a unique look at the choices that people make, and the consequences they have to live with. TGWLTG is about a broken family and a little girl who tries too hard to make everyone but herself happy. Trisha is utterly selfless in a sea of selfishness. But early in the narrative, Trisha’s focus shifts. As she is walking along the Appalachian Trail, listening to the incessant droning of her Mother & Brother’s ceaseless argument, she makes a decision. The first selfish decision she makes kickstarts the action, and sets the ball rolling. From the moment that Trisha steps off the trail, her fate is sealed. As she falls deeper and deeper into the Appalachian wilderness, her family drones on ahead, arguing about things that don’t really matter, and leaving the one thing that really does matter behind. She loses her innocence during her time in the woods, and though it isn’t clear if she will be saved, it is clear that Trisha McFarland is more than capable of saving herself. Stephen King has a knack for writing solitary stories about characters and not making them boring. Trisha may be our lone character, dying in the woods, but this isn’t boring. Her plight is haunting, because the woods are alive. SK personifies the woods in the same way that he personifies the Overlook hotel in The Shining and the town of Derry in It. The woods are alive, and in them something lurks that wants to tear into Trisha’s flesh and have her for dinner. A monster that waits and watches and laughs. A thing that hunts with patience and zeal. SK is adept at writing about isolation and the fear that we can conjure up in our own minds, the madness that creeps in and makes itself at home in our minds when we need a friend. But, that voice isn't always really a friend, is it? In the case of Patricia McFarland, the voice in her head has teeth, and it can bite her anytime it wants. The fear that leaks from these pages is cagey and primal, just like the thing in the woods that stalks Trisha. SK makes the reader ask, is this monster real, or is it imagined? Is it worse to be lost physically and mentally or is it worse to be stalked by an otherworldly Bear/Wasp God? From the point of view of a reader that wants to feel everything along with Trisha, that monster in the woods is very much real. In this world in the tangle of uninhabited wilderness, The God of The Lost exists. Other Things I liked: I appreciate the way that SK took the opportunity to write a coming of age novel that asked the questions that some others shy away from. At the beginning of the story Trisha is spiritually and mentally lost. Her faith in God and her family is minimal, but her faith in baseball is burning bright. To some, sports are a religion, and I think SK did a good job of illustrating just how all consuming sports can be. If baseball is Trisha’s religion, Tom Gordon is her God. As a reader that knows jack all about sports, this focus on baseball didn’t diminish my reading experience the way I worried it would. If anything, I now know how many innings there are in a game. How educational. The girl vs nature moments in the story were compelling. Would I eat a raw fish if it was the only source of nourishment I could acquire? I don’t know, but I certainly felt myself squirm and writhe like the fish in her hands moments before she split its belly open. The culmination of this novel made me want to cheer. I found myself feeling like I was a spectator at a game – holding my breath, sitting on the edge of my seat in suspense. The scene with Trisha standing fearlessly, ice water in her veins, staring down a mammoth bear, fraught with death and desire made me clench my teeth. It felt like I was in a stadium, watching this final, magical showdown. Because that’s what this moment really was. This was the make it or break it moment, and both SK and Trisha hit a home run. Score: 4 Connections: The McFarlands pass Castle Rock on their way to the AT. Very similar themes and plot devices as Misery, The Shining, Gerald's Game, & Cujo., The Body Would recommend people who enjoyed TGWLTG read these as well. Other interesting bits: TGWLTG was the first book published under Scribner, and shortly after publishing it SK took a walk in the woods and got hit by a car. Guys, stay out of the forest. ...more |
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| 3.94
| 159,450
| Aug 29, 1980
| Oct 02, 2007
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really liked it
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This review is apart of my goal to read & review all of King~~~ Welcome to The Mist! A creature feature with a lot more going on than you might first e This review is apart of my goal to read & review all of King~~~ Welcome to The Mist! A creature feature with a lot more going on than you might first expect, The Mist is an isolated novella that manages to make the human terrors more frightening than the Lovecraftian monsters. Surprising no one more than myself, this is now tied with Pet Sematary (my all time favorite) for the most times reread. The reason for this isn’t what you’d expect. The Mist opens on the eve of a storm on Long Lake, somewhere near Bridgton, Maine. From the first paragraph King sets us up to understand that unprecedented events are about to unfold. “This is what happened. On the night that the worst heat wave in northern New England history finally broke— the entire western Maine region was lashed with the most vicious thunderstorms I have ever seen.” The story is written from the perspective of David Drayton, son of a famous artist, and long time town resident. On the evening before the catastrophe, David has a cold dinner with his wife, Steff, and his five year old son Billy. From the start David can sense something is off. The weather has been unprecedented this year, and the storm coming from the far side of the lake gives him bad vibes. What follows is a mean summer storm. The next day, after hunkering down, they wake to a tree smashed through their picture window, and utter devastation outside. Live lines are down, hissing in the yard. Faced with a long clean up, they need food and supplies. Steff decides to stay home and tend to the destruction, while David, Billy, and their erstwhile frenemie and neighbor Norton, head into town to pick up some groceries. We spend a sizable chunk of the novel in this BEFORE, it is 44 pages before the mist reaches the market. I LOVE the opening sequence. I am a fan of most of Stephen Kings openings (We will talk about his endings later….), but The Mist is possibly one of my favorites from a writing standpoint. Reading the opening of The Mist is like reading a really great, mundane short story. It could end with the characters coming home from the market, having a day of eating bologna sandwiches, cleaning up wreckage, and playing among the reeds and I’d be satisfied. King has managed to create the perfect small town atmosphere here. This is the reason I’ve read The Mist so many times; Whenever we get the first heatwave, followed by a thunderstorm, a cooling mist creeps through the breeze and settles in for a day or two, and I can’t help but want to read the opening of The Mist. I grew up in a not as idyllic, but possibly as small, neighborhood myself, and we had many a storm that knocked us off the grid for days at a time. (See the April 27, 2011 tornado outbreak), so I could relate to this feeling of being completely disconnected following a major weather event. When the mist comes, heralded by the sound of a police car screaming into the distance and the wail of the towns fire siren, there are a lot of people in the market. Some decide to go out and see what’s going on. They are never seen again. Some screams are heard, and thuds like earthquakes are felt. Once isolated In the market conditions quickly begin to deteriorate I really loved the way King went about setting this up. The isolation, the hysteria, the problem solving among those in the market, all felt realistic. There are a few times that David mentions he feels like a character in one of the adventure comics he's illustrated in the past, and King really nails it with this feeling. The cover of this edition evokes that feel too; it's all groping in the dark with flashlights, searching for hope but also hoping nothing reaches back. This is a masterclass in building tension. "There was a sound. A soft sliding sound. It stopped, then started again with a stealthy little bump. Everything inside me went loose. I regressed magically to four years of age. That sound wasn't coming from the market. It was coming from behind me. From outside. Where the mist was. Something that was slipping and sliding and scraping all over the cinder blocks. And, maybe, looking for a way in. Or maybe it was already in, and it was looking for me." While our survivors have to contend with how to deal with the horrors in the mist, they also have to worry about the other people trapped with them. For a novella under 200 pages, King manages to craft a cast of characters that MOSTLY feel distinct and memorable. (Sorry Bud Brown and Buddy Eagleton, but King did ya’ll dirty with similar names.) David is distinctly the EVERY Man, stand in for Stephen King. He’s the fancy artist type, and a local. Norton is the previously mentioned frenemy and an out of towner. King does a lot here with the local vs vacationer, famous artist vs commoner, and I had to wonder if King has had some experiences similar to David—ya know, without the tentacle monsters. Billy is another one of the fabled Bill, Billy’s, and Big Bill’s of King fame. He’s five, and honestly now that I have a son reading about a kid missing his mommy is gut wrenching. Fatherhood is a surprising theme in a story like this, but King has gone on record saying he had the idea for the mist while at the store with his son. Mrs. Carmody is one of King’s greatest villains, because she is just a flesh and blood woman with dark ideas and a convincing tongue. King sets this up from the beginning too. Before the mist no one in town really takes her seriously. She’s an eccentric lady that seems to have an uncanny affinity for a distinctly menacing shade of yellow and decrepit antiquities; she's also very religious and superstitious. This is one of those characters you can kind of see existing in real life. The kind of person that uses her beliefs to wield hysteria and power; the kind of person that cherry picks from religious texts to fit their own agenda— You know the type. After they become trapped in the mist, Mrs. Carmody offers a solution, and so when faced with the alternative, some begin to drink her sermons like communal wine. She’s definitely an archetype constant readers will be familiar with too, in the same class of characters as classics like Margaret White and The Dead Zone’s Vera Smith. On Carmody: "She grinned, skull-like above her canary outfit. 'It's the end, I tell you. The end of everything. It's the Last Times. The moving finger has writ, not in fire, but in lines of mist." I'm sorry but if this line doesn't make you want to read The Mist I can't help you!! It gives me goosebumps. A major theme in the novel is what happens when humanity starts to break down: you see factions appear, reality seems to shift and logic is defeated by those who speak the loudest with the most conviction. And sometimes, logic and reason are defeated by people that stick there heads in the sand and refuse to acknowledge reality (the flat earth society are a perfect example of this). The inciting incident is climate related, and this sets up a really divisive thematic element all through the story. There’s talk about eco-terrorism, and the thought that the mist could be toxic to breathe. There is this through line of the natural world vs the supernatural, cosmic vs heavenly, science vs religion, whatever you want to call it. Now, that ending. I don’t like the ending of the mist. In fact this is really up there as one of my least favorite of his endings. That being said, this is the rare instance where the movie is better than the book! Do yourself a favor and read the book first, then watch the movie. The inverse leaves one set up for disappointment. Some of my favorite lines: "Candles are funny things, you know. You lay them by every spring knowing that a summer storm may knock out the power. And when the time comes, they hide." Carrying a candle, carrying the fire, was a very big deal for him. It helped him forget about being afraid." I stayed awake for another half hour with one lit candle for company, listening to the thunder walk and talk outside." The obviously perfect, If I was King writing this I'd give myself a pat on the back: “I had a dream that I saw God walking across Harrison on the far side of the lake, a God so gigantic that above the waist He was lost in a clear blue sky. In the dream I could hear the rending crack and splinter of breaking trees as God stamped the woods into the shape of His footsteps. He was circling the lake, coming toward the Bridgton side, toward us, and all the houses and cottages and summer places were bursting into purple-white flame like lightning, and soon the smoke covered everything. The smoke covered everything like a mist.” “It took me twenty years of living with my father to accept the idea that being good could be good enough. You know what talent is? The curse of expectation. As a kid you have to deal with that, beat it somehow. If you can write, you think God put you on earth to blow Shakespeare away. Or if you can paint, maybe you think - I did - that God put you on earth to blow your father away.” Connections to the Kingverse No direct connections, though I’m sure many would argue the monsters in the mist are related/the same as things from the Dark Tower, and much could be made of arguing that The Arrowhead Project is an offshoot of The Shop fromThe Langoliers/Firestarter, ETC. I have seen some things about the Tommyknockers mentioning The Arrowhead Project but as I haven’t read that I will leave that for a future me to discover. :) ...more |
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Mar 22, 2020
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| 1416524304
| 9781416524304
| 1416524304
| 3.99
| 742,740
| Apr 05, 1974
| Jan 01, 2005
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really liked it
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REREAD 2022: I liked this so much more on revisiting it! 3.5 stars. Oh Carrie, I tried to like you from the start, but sadly I’ve never much cared for REREAD 2022: I liked this so much more on revisiting it! 3.5 stars. Oh Carrie, I tried to like you from the start, but sadly I’ve never much cared for Carrie White (which seems to be a trend for our poor gal). I’ve never (gasp) seen the movie, and frankly never been interested in poor Carrie White. Because of the deluge of Carrie references in pop culture, I knew how this story would end before I read the first line. Were my expectations low? Yes, for many reasons. Partially because of my own reservations and preconceived notions, and primarily because first novels aren’t always best novels. History Carrie is a household name, and the name is tied irrevocably with that of Stephen King and Sissy Spacek. Carrie was the fourth novel written by King, but the first published. It is infamously known as the novel King tossed in the trash, before his wife Tabitha recovered it. As such, the dedication in Carrie is for Tabitha. This is the novel that those reading in publication order start with, and for some it is their first introduction to the mind of King. In 1974 King was a struggling writer, and Carrie was his breakout novel. What's in a name, By now constant readers know King reuses names, and with Kings freshman publication, it isn’t surprising to see many names that will come to pass in later novels. Christine Hargensen shares a name with a possessed Plymouth Fury I will come to know intimately later this year when I read King’s Christine. Billy Nolan shares his name with Bill Denbrough from It; King even notable calls Billy Nolan “Big Bill” during the farm scene, a nickname that Bill Denbrough will come to wear as his crown. Susan is perhaps a favorite of Kings, with Sue Snell in Carrie, Susan Norton in his sophomore novel 'Salem's Lot, and even including a variation of the name in his dark towers series with Song of Susannah. A character with the last name Mears is briefly mentioned in Carrie, and Ben Mears is the protagonist of Salems’ Lot. Teddy Duchamp makes an appearance in The Body. There are doubtless other name crossovers I’ve missed, or have yet to recognize due to having only read a small fraction of Kings works thus far. Carrie is named for our ill fated main character Carrieta “Carrie” White, a name that in itself is indicative of what the book holds. Carrie means “free man” something that Carrie is not. She is imprisoned by her love for her abusive mother and her mothers religious fanaticism. Ultimately, carrie is stifled by her desire to belong, both with her mother and with her classmates. Carrie is not free until she is broken by those around her. White represents “purity” and “cleanliness” and “godliness”, all qualities that Carrie will lose before the end of the novel. She will be baptized in blood. Plot In the town of Chamberlain, Maine death is coming. Carrie White is a leper; she is disliked and misunderstood by those around her. She is shunned, left to silences and mistreatment. The abuse has become so routine that those around her that should know better, that should intervene, simply turn a blind eye. Carrie White makes people uncomfortable. She’s been mistreated from birth, unwanted and not allowed to be herself. It was only a matter of time before her anger reached a fever pitch. Her mother is a religious extremist, her friends are nil, and even her teachers turn a blind eye to her until it is to late. So when golden boy Tommy Ross asks her to prom, she reacts like a wounded animal – she is fearful, skittish, and unable to maintain eye contact. She has been hurt and tricked so many times, once more would be the final blow. The final unravelling of an already fragile psyche. But she relents, and goes to the prom, and a piece of Carrie White softens – she opens herself up to the magic of normalcy, the fiction of belonging. But as we know, this isn’t a story with a happy ending. This one ends in blood and flames. Carrie is an example of what happens to good people that are mistreated, it is an example of traumatic responses to chronic abuse. At first, I didn’t care about Carrie. But as I read more, I began to feel badly for her. In my head I had seen her as a villain, but now, reading about her, I see her more as the ultimate victim. A scary reminder of the all too real reality that mistreatment and abuse birth evil – that nurture can lead a person to goodness or evil. That kindness can be a kind of salvation. It also made me examine my own interactions when I was a kid – would I have played along as Sue had? The genius in Carrie is that it causes readers to see themselves in the characters, and not necessarily always the good ones. Humans are more shades of grey than black and white. In a novel about supernatural terrors, the human ones are what truly terrified me. Puberty plays a big part in this novel. Carrie’s abnormally late menarche at 16 – in the school public shower, no less – trigger a catalyst of events that culminate in the Black Prom. This theme of puberty interconnects with telekinesis, and the result is a fear of the unknown tied with femininity and sexuality. Carrie has never been told what a period is; her mother has failed her –filling her head with religious fanaticism and hatred of sexuality. When Carrie gets her first period, her psychic abilities begin to flourish. She begins to embrace her womanhood, defying her mother and yet still loving her. Because chronic abuse results in trauma bonds, Carrie is unable to fully sever that connection with her mother, even in the end. Conclusion I found myself having a difficult time connecting with Carrie in the beginning of the novel and part of this is due to the structure of the novel. Part epistolary novel, part retelling from Carrie's point of view, the story is fragmented and my overall enjoyment was diminished by this. As compared to the rest of King’s oeuvre, Carrie is weak. But as a debut novel, Carrie stands strong, as a beacon of what’s to come and as a divestiture of themes and ideas that King will polish in later works. It reads as someone working out there own craft, and this is what makes Carrie an interesting work for constant readers. We also get to see characters that come to fruition in later works. Billy Nolan could be related to Patrick Hockstetter of IT. Margaret White is perhaps one of King’s most frightening villain, chilling my blood more than anyone I’ve read thus far. I find myself wondering what King could have done with Carrie if he had written it later in his career. Carrie is a reminder to be kind to others, to call out injustice and maltreatment, to not be a bystander. Carrie is a reminder to watch out for our fellow humans. The warning signs are not always there, but a lot of the time, they are. Tommy tried, but it was too little too late for Carrie White. We began in blood, and ended in it. "Jesus watches from the wall But his face is cold as stone And if he loves me As she tells me Why do I feel so alone?" - Carrie White Connections to The Kingverse Patty Strachan says Johnny set the building on fire, “like in the book carrie” - The Dead Zone Teddy Duchamp - The Body others mentioned in the "what's in a name section" TK as an early influence on the shine Literary references Not implicit, but the shower of stones falling on the White house is homage to The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson ...more |
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Jan 12, 2021
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Mar 20, 2022
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Oct 01, 2019
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Mass Market Paperback
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| 150114426X
| 9781501144264
| 150114426X
| 4.08
| 192,396
| Dec 1978
| Feb 16, 2016
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it was amazing
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“Just go on dancing with me like this forever and I'll never tire. We'll scrape our shoe on the stars and hang upside down from the moon.” This line, t “Just go on dancing with me like this forever and I'll never tire. We'll scrape our shoe on the stars and hang upside down from the moon.” This line, this ONE line, is when I knew I was in this hard and deep and this would hurt. This one scene mesmerised me. It pulled at my heart and made my insides ache. I had to know how it ended – I had to keep reading, forsaking the world and my responsibilities, reading until this walk was over and these characters could rest. Only then could I rest. That's how it is with Stephen King, he has you before you realize your pulse is quickening and before you notice your fingers grazing over the pages voraciously, eager to know more. Hungry for answers. History The Long Walk was written when the threat of the Vietnam War still loomed forebodingly overhead, at a time when the draft was ever present and at the back of every young man in America's mind. Stephen King was 18, and in a sense writing this may have been cathartic for him, a way to write out all of the absurdities and trivialities of war. But for readers, it may have been too much too soon, and it was quickly rejected by editors. Dejected, SK tabled the project, only to dig it out of the dark places of his mind in 1979, in the long shadow of the Indochina War. Publication of The Long Walk has had lasting effects on literature, inspiring works like Battle Royale and The Hunger Games (though I hesitate to compare that to this.) Themes At once a contemplation on the ridiculous notion of war for glory and greed for fame, The Long Walk is littered with conversations between the walkers about injustice and regret. As the walk beats on, each walker is left with the realization that this was not what they signed up for, most of them unsure why they even signed up in the first place. Did they harbor a secret desire for death? What was the point? What were they dying for? The Long Walk could be read as a social commentary on the obsessive nature of entertainment. The crowd that follows the Walkers is a bulbous mass of flesh, bobbing and rising throughout the hillocks on the roadside. They are almost a singular entity, with a shared conscious. The way that the crowd fawns over the discarded remnants of the Walker's is similar to the way crazed fans cling to the trash of celebrities. This is a dystopian tale of friendship, of life and of death seen through the eyes of our main character Ray Garraty. When we begin this walk with these characters we know they are fated to die, all of them, save one winner – one outlier in a sea of damned. But this doesn't make it hurt less, and it doesn't take away from the suspense when each character collects their ticket. Characters For a short novel with a large cast, SK finds a way to make most of them memorable. Unlikely friendships are formed as they march sidelong towards death. Garraty wants these boys to live just as much as he wants them to die, and that survivor's guilt weighs heavy on him. Abraham, Collie Parker, Olson, Scramm, Baker, Stebbins, even Barkovitch all leave their lasting marks on Garraty and on the reader. All of these characters affected me in some way, but none so much as McVries relationship with Garraty. McVries and Garraty GUTTED me. That's all I will say. It's all I can say. I just put the words down and pick them up again. One word in front of the other. This is psychological terror at it's best. Connections to the Kingverse One of the Bachman Books, belonging to a class of books proclaimed to be darker than the standard SK fare. SK wrote these under the pseudonym in order to publish more books in a single calendar year. The first book SK ever wrote, at the tender age of 18. Obvious similarities with The Running Man Literary References The Lottery by Shirley Jackson Ray Bradbury Lord of the Flies The Woman in White John Keats Alice's Adventures in Wonderland ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Jul 02, 2020
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Jul 05, 2020
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Jan 09, 2019
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Paperback
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| 1982112395
| 9781982112394
| 1982112395
| 4.07
| 609,245
| Nov 14, 1983
| Dec 04, 2018
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it was amazing
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Pet Sematary is one of the most poignant portrayals of grief I have ever read. It is brave, honest, and does not shy away from madness. It will make y
Pet Sematary is one of the most poignant portrayals of grief I have ever read. It is brave, honest, and does not shy away from madness. It will make you uncomfortable. It will devastate you. It will frighten you. For some, it will haunt you. It certainly haunts me. Many people (Especially younger readers) will read this for the scares –– the novelty of horror –– and many might be disappointed. This is a slow burn; there are eddies of horror dispersed throughout the first half, but the terror really comes to call at the end –– and it is brief compared to the rest of the novel. They’ll see the cat on the cover, or hear the title and think, “Oh, it’s just a cat, this won’t be bad,” but they would be wrong. The cat is only the beginning, and under the dust jacket of this novel there is tragedy that toes the line of what is acceptable to speak about and what is not. What we ignore and what we avoid. It will trudge up gleeful memories of childhood ––your own or perhaps your children––, and paint them in sepia tones; We are all aging, and we are all dying. Younger readers may enjoy this, but I think it is adults whose hearts will be tested. This is a novel that I will always recommend because death is a mystery, and burial is a secret. The nature of secrets is that they are meant to be shared. Note: There are ~light~ spoilers afoot in this review. Continue at your own risk. Structure Pet Sematary is broken up into three parts, followed by a brief Epilogue. The structure of this novel is very different from many of the King works that I have read up to this point, and best mirrors a traditional Shakespearean Tragedy. Of note, prior to the contents page of this work, there is a brief paragraph, almost as if a cautionary warning from King himself. In the Scribner Hardcover edition there is a wonderful introduction by King which details both the history of the novel as well as the misgivings King had with publication. It’s insightful and worth reading. Let’s talk about Epigraphs I enjoy well done epigraphs; a good epigraph sets the tone for the narrative and should effectively prepare the reader for what is to come. It should both reflect on the narrative and expound on it. The epigraphs almost tell their own story when read alone. Each part opens with one quote from John’s Gospel, namely Jesus Christ’s resurrection of Lazarus. This is one of the most predominant and prevailing depictions of the resurrection narrative and it doesn't just stay confined to the epigraphs –– it flows into the novel, through conversations Louis has with Ellie and to psychotic musings as the story begins to destabilize. A novel such as this would be impossible without religious undertones, and the miracle of Lazarus’s successful revival runs parallel to the Creeds downfall. Part 1 “I go, That I may wake him out of his sleep…” John's Gospel Part 2 “Your brother shall rise again.” John's Gospel Part 3 “Lord, by this time he will have begun to rot…” John's Gospel In Part 2 King also mentions The Ramones, both a nod to a band himself and Louis enjoy (King’s habit of writing himself into the characters) and later as a saying that seems to lend a, “Oh well, I have to keep going, this can’t be helped” attitude to the narrative. The path was lain with the death of Church, and from that point on Louis’s fate is sealed. “Hey-ho, let’s go” worms it’s way into Louis’s mind, and makes many appearances in his inner monologue. It becomes a chilling mantra. In Part Three we have a snippet from W.W. Jacobs "The Monkey's Paw", which King seems to come back to for inspiration at various points in his career, as it is mentioned in other works directly such as The Dead Zone. As I haven’t ~yet~ read this short story, I can only say that the quote utilized here seems to denote that both the characters in "The Monkey’s Paw" & Pet Sematary don’t know when to leave well enough alone. The quote whispers sickly that Louis will keep trying, and keep trying, and keep trying, even in the face of reason and insanity. Hey-ho, let’s go. Characters Eileen - King writes children so well, and I think part of his success is due to the ages his own children were when this was written. Many of his conversations with Ellie mirror those he has with his own kids, or perhaps, wishes he could have with his own kids. Gage - Our sacrificial lamb to the Micmac burial ground. Church - We love our pets, almost as much as our children. King eases us into the death of Church, and later punches us in the gut with the death of Gage. When Church is resurrected he embodies humanities fear of death; he smells, he seems unnatural, and menacing ––those around him shy away from him, some knowingly and others unknowingly. This isn’t King's first foray into frightening furry friends, and in many ways Church is similar to Cujo. I always felt myself feeling bad for Cujo, he was only a victim, neglected by his family. His fate could have been avoided with a simple rabies vaccine (something that incidentally Jud points out). This revelation led me to feel bad for Church upon my reread. Let these be cautionary tales to neuter/spay & vaccinate your pets. Louis’s flawed ideation that neutering Church would somehow emasculate the cat also points directly at the theme of fragile masculinity, which we’ll get into below. Louis - Lou is a doctor, a wise choice, but a bit on the nose. We have a man of science playing God, challenging his faith in science with the supernatural. One of King’s non writer counterparts, and one of my favorite male leads in all of his works I have read so far. Louis is selfish, and many of his decisions seem to be either the work of fragile masculinity or an ancient evil power (I’d like to believe it’s both). In our first glimpse of Louis’s mind he shows us that tomcat mentality of his when he daydreams about abandoning his family. He has this fear of being emasculated that he shows us through this scene, his fear of Church’s neuter, and his relationship with Rachel’s father. At the same time, he’s a young parent and husband muddied by self doubt and striving to prove himself and protect his family ––at all costs Rachel - Her aversion and ignoring of death juxtaposes nicely against Lou’s ‘acceptance’ and natural attitude towards death. In the end, this is turned on its head as Lou is unable to accept his sons own death, and Rachel seems willing to move forward with Lou and Ellie as a family. In the end, we see Rachel embrace death (opening her arms to Gage’s assault). This scene says to me that, if the cards had been exchanged, Rachel may have made the same decisions as Louis. A parents love knows no bounds. Jud- Jud makes a lot of mistakes. He's old, and he’s a more of a father figure than a companion to Louis. He’s a wonderful character and historian, and serves to introduce Louis to the Pet Sematary, setting the tragedy in motion and illustrating how powerful the allure is of the Micmac Burial Ground. Burial is a secret, and secrets are meant to be shared. Oz The Gweat and Tewwible - a gigantic child like depiction of death that Rachel creates and passes on to Louis. Oz is death, and death is Oz. Synonymous with Rachel’s sister Zelda. The Wendigo - Wendigos are creatures created from cannibals, and this one is supposed to be a Micmac Indian who succumbed to cannibalism during a barren winter. It lurks (or at least one does) in the Little God Swamp, spoiling the soil. Perhaps it gives power to the land, or perhaps it gains power from the tainted soil. Pascow, or more lovingly, Paxcow - an omen, serves as a herald of warning, a premonition. Seen after the fact by both Louis and Ellie, lending credence to the postulate that both Louis and Ellie have the shine (perhaps Rachel also, but if so she seems to have lost this in adulthood) Themes At its heart this novel is about grief, death, and parental love. The vignettes of Louis’s life with his children are heartwarming and in the end they break you. I cannot imagine reading this as a parent. I cried on page 328, I am not ashamed to say. “Gage,” he said and began to rock the boy in his arms. Gage’s hair lay against Louis’s wrist, as lifeless as wire. “Gage, it will be all right, I swear, Gage, it will be all right, this will end, this is just the night, please, Gage, I love you, Daddy loves you.” Louis rocked his son. If this doesn’t just GUT you, then are you even human? I’m going to start crying now while I type. We’re reading about the intractability of death here, the finality of death, and it is hard to stare at the bleak face of it, but King won’t allow us to turn away. -Parenthood, family, love, marriage. Rachel and Louis’s relationship is sweet, and they feel more real and stable than some of the other relationships King has written up to this point. -Let's talk about emotional instability. Lou show’s signs of this from almost the first page, wishing to abandon his family, thoughts of slapping his daughter, bouts of anger at his wife for little reason. We can also relate this to fragile masculinity. Louis compounds one bad decision with another, he thinks he is making the correct decisions for his family without stopping to consider what is actually best for his family, or in some cases flat out ignoring their needs. Ellie’s grief is completely disregarded following Gage’s death, and a quote here punched me in the gut, “she would have to swim in her grief as best she could. His thoughts were too full of his son.” His responsibility is to his family, his living family, and he believes for not the last time that he can fix everything! He knows what is best. He ignores their needs in favor of his own. -Addiction - in many ways, the pull of the Micmac burial ground is similar to addiction, there is a lusty quality to it, an allure that for some (See Steve Masterton) is easier to avoid. Louis and even Jud struggle with this, because once you have a taste it is easy to come back for more. -Supernatural vs Scientific, Religion/Faith- Christianity & Paganism, Indigenous beliefs, Burial rights, resurrection. King is said to have gone down a deep rabbit hole with these themes, and his research pays off. He goes so deep into the minutiae of interment and burial traditions and that commitment to authenticity pays off. -Freewill versus predestination - This book is thick with premonitions and that leads – and the characters – to wonder if this was fated to happen, or if they have their own free will. Rachel and Jud riot against this fate, pushing back against the forces trying to keep them away. Louis’s path is a bit muddier; he CHOOSES, to take the first step in resurrecting Church, but would he have done this if not for the knowledge shared with him by Jud? It seems that there is both free will and predestination woven into the fabric of this story. This belief is enforced more by Pascows inability to interfere but seeming duty to warn. These supernatural forces are unable to push anyone's hand, but they are able to show you their power. The power and knowledge was just too much for Louis. Another scene that enforced this for me was Steve Masterton –– he feels the magnetic pull of the Micmac burial ground, but he doesn’t fall prey to it. Conclusion In the end, it is alluded to that Gage has cannibalized Rachel, showing us that the Wendigo has taken control of Gage. There is no question that he has been touched by an ancient evil, and there is no saving him. Despite the fact that King leaves this ending open, the final, tenebrous line seals the deal for me “Darling,” it said. IT. IT said. It is no longer Rachel, and I fear Louis has little chance. Bravo King, I am shattered, and I wish to not look at this book for another few years, lest I cry my heart out and clutch at my dogs who just want to play and not be squeezed by their snot-nosed human. Connections to the Kingverse -Both Gage Creed & Georgie Denbrough from IT are buried at Mt Hope Cemetery -Set in the fictional town of Ludlow, ME, like other novels The Dark Half -Jud mentions Cujo to Louis on pg 16 -On pg 25, Lou looks over the Penobscot River and mentions off handedly that Derry is just over the river. Derry, ME is the fictional setting for IT, Dreamcatcher, Insomnia & Bag of Bones. We also make a stop in Derry in the tome that is 11/22/63 -Lou mentions Haven, ME, the fictional setting for The Tommyknockers on pg 65 -Mention of the shine, pg 80, nod to The Shining -Definite Nod to The Shining movie and Jack Torrance on page 133 (fun fact this quote or variants of it were never actually used in the novel.) (interesting because in a lot of ways Lou Creed & Jack Torrance really embody what SK was at the time he was writing –– as a father, a husband, an addict -Inconsequential at best, but SK says it is “full dark” on pg 147, a hint to Full Dark, No Stars -Rachel drives past a sign for Jerusalem’s Lot & Cumberland General, both settings in SK’s sophomore novel Salems Lot on pg 343 -I’ve seen whispers of connections to the Dark Tower, but as i have not made my journey to the tower yet, I will refrain from delving into those connections. -This is probably a stretch, but on page 353 it seems as if SK has already begun to play with the idea of Christine in his mind. “She listened to the steady drone of the big trucks, and it came to her with a sudden, vicious certainty that the truck which had killed her son was here among them … not muttering but chuckling.” King has given life to inanimate objects before (think the fire hose and topiaries in The Shining, but this specific malice attributed to the car seems to have given birth to the next novel he would work on, Christine.) -Different aspects of this novel lends credence to the idea that at least one or all of the Creeds has the Shine, specifically the thread of premonition and prophecy that runs throughout the narrative. Literary References A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens pg 23 Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak pg 63 & 291 Dorothy Sayers pg 69 Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë pg 111 Peter Pan - J.M. Barrie pg 126 Wilkie Collins pg 126 Robert A. Heinlein, Murray Leinster, Gordon R. Dickson pg 228 The Monkey's Paw/Multi-Media Kit - W.W. Jacobs Charles Dickens pg 248 (also dickensian themes at play here) The Hollow Men - T.S. Eliot pg 356 Frankenstein: The 1818 Text - Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley Holy Bible: King James Version - John's Gospel ...more |
Notes are private!
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2
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Oct 03, 2020
Sep 30, 2018
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Oct 16, 2020
Oct 30, 2018
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Sep 30, 2018
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Hardcover
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