Blogging the Great White Whale - Here's Herman!

Here are a few basic background notes to Melville and Moby Dick before we get started.  (Some of these we’ll look at in much greater detail later on.) Melville was born on August 1, 1819 in Manhattan.  His father was from a Boston based family, his mother from a well-established Hudson Valley, New York, Dutch clan.  Melville’s father was largely unsuccessful at business and died when the boy was 12.  Herman was an intelligent child, but had spotty schooling.  In 1839, to help support himself, Melville went to sea for the first time, and bit later, at age 21 he signed on to a whaling ship, the Acushnet, for an extended voyage.  He stayed on board until the middle of 1842, when he deserted and lived for a time in the islands of the South Pacific.  He hitched on to various ships and made his way back to Boston where he began to write.  He turned out two well-received novels, based on his sailing experiences (Typee and Omoo), and then hit a bit of a dry spell.

During the time of his initial success Melville married and bought a house on Holmes Rd. in Pittsfield, Massachusetts.  Named “Arrowhead”, the house became Melville’s home for 13 years, and he farmed the surrounding land and began writing the book that would become Moby Dick in Pittsfield.  During this period Melville also struck up a friendship with Nathaniel Hawthorne, who lived in nearby Lenox.

Completed and published in 1851, Moby Dick was not met with overwhelming praise – the book’s reception can best be described as “lukewarm”.  Melville would continue to attempt to write, with diminishing success, until 1857, when he largely retired from writing to become a lecturer and later a customs agent in New York.  He died in 1891, a respected man but not a literary superstar.  Melville remained largely a secondary figure in American literature until the 1920’s when his works went through a revival amongst academics and critics.  It was during this period that Moby Dick really entered the pantheon of great American books. 

The bones of the plot were set out in the first blog entry – a narrator (Ishmael) describes the events of his life leading up to and including his service on the whaling ship Pequod.   This ship is commanded by the obsessed Captain Ahab, who seeks after the near legendary white whale known as “Moby Dick” (the full title of the book is “Moby Dick, or The Whale”).  The consequences of Ahab’s quest, both on himself and the other crew members, together with a detailed description of the logistics of a life on board a whaler, make up the bulk of the book.  Or, at least, that’s what I’m told.  We’ll see.  I’ve also been told the book is boring, fascinating, thrilling, an adventure story, a morality tale, a fable, a myth, an odyssey, a hero’s quest, a villain’s saga and the first environmental novel.  As I said, we’ll see.

Oh – and first of all – how about this book being written in Pittsfield!  For those of you who think of Massachusetts as “The Bay State” and picture Cape Cod, the Boston seafront, Nantucket, Gloucester, Plymouth Rock and the other oceanic sites associated with the Commonwealth – let me assure you, you are not thinking of Pittsfield.  The city of Pittsfield is about as far inland as you can get and still be in Massachusetts.  It’s in the Housatonic River Valley, nestled amongst the Berkshire Hills – about 150 miles from the ocean. 

The part of Pittsfield where Melville lived is well known to me.  My grandmother and aunts lived on Holmes Road for a few years, a couple of miles from Melville’s Arrowhead.  The stretch of Holmes Road where Arrowhead sits (it is now a museum) is rural even to this day.  It overlooks fields and forests and a large stream runs nearby.  In Melville’s time it must have been even more out in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by nothing but fields. 

This is important to remember, for there likely would have been fewer, not more, forests back in Melville’s day.  That’s sometimes hard to grasp because we think of the woods as things that are constantly being cut back.  But, in truth, when farming was much more important in the pre-industrial/early industrial age there were many more cleared fields in the areas around New England than there are now.  This becomes very apparent if you ever spend much time in the woods around the Berkshires – you’ll be walking along through the trees and suddenly trip across a line of stones.  These are the remnants of the rock walls that crisscrossed the fields all through the area. Since about 1900 the woods have actually been creeping back into and reclaiming much of the New England landscape.  If you drive the Mass Turnpike from Springfield to the New York border you go through miles and miles of woodland.  Almost none of it is old growth forest – it was all fields given over to planting or grazing at one point or another.   It was this deforested landscape that Melville looked over – until – off in the distance – he would see one large, rounded greyish-white shape.  That was Mount Greylock, and rumor has it that it was the inspiration for Moby-Dick.  Greylock looks like a whale rising from the waves, and (as noted in this Wikipedia entry:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Greylock), it was what made Melville think of the stories he had heard about ferocious white whales during his travels on the sea. 

So Moby-Dick, perhaps the greatest ocean-going novel ever written, was inspired by a mountain that sits in the farthest inland reaches of Massachusetts, from whose summit you can see perhaps five states (and maybe two countries – I’m not sure if Canada is visible on a good day) – but not a glimpse of the sea.

BLOGGING THE GREAT WHITE WHALE

Here’s the deal.  I’ve never read Moby Dick.  It’s supposed to be right up there on the short list of candidates for “The Great American Novel”, it was largely written about a half hour away from where I grew up, it’s been sitting on bookshelves in the places where I’ve lived for most of my life, it’s sitting on my bookshelf now – and I’ve hardly ever cracked the spine.  I know, as most people do, what the bones of the story are (a narrator relates the tale of how a Captain Ahab obsessively pursues an albino sperm whale), I know the first line (“Call me Ishmael”) – and that’s about it.  Moby Dick is one of those books (Ulysses would be the major example here in Ireland) that is famous for being great and largely unread.  Hell – I was a double major in college (Poly Sci and English) and I didn’t even read it as part of my curriculum.  Melville’s The Confidence Man was the book of his that I read.  Moby Dick? – never bothered.  Damn shame.  Should’ve read it.

So now I’m going to.  Over the next months, years – however long, I’m going to read Moby Dick.  Yes sir, I’m going to attack that great white whale of a book and see what all the fuss is about. I’m also going to blog about what I’ve read – or at least use the parts of the book I’ve read as a jumping off point for a blog.  Evidently Melville writes about loads of things in this book, from the tattoos found on South Sea islanders to the details of the whaling industry.  I’m going to use that variety as a way to explore whatever Melville brings to mind.

Why the hell am I doing this?  Well, in my defense I’ve checked and I am not the first to set out to use the Herman Melville masterpiece as a means to start an extended blog.  There appear to be quite a few others who have set out to give a chapter-by-chapter, blow by blow (notice the way I avoided using the term “thar she” before that) account of their journey through the book.  The scope of Melville’s work is such that it makes people want to treat it as more than something to review, critique or analyse – they also want to “journey” through it.

I’ll admit to having some of that in mind as I set out on this extended session – but more than trying to write about the book in these entries I want to use it as a jumping off point to discuss not only where Melville is going, but where I have been.  The most intriguing thing about Moby Dick is not the story – I’ve seen the story retold in movies and cartoons for crying out loud, but the fact that no one quite seems able to decide “what it all means”.  What does the white whale represent, is it a symbol of – sexual desire?  Is it political?  Is it a metaphor for chasing wealth?  Is it about slavery?  Is it more about Ahab – or Ishmael?  No one seems to be able to decide – with the end result being that it can mean anything to anybody.  That’s what I need – a blank canvas – and that is what you will be, my cetacean friend.

So, yes, over the next few months/years I’m going to write about Melville’s book – but I expect as well to write about other books, breakfast cereals, hobbies, the consistency of mud, music, Presidents, Popes, pizza, higher education, lower education, middle education, stupidity as opposed to intelligence, relativity, relatives, wildlife, walking, running and standing still.  Anything really – because the book is supposed to let you do that.  I’ll tell jokes, ghost stories, prepare lists of things – just drift around in search of – well, whatever the whale is supposed to be.  Hop in the boat if you want to come along.

Ranking the Maine Man

Fair warning - right up front. What follows is a totally subjective blog entry, but, a few years ago while plowing through the Stephen King novel, "Under the Dome", I realized that I'd been reading his books since my freshmen year in high school.  I even remember where I first ran across King - Ms. Giles biology class, and someone - I think it was Bo Varsano - was reading "Salem's Lot".  I asked him what it was about, and, probably embarrassed to say he was reading a vampire book (in today's age where vampires are big business this is hard to believe) he gave a sort of non-committal answer like "it's hard to explain".  That was evasive enough to pique my curiosity - so I hunted down a copy of the book the next day.  I've been hooked since.

I'll be quite up front when it comes to admitting a lack of objectivity concerning King's work.  I've never considered him a mere genre or "pulp" writer, always thought he was the modern equivalent of Edgar Allan Poe, saw literary merit in his work long before it was fashionable, and think that when all is said and done King will have to be accounted for as an important chronicler of his times and a writer of consequence.  Much of this attitude, I'm sure, derives from the self-important feelings I had back when I was a high school student who didn't want to believe that the guy whose books he's just discovered is nothing more than a writer of really addictive popular fiction.  I mean - I started reading King at the same time I discovered John Irving and Kurt Vonnegut and William Styron - and they're considered important - so King must be too - right?  Not entirely flawless logic.  Nonetheless I still believe I was on to something then, and that King deserves respect if only because he toils admirably in a genre that is the equivalent of comedies at Oscar time.  Everyone knows it's harder to write a good comedy than it is to create a biopic or period drama - but no one can quite bring themselves to vote for Tootsie - or even nominate There's Something About Mary - when it comes to handing out the awards.  They stick to Gandhi or Crash.  King has the same problem - he writes "horror" - as opposed to more high-toned tomes that are updated versions of "Gatsby" or reflections on unhappy marriages.  Of course he does write about class struggles and strained relationships - but accompanies those tales with overlays of gypsy curses or unquiet spirits. How can we take him seriously?

King doesn't seem to mind this.  He just writes on - acknowledging his critics amongst the literary intelligentsia, giving them a nod and toiling away with the determination of a marathoner running through a cramp. He doesn't really deviate from the course. Instead he simply goes out and writes short stories for the New Yorker that people have to grudgingly acknowledge as one of the year's best.  Or authors not one, but two, treatises on writing that rank among the best of the past 100 years. Also - he manages to produce a cycle of novels that address women's issues in a manner that actually surpasses similar efforts by someone like John Irving.  Oh yes, he also announced his plan to serialise a novel in a manner reminiscent of Dickens (and then pulled it off).  Still, the "serious" critics scoff. I think that to put too much credence in these denizens of taste ignore is a perilous course to take - you'll be missing out on one of our greatest living writers, and I mean that sincerely.

So, without further ado, here is my ranking of the works of Mr. King, in no sequence other than a reverse order of what I've decided I've most enjoyed when reading his work.  I haven't included extensive plot summaries (you can get those on Wikipedia) but have really just stuck to what I think makes the book interesting or different.  Please feel free to agree, disagree or comment in any way you see fit - and when you make it to the end - there's a mystery gift.  (My apologies in advance to Mr. R. Zimmerman for using his lyrics to categorize my rantings).

THE "HEY I HAVEN'T READ EVERYTHING THE GUY HAS WRITTEN" CATEGORY

The Eyes of the Dragon - A straight fantasy written for his daughter.  Ties in with much of the Dark Tower themes - I'm willing to wait on this one.

BETTER STAY AWAY FROM THOSE
The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon - I understand the theme of the story, I think it had some redeeming features - but I've actually run across bears in the New England woods - they don't eat people, but they'll steal your backpack, and as a metaphor the whole thing is a stretch.  Plus, Tom Gordon went on to play for the Yankees.  My least favorite King novel.
From A Buick 8 - Look- Stephen King has written two novels about cars gone bad, and this is the worst of the two.  Can't say much more.

HARD TO TELL
Desperation
The Regulators
Insomnia - These are  three novels (one written under the Richard Bachman pseudonym), that are actually good stories in and of themselves, but leave a reader who doesn't possess a full background in King’s work more than a bit perplexed.  They're good - but in the interest of honesty I really wonder if anyone without the level of exposure that I or other committed fans have to the works of Stephen King would find these books a great experience.  The plots involve parallel universes (obviously tied in to the "Dark Tower" worlds) in which an old abandoned western ghost town and a suburban tract fall prey to evil influences.  The Regulators bears some resemblances to "It's A Good Life", a Jerome Bixby story that Rod Serling had done for The Twilight Zone.  Desperation involves a mad sheriff who imprisons unsuspecting travelers.  Insomnia more directly ties to the Dark Tower cast of characters, and is notable for one other item.  Part of the plot involves a madman flying a plane into a civic building in order to terrorize the town.  This was written in 1994 - well before September 11, 2001.  Derry, is, of course, a thinly disguised Bangor and, on September 11 the terrorists journeys began in  - you got it - Bangor.  I'd approach these books as graduate level exercises, rather than as introductions - they're for diehards.

PLANTS IN THE BED
The Tommyknockers
Dreamcatcher - Stephen King is a writer of great scope and talent.  He writes non-fiction, screenplays, short stories, epics, passable poetry, etc. - and I'll spend much of this blog entry arguing that if he accomplishes this as a horror/fantasy writer - so what.  That said, if I'm going to say he transcends genre then I have to man up and confess that when he is being defined by a category there are times he can fall a bit short.  The classic case of this, I believe, is when he wanders into science fiction.  Certainly not always (Under the Dome works OK).  But in these two novels, which involve alien life forms visiting earth, the story doesn't always resonate.  But listen - these are still entertaining books - in the The Tommyknockers the Invasion of the Bodysnatchers is channelled and brought to the next level by referencing the problems of addiction (something King struggled with in relation to alcohol).  Dreamcatcher is a reflection on disease and can be wonderfully gruesome.  The problem is, as Isaac Asimov pointed out in many of his critiques of "science fantasy", you can't forget the science.  In these two works I fear King has done that, to an extent.  He does better in in works like The Stand and Cell, where human scientific failings simply serve as the springboard for a story that was really about good versus evil.

JOIN THE ARMY
Cycle of the Werewolf – This is a pseudo graphic novel that was originally supposed to be a series of short sketches to go along with a “werewolf” themed calendar, of all things.  There are 12 separate chapters (one for each month), twelve connected stories/sketches.  Obviously it outgrew the calendar idea – but not by much.  The concept is laudable but this is probably one best aimed at the kids just dipping their toes into the King oeuvre.

GET DRESSED, GET BLESSED
Faithful (With Stewart O'Nan) - I've read this fully now and have to say - it's OK, better than my initial first impression (based on dipping in to the "important" parts).  The concept is very simple – for one year King and O’Nan followed the Red Sox and shared their impressions as the year progressed. I think the concept actually would have worked better if it hadn't ended up being 2004 that he chose to follow.  Instead you have a sort of reflective tome on the joyous frustration of being a Red Sox fan, when at the same time everyone knows what it's building to.  Plus - everyone wrote Red Sox books after 2004 - even I contributed to one – so it’s kind of tough to stand out.  But the insights into life as a celebrity author trying to maintain some connection to a treasured part of normalcy are much better than the baseball musings could ever be - and that may be the book's saving grace given the aforementioned flood of Sox related material that became available once the "C" word was broken.

THINKIN' 'BOUT THE GOVERNMENT
Firestarter - When a child turns out to have approximately the explosiveness of a nuclear bomb by using the power of her mind you might expect the government to be interested.  In the world of Stephen King this interest usually takes the form of oppression and in Firestarter you can very easily break down where the lines are drawn.  King sees bad government when he sees the State attempting to control your mind rather than free it.  The metaphor is never as strong as it is in Firestarter, which is a great story about a girl who is treated worse than a lab rat when it turns out she has pyrokinesis (the ability to light fires with her mind).  In fact, sometimes the message becomes a bit too heavy for the story to bear - but the theme is one that King develops well throughout his works.

LOOK OUT KID
Christine - And so we come to the first of my rants about an aspect of King's work that I find compelling (there are several).  There are certain things - be they characters, formats, dialogue, whatever, that Stephen King does better than anyone ever has before.  They tend to slip past unless you're looking for them - but once you realize they are out there you just kind of nod your head and go - "Yup - he's doing it again".  Christine is a story about a teenage boy who becomes obsessed with a car that is possessed by pure evil, and how it changes him.  Many people consider it one of King's weaker novels (I kind of like it).  But what really got me to notice it was my sudden realization that Stephen King writes bullies better than anyone else - ever.  He knows how to make the antagonists in his novels, particularly the ones who pick on younger children - truly reprehensible.  Think of the gang who menace the kids in The Body (discussed below).  Think of the sadistic bullies in It (who attempt to carve their name into a child's stomach) - these creeps are constant presences in King's work.  Two things jump out about this - first - how timely.  We are finally beginning to come to grips with the problem of bullying in society and here is a guy who gets it.  Second - man - Stephen King must have been picked on horribly as a kid.  I hope that as he tools around Bangor in whatever vehicle he drives now, he occasionally gets to drive over the foot of those who tormented him.  But I think he still carries some of that baggage with him and puts a bit of it into everything he writes.

THE PHONE'S TAPPED ANYWAY
Cell - Almost every Stephen King story can be boiled down to a simple question "what would happen if...?"  in Cell the question is "What would happen if your cell phone rang and, upon answering it, you were transformed into a zombie"?  The answer, according to King, is that very quickly the world will divide itself into two teams - call it good and evil, living and undead, good guys and bad guys, immune and diseased - whatever.  The creation of a dichotomy (and whether or not you are locked into your role or can change) flows through much of King's literature.  Cell, while perhaps not the most satisfying of King's books, is one of the most representative of this structure.  This duality serves as a very useful platform for storytelling (and King is, if nothing else, a supreme storyteller) and the concept is used to even greater effect in books like Salems' Lot and, most notably, The Stand (more below).

THEY KEEP IT ALL HID
The Dark Half - In this book the Freudian implications of writing under a pseudonym are taken to the next level.  The "half" referred to in the title concerns the books written by the story's main character under another name - and what happens when that alter ego comes to life.  King has, of course, written books as "Richard Bachman", going so far as to claim to have found a "Bachman" book in an old trunk in the attic.  But more important than just the theme of writing under another name is the broader context here of Stephen King writing about writing.  In addition to the obvious non-fiction works ("On Writing"), Misery is about a writer churning out a book just to keep himself alive, The Shining is about a writer who loses his mind at the typewriter (remember "typewriters"), and Bag of Bones concerns writers' block.  In addition King addresses his readers in most books (via his "Constant Reader" missives) and will usually reveal insightful bits about how he wrote a piece, what worked for him, what didn't.  Taken as a whole King's works are one of the most engaging and informative ongoing conversations between a writer and his audience ever compiled.

USERS, CHEATERS
Blockade Billy - A baseball novella from Stephen King - how can you go wrong? (More about novellas and King below.)  The book is another speciality printing and is accompanied by the short story “Morality”.  Both stories are examinations in hiding guilt – in the first instance the story of Blockade Billy has an interesting plot but an even more interesting long term outcome – in order to avoid embarrassing questions arising about the events of a baseball season seemingly the history books have been rewritten to simply leave that part out.  Perhaps an interesting comment on our modern way of dealing with our past – (Watergate anyone?).  Morality is darker – a couple undertake to commit a sin (not a mortal one, but bad enough) for money – and then have to live with the consequences of their conscience.  Not classic King, but when you see it sitting in the sale bin at the bookstore (and it will be there) it’s worth the investment.

KEEP A CLEAN NOSE
Thinner - Do not, above all other things, piss off the gypsies. This tale, about a man cursed to continually lose weight by a gypsy lady whom he offended is one of the aforementioned "Bachman Books" and it, like Pet Sematary below, seems to fall in to the category of being one of the King books that it is best to pack away for the week at the beach in the summer.  Great reads, not too long, - above all - entertainments.  I, for one, see nothing wrong with that.

GET SICK, GET WELL
Pet Sematary - An ancient Indian burial ground, a local legend, a means to cheat death.  Maybe the most purely scary of King's works (he claims as much) and, again, a modern retelling of a classic horror story (in this case "The Monkey's Paw").  Maybe not the beach for this one - maybe a tent in the woods, by flashlight.

LOOKIN' FOR A NEW FOOL
Blaze - You know what ruined "Of Mice and Men" for me?  It was the fact that before I read the book or saw the original movie I had grown up on the Looney Tunes cartoons where the big, goofy sidekick would talk to Bug's Bunny in the slow, slightly retarded voice and say things like; "This is my friend George - George is my friend, he is very smart - aren't you very smart George, I like my friend George...".  I never knew until I was much older that this came from the book and the movie's interpretation of it - so whenever I read Steinbeck I just had this ridiculous image of a big hairy monster saying "I will hug him and squeeze him and keep him as my friend forever".  Anyway - this book is King's slant on the "smart guy, dumb sidekick" story with a slight (OK, a big) difference - the smart guy is dead - and the mentally handicapped sidekick is left to try to pull off the caper on his own, with only the spirit of the other one to guide him.  Can be read, and perhaps this is pushing the metaphorical envelope, as a meditation on the duties we owe to those less fortunate who grow up amongst us.  Neglect them and they may come back to haunt us.

LOOKIN' FOR A NEW FRIEND 
Black House
The Talisman - In "Danse Macbre" his first non-fiction book, Stephen King revealed that he thought Peter Straub had written the perfect horror novel with "Ghost Story", a book that had explored many of the themes King had addressed in his own works.  Straub seems to have a mutual admiration for King, as the two writers went on to collaborate on these two works (The Talisman came first).  The stories relate the tale of Jack Sawyer - who attempts to save his mother by travelling to a parallel universe in the first book and solve a murder the same way in the latter.  To me The Talisman evokes some of the elements of C.S. Lewis's Magician's Nephew tale in the Narnia series and Black House, brings these books just up to the line of being their own Dark Tower tomes.  Collectively they are nearly the equal of that series and, because they are successful collaborations (a notoriously difficult feat), they are worthy reads.



BADGE OUT, LAID OFF
The Dark Tower Series - Begun when he was in high school, (and making cameo appearances throughout his other works), the Dark Tower series is King's alternate universe, where he goes to meet up with his inspirations, to hob-nob with H.P. Lovecraft, literarily confront his demons (how many of you read that as "literally"), and bring an entire cast of characters on an epic, ultimately circular, journey.  It is impossible to summarise the plot of the Dark Tower series - for this short space suffice to say that it is a long, rambling, engaging story, told over (so far) seven novels, that incorporates elements of Tolkien's middle earth with Clint Eastwood's cowboy character from his "Man with No Name" spaghetti westerns.  Those who love it swear it is the greatest fantasy series ever written - and there are many who love it.  I like it - it allows a reader to become acquainted with characters and plotlines in a way that transcends most writing.  If I were to compare it to any other type of media I probably would have to tell you that getting in to these books is kind of like finding a television series that you like and is of really good quality.  Remember what it was like when M*A*S*H ended?  How you felt like the characters had become part of your life?  That's what this series means to its fans - a very difficult feat to pull off in an era when books are supposed to be irrelevant.

SIX TIME USERS
Revival – On the first page of this book King sets the story up as being similar to a movie script in that one of the characters (Charles or “C. Danny” Jacobs) is identified by a film term as the “fifth business” or change agent of the story. When he’s around things happen in the narrator’s life – he is a catalyst in a very chemical sense and, since he brings things down on those around him he could, in some sense, be seen as god-like.  But Stephen King has always been pretty clear that he doesn’t “Deus any Ex Machina” so that’s not the role Mr. Jacob’s plays here – he doesn’t appear to resolve the plot with answers from on high – more he’s here to stir the pot with questions from below. 

The God reference is appropriate though because this story fills a gap in the King oeuvre.  There are a class of King stories that are straight derivations from classic horror.  Think of the reference to Van Helsing in Salem’s Lot or the echoes of “The Monkey’s Paw” in Pet Sematary.  Here we have a mad scientist who is attempting to play God while awaiting a lightning strike in an improvised lab as a corpse lies stretched out on a slab with electrodes attached to their head.  Yup – this is King’s attempt at channeling Frankenstein.  A small town minister with an interest in science suffers a tragedy – which makes him question his faith and look to “secret electricity” as a means of delving into the mysteries of the universe. His experiments lead him further and further into realms that are, on their face, of some value.  He invents new forms of photography and cures people who have lost hope in traditional medicine.  But behind it all is the spectre of a larger truth – that he is discovering things that are really a bit too dangerous and the side effects might be worse than the cure.  C. Danny Jacob’s might as well be named J. Bobby Oppenheimer – he has become death, destroyer of worlds.  Perhaps a better analogy would be Edward Teller – he just doesn’t care.

The major theme of Mary Shelley’s work was whether there are some things that man should not attempt to reveal through science.  The same thing is going on here as well – but it is the minor things, the description of addictions, the jabs at organised religion, the even more masked but cutting indictments of organised medicine - that move the story along.  There is a problem with this – the book works best with the minor themes – but because they are exactly that (minor) it doesn’t work hardest at them. As a result the things that interest us the most aren’t the things that the book focuses on – and therefore it can seem, for lack of a better term “unfocussed”. King goes very Cujo on us in this book when it comes to the ending and it happens so quickly that our vantage point is skewed – and we don’t know if we are left with any hope for the characters, or ourselves, when things are done.  Maybe that’s because the book rides in that most narrow of netherworlds (appropriate metaphor given this particular novel) between novel and novella – just too long for one – maybe a bit short for the other.  Because I love King’s novella’s I still place this firmly in the middle of his works – but it is definitely “caught” there rather than residing comfortably.

BETTER JUMP DOWN A MANHOLE 
It - This is a long novel that I actually had to read twice before I think I began to understand what it's about.  At first I simply viewed it as a series of shocking "stories" that coalesce around a creature's attempts to devour a town's children.  A group of socially maladjusted kids join together to fight the evil force, which appears, most often, in the guise of an evil clown.  Wounded once, it comes back and re-attacks the town again years later - and the same group, now adults, re-forms -so the book is about "putting the band back together" -right?  Only I didn't quite feel that was the whole story – and, if it was, it seemed strangely unformed.  Then I read it again - and this time I think I "got” It - or at least understood things a bit better.  Remember I talked about how King seemed to have been picked on as a child?  This book has the most vicious bullies in the entire King oeuvre - one of them being supernatural.  But then those same children who had been through the nightmare of this ultimate bully find themselves confronting the same "demon" in their adult years.  The book, I think, is really about how the baggage of all the grief you go through as a kid stays with you and comes back to haunt your adult life - and how you can fight that off and, hopefully, put it behind you.  This might be the most Freudian of King's books - and one of the most graphically horrifying.  Additionally - I visited Bangor just after having read this for the first time - the town (right down to the Paul Bunyan statue) is an absolute ringer for King's imaginary "Derry" - so much so that you can actually do a tour of the city using the book as a guide.

PLEASE HER, PLEASE HIM, BUY GIFTS
Needful Things - Stranger comes to town and opens a new business.  He sells amazing things - or so it seems.  You want a rare baseball card? - you got it, and at a very reasonable price (or so it seems).  You may have to play a trick on someone - but it's very innocent (or so it seems).  But as the tricks accumulate it becomes obvious that things aren't so innocent and it isn't long before a whole town can be at each other's throats.  This is the basic plot of Needful Things - but it can also be seen as an anti-greed, anti-capitalist cautionary tale.  When owning something becomes more important than the ultimate price - when the marketing "demon" is behind the purchase - society can break down very quickly.

DON'T WEAR SANDALS
Duma Key - How do you cope with loss - of a loved one, a job, a way of life or, oh, an arm?  In this King novel the horror of a phantom figure that leads a ship full of demonic spirits is surpassed by the horror of recovering from an accident that changes the way you view your life.  As some of you may know this is a very personal piece of writing for King, who survived a horrific accident in which he was struck down by sort of half-witted local yokel driver while walking down the side of the road.  The injuries he suffered and the road back from them are described in memoir form in On Writing, but the psychic difficulties are probably more explicitly described here.  The use of Florida and Minnesota as locales for the story also provide an interesting change of pace.

AVOID THE SCANDALS

Storm of the Century – After saving it for a long time I finally broke down and read this book – and the first thing that needs to be understood about it is that it is not a novel, or a collection of short stories – or a non-fiction work about an actual storm.  It’s a screenplay – which was developed in to a made for TV presentation on ABC.  The version I have includes an introduction by SK describing the process of getting the work produced, picking the right director, letting go of the written work in favor of those who will convert it to another medium.  It’s an interesting bit of a bonus to have this additional insight.  The work itself is a tale set on an island town off the coast of (go figger) Maine.  The village is about to be cut off from the mainland and potentially overrun by a huge 100 year storm.  Into this cataclysm enters a stranger who calmly sets about spreading the worst sort of murderous mayhem and leaving the townspeople with a choice – face utter destruction or take part in a game of chance, a lottery, that will only impact a few of the residents directly. Will they roll the dice? Shades of Shirley Jackson.  While not a masterpiece the story is compelling and the one-off experimentation with the format makes this a worthwhile read.

FACE FULL OF BLACK SOOT
Under the Dome - Bullies from outer space. Actually the dome of the title is only there to set up the microcosm that King wants to explore - it's what Alfred Hitchcock used to call the "macguffin".  A "macguffin" is an object or device which is used to set up the story.  The bottle containing the uranium in Notorious is a macguffin, the stolen money in the trunk of the car in Psycho is a macguffin.  In Under the Dome the sudden appearance of an invisible barrier cutting off an entire town is the macguffin - once it's in place the story proper can start.  King then goes on to explore how a populace, properly threatened and conditioned, can be manipulated into doing things in the name of fighting "terrorism" upholding "patriotism" and preserving "order" - all of which terms are in quotes for a reason.  The author's notes indicate that it was begun on November 22, 2007 - a date of some historic significance and also the title of King's next book (if you were to subtract 44 years).

MAN IN A TRENCHCOAT
Hearts in Atlantis
Four Past Midnight
Nightmares and Dreamscapes
Just After Sunset - It is really difficult to differentiate between all of the collections of King's shorter works - there are some that stand out for me and they are separately discussed below - but the tales collected in these collections provide a reader who is curious about the styles and scope of King's writing a highly entertaining and representative sample of what he's about, what he does well (and what he doesn't) and what he does extremely well.  This latter category is covered off best in these books by the short story collections, (Just After Sunset and Nightmares and Dreamscapes) offering a number of examples of Kings extraordinary imagination.  King has said that "how do you get your idea's?" is the question he is most often asked - and it isn't hard to imagine why - here you will meet a train station full of people who seem to have been waiting for an inordinately long time, a writer faced with a "Sophie's Choice" type dilemma at a rest stop, a child vampire who has a very protective father, fables, poems and non-fiction articles chronicling the magic year of a state champion little-league team.  In short, lots of fun.  In the other two books King tackles the format at which I believe he is the best alive and one of the few remaining practitioners - the novella.  More about this form appears in the discussion of the books Different Seasons and Full Dark, No Stars, below - but one thing to note might be that this longer form of story also appears, and I think to best effect, in the Just After Sunset collection - in the form of a tale that centers around a man's struggle to free himself from a port-a-potty.

HANG AROUND THE THEATERS
Danse Macabre - Non-fiction writing about the art of writing is one of those things that appears contradictory, but really isn't.  Fiction is the art of creating something that is unreal which allows people to better explain that which is real.  When writers write about their craft they create a realistic explanation of how to make-up something that is unreal.  It's like a magician telling you how the trick is done - "see - it isn't real but here is how you make people think it is..."  Magician's very rarely let us in on the trick - but King is an exception and that's fine - there is no code requiring writers to withhold their secrets (though some act like there is).  Twice King has authored longer works that let us in on how he pulls off his illusions - On Writing is discussed later in this article, but Danse Macabre is more of a direct survey of the "horror" genre - what scares us, why, what's best about this type of writing, what traps to look out for, etc.  It also goes through a recapitulation of all things scary over the past century or so in American popular culture - what were the scariest movies, which were the scariest TV shows (go search out copies of the old show Thriller) and how radio is actually the scariest medium of all.  Then King talks about his vision of the horror novel (he has great praise for Peter Straub) and talks about his own approach.  One quote:

 “I recognize terror as the finest emotion and so I will try to terrorize the reader. But if I find that I cannot terrify, I will try to horrify, and if I find that I cannot horrify, I'll go for the gross-out. I'm not proud.”

I liked peeking behind the curtain - the book is like taking a college level course with an extremely enjoyable professor at a tuition rate which can't be beat.

GIRL BY THE WHIRLPOOL
Carrie - King's first published novel is still an amazing effort for a young writer - rough around the edges but admirable in its scope.  It becomes even more so when you read the backstory King tells in On Writing - he wrote it on a typewriter while living in a trailer.  He was so poor at the time that he took out the phone because he couldn't pay the bill - so he had to be told by telegraph (remember telegraphs?) that it had been accepted for publication.  When the time came to sell the paperback rights King had great hope that he might, for the first time in his life, make a sum that exceeded 5 figures - $10,000 at the time being about his yearly salary.  The rights actually sold for $400,000 - if the critics have never valued King properly, the publishers always have.  Carrie is significant as well for the fact that it sympathetically portrays the emotional state of a young woman.  As will be discussed below, King deserves great credit for being one of the few male writers who actually can pull this off with some degree of success (and there have been many who have tried).  I also find it significant that it is an epistolary novel - told through news clippings, letters, diary entries and the like.  There was another famous writer from Dublin who wrote books in such a style.  His name was Stoker.

DON'T FOLLOW LEADERS
The Dead Zone - Johnny Smith is the everyman hero of this work - an intensely normal fellow who one day has an accident and is left in a coma for five years.  As a result of his trauma Smith has developed an uncanny ability to foresee the future, which allows him to aid in actions as disparate as finding a lost wedding ring for an old girlfriend to solving a murder case for the Chief of Police of the town of Castle Rock.  But Smith's ultimate test comes when he shakes the hand of a local politician and is visited by the spectre of this man eventually becoming the President of the United States and leading the country into an apocalyptic nuclear war.  From that point on Smith is forced to confront the question "if you could go back in time and kill Adolf Hitler - would you"?  For Smith the answer is yes - and struggling against time he sets out to do the equivalent - kill a madman tyrant before he can rain down destruction on the world.  King's main story is great - but what I really like in this book are the inter-chapters which chronicle the rise of the mad politician, Greg Stillson.  These show the effectiveness of demagoguery regardless of how cracked the source may be - and they also provide the glue to tie the rest of the story together.  I love inter-chapters as a device.  They're my favorite part of books like The Grapes of Wrath and when properly used can be among the most effective of all literary devices.  King is one of the best practitioners of the art and it's on display in this novel.

MAGGIE COMES FLEET FOOT
Rose Madder
Dolores Claiborne
Gerald's Game
Lisey's Story - I remember one of my professor's in college saying that, for the first part of the twentieth century, in order to be a well-regarded American writer it was necessary to be "fat, white, male and drunk".  A bit harsh - but, perhaps in response to the perceived macho insensitivity of prior writers', post-modern male, American (and presumably thinner and soberer) authors have tried to understand and express a female point of view in their works.  Tom Robbins in Even Cowgirls Get the Blues and John Irving (in many of his novels, but perhaps most notably in The World According to Garp) jump to mind.  Those are really great books and I recommend them to anyone - but I'd also ask you to consider Stephen King's attempts to accomplish the same understanding.  This suite of works constitute, I feel, one of the best collective attempts on the part of a male author to source his writing among women that I've ever seen.  That this has been virtually ignored by most critics (most, not all) is inexplicable.  Gerald's Game - an objectified wife is left handcuffed to her bed by a husband who insists on playing his little "game", Rose Madder - an abused wife constructs a new life while releasing the rage within her; Dolores Claiborne - a mother protects her child at the cost of the child's love and Lisey's Story - a widow struggles to cope with the lost past that threatens her future. Strong themes, typically engaging stories and perhaps King's most intellectually compelling work.

WRITE BRAILLE
Bag of Bones
Misery - What occupation do writers write about most often?  Of course - writing.  The problem with this is that it often turns into serious navel gazing - endless tomes about the internal struggles of the writer.  King, in these two books, also writes about writing, but with more of an external take - one that focuses on the writer's inability to write due to loss, the other on the audience that is written for.  Bag of Bones is about writer's block, something that you would imagine that King has never seriously had a problem with, given the sheer volume of his work.  More than blockage however the book is about how outside forces drive the creative force - it is a rambling, expressive ghost story that manages to convey the struggle a writer has to separate reality from the visions in his head.  Misery is about the struggle of a writer left abandoned to the clutches of his "biggest fan".  There is probably no other author working today who has as wide or as vocal a fan base as Stephen King - just witness the length of this article.  Sometimes it must figuratively feel like they are hobbling his ability to lead his life - so in this book he takes that literally, to great effect.

HANG AROUND THE INKWELL
The Colorado Kid – This is a speciality detective thriller originally distributed by a boutique publisher who used lurid, stylish illustrations on the cover throughout the series.  The original book has the look of an authentic, old style pulp fiction thriller – bombshell on the cover, snappy intro (“will the dead man talk?”), etc.  So that’s exactly what I expected when I opened the thing up – a Raymond Chandler style thriller full of femme fatales, tough guy heroes and snivelling Peter Lorre type bad guys – all with perhaps a supernatural Stephen King twist.  You don’t get that – but you do get something that might even be better – the story takes the form of two old newspapermen describing an old mystery to a young, female intern.  The narrative becomes a lesson in the nature of mystery – and even though the crime isn’t fully solved by the end of the book the lesson is taught.  There are some uniquely "Kingish" elements to the story – certain weird anachronisms are sprinkled throughout, intentionally.  Look for them – I only spotted one (it was before I knew I was supposed to look for them) – a character asks for a Diet Coke before Diet Coke had been introduced to the market.  There are others – and – sneaky guy that he is - King says they are deliberate. This is a little gem.

DON'T WANNA BE A BUM
Full Dark, No Stars - Stories ordinarily have heroes and villains, good guys and bad guys, winners and losers.  This is true in most of Stephen King's works as well.  But here King takes a slightly different tack - what about the cases where there isn't always the bright line between good and bad - or the hero and the villain?  Here, in four novellas, King explores the ambiguous nature of themes like vengeance, protection, good fortune and justice.  In one story a man saves himself from cancer - but at the expense of a friend of whom he has always been jealous.  In another a man struggles to keep his homestead and pass it on to his child - at the cost of his wife's life.  In a third a rape victim takes the law into her own hands - even if it means a little collateral damage.  In another story a wife discovers her husband is a serial killer - but rather than subject herself to the scandal turning him in would cause she plays judge and jury herself.  In each you have to question whether the perpetrator is within their rights to do what they have done - are they a hero - or just adding to the tally of victims?  King and novellas just go together well, and these are among his best.

TWENTY YEARS OF SCHOOLIN'
Skeleton Crew - OK - the next couple of books really go together as very similar collections of some of King's earliest, and best, short stories.  I just couldn't resist the play on words from Subterranean Homesick Blues...

AND THEY PUT YOU ON THE...
Night Shift - When Stephen King was starting his writing career he survived by working in a laundry and selling an occasional short story to magazines - often a so-called men's magazine like "Cavalier".  He was sort of like Kurt Vonnegut's alter ego Kilgore Trout in that way.  When King wrote many of these stories he was really writing to survive - not just to have the chance to write his next novel, but to eat his next meal.  Out of such pressures came some absolutely terrifying stories - including toy soldiers who come to life and fight to the death, trucks determined to hunt and kill their human oppressors, giant rats, vengeful mobsters who torture their victims, a cannibal who's last meal is - himself, a mist that hides an array of horrors and a peaceful lake that holds a man eating amoeba.  These represent a cross section of the best short horror fiction ever written - unlike the novels it's not possible to find much of an underlying theme in these other than to scare the living shit out of readers.  That's just fine with me.


I'M ON THE PAVEMENT
Doctor Sleep - The sequel isn't the equal - but it's close. King says that the idea for the book came from a question asked at one of his signings - "Whatever happened to the boy from "The Shining"?  First of all - to whoever that constant reader was - good question.  Second - you do know you've just opened up a whole hornet's nest of similar questions for all us Regiphiles, don't you?  Whatever happened to the world after The Stand, for example? But OK - aside from the obvious fact that there are reasons why it is sometimes better to let sleeping (or dead) dogs lie and not pursue a sequel, does the premise of Doctor Sleep support a full novel? I think it does. First - what is that premise? Seemingly, King is asking a very straightforward question - how did Danny Torrance the adult cope with the childhood trauma of watching his father turn slowly mad and try to kill him?
The answer is "not entirely well, thank you very much". Danny's - um - lead a "troubled" life it seems, facing the same problem's with demon alcohol that haunted his dad, unable to establish any kind of long-lasting relationships and not entirely rid of the actual "demons" that accompanied his gift of "shining". He seems to have found some peace in a role as an assistant at a hospice in New Hampshire where he helps people whose "time has come" make the transition into death. Hence the nickname "Dr. Sleep". But this peace is not to last - Danny's life is completely altered when he runs across a young girl who's "shining" ability makes his appear small (and King's "very straight forward question" reveals itself as the platform for a number of other themes to be considered). The young girl is placed in danger of a terrible fate at the hands of vampire like members of the "True Knot" who search out, torture and feed off the essence of children with the shining. By doing this these parasites live for centuries at the expense of the young. And it is that parasitism of the old at the expense of the young that forms the message here.  While King demonstrates some small pity for the "vampires'" efforts to stay alive, he makes it clear - both through the peace that Danny brings to his patients who naturally transition to death when their time comes and the literal charge of "selfishness" that he levels at those who would exploit the innocent to avoid such a fate - that maybe an acceptance of aging and death is a vital part of life. One can't help but feel that Stephen King is dealing with the implications of his, and his generation's, getting old. King seems to be implicitly criticizing efforts to dispute nature's course, whether through ludicrous amounts of plastic surgery that seek to preserve the illusion of youth or the actual efforts being made to extend the average lifespan to lengths never previously contemplated. This concept was previously visited in the "Monkey's Paw" like Pet Sematary but there is a much more nuanced message in Dr. Sleep. Combined with the obviously autobiographical elements present in Danny Torrance (and his remembrance of pre-sobriety Jack Torrance), there's alot going on in this very worthwhile book.
 
JOHNNY'S IN THE BASEMENT
The Shining - Don't let Jack Nicholson's portrayal of the main character cloud your understanding of what the book is about.  Stanley Kubrick's film adaptation of this novel has its own merits - but it is not the same as the book, both with regard to several important plot points and its overall approach.  King's novel is about the tenuous hold reality has on all of us - and how any sort of internal weakness can leave us vulnerable to losing our grip on that reality.  There's no leering "Here's Johnnnny!" equivalent - but the slow madness of a man who can't fight off his, or outside, demons.  This was King's third published novel and when I picked up The Shining for the first time, it proved to me that Stephen King was not just a guy that was going to fade away, but would be around for a while.  He wasn't The Animals - he was The Beatles.

THE PUMP DON'T WORK
Cujo - A big dog.  A rabid bat.  A trapped family.  I probably liked Cujo more than most people, but to fully explain why I'd have to give away the ending.  Suffice to say I think Stephen King shows in this book that he has the guts not to pander to his readers.  He respects those of us who read his books, he engages in dialogue with us - but when it comes to what he's writing - he's the boss.  This is one of the many reasons why I think King's critics who call him a hack don't know their ass from their elbow - hacks write what they think you want to hear - King doesn't do that.  The other thing I think is ballsy about this book is that King has the chops to stage a large chunk of it in the confines of a compact car.  Small canvas, great painting.

TRY TO BE A SUCCESS
Everything's Eventual - This, I suppose, is Stephen King's "literary" book.  There are a number of stories collected here that first appeared in The New Yorker, including The Man In The Black Suit, widely regarded as King's greatest short story and the winner of the O Henry prize for short fiction.  It should be fairly obvious that I feel most of King's work is worthy of serious regard - he's a bit modest about his abilities, but that doesn't mean the rest of have to be.  Still, I don't want people to get the impression that the reason Everything's Eventual is so high on my list is because the stories contained therein are regarded as being somehow more "important" than the other works.  Read this book because the stories, which include tales about a haunted hotel room, a despairing salesman contemplating suicide and a paralyzed man who desperately attempts to prove to the doctors that he is alive (before they cut him open for an autopsy), are damn good reads.


WATCH THE PLAINCLOTHES
Mr. Mercedes – After damn near 50 years of writing and enough books to nearly make me run out of Subterranean Homesick Blues lyrics Stephen King ups and decides to create a detective trilogy based upon an entirely new character.  Just the concept of breaking this type of new ground should earn the man kudos.  But the Bill Hodges novels, beginning with this one, are more than just a credit to King’s endless inventiveness.  These books also begin to raise new themes and (even more impressively) new takes on looking at some old ones. 

Here’s a basic plot synopsis for this introductory novel.  Bill Hodges is a recently retired detective who is not, to put it mildly, taking well to the quiet life.  He is slowly retreating into despair and moving towards suicide – helped along by the memory (and soon the active connivance) of the worst unsolved case of his career.  A driver of a black Mercedes had plowed through a group of unemployed people waiting outside the site of a job fair.  These are desperate people, and we are introduced to them at the start of the book – and the inhuman cruelty of the act is made that much more real.  Hodges cannot get those people out of his head – and the mocking perp is very much in it as well -egging Hodges on, urging him to end it all.

How he ends up not doing that – and his fight back from the brink, is what the novel is truly about.  King had announced his intended “retirement” prior to writing this book (and its sequels).  He even did cut back on the writing for a while (but of course did not retire). He may have tried to pack it in – but it didn’t take. One wonders what that experience was like and how much this is a personal reminiscence of how hard it is to stop doing what you love (or chasing personal demons).  It is telling that in this effort to get his mojo back Hodges is very much not a sole practitioner – as much as he wants to be.  The book, in exploring how the main character receives help on his road back also addresses the theme of an older person looking to develop relationships across the generations. 


 In this book there are the typical powerful instances of King dealing with bullying – but there is also the somewhat muted but quite interesting sub plot of characters coming to grips with one of King’s bugaboos – technology.  Stephen King is not a Luddite – but he makes no bones about how sceptical he is of gadgets.  In addition to writing Cell (in which a mobile phone virus leads to the collapse of civilisation), there is never much good associated with the “latest thing”.  Even in some of his essays King relates how he resisted electric typewriters.  This technological trepidation is made manifest in this book as the villain, Brady Hartsfield, is a bit of a nerdy genius, using social media and modified software to assist in his crimes.  But King also comes to terms with this fear by the use of what I think is one of his more interesting developments – intergenerational cooperation.  Hodges befriends - and allows himself to be befriended by - younger people, who are not subject to the same phobias that plague him.  While there has always been a connection between the young and old in King’s work (think Danny and Halorann in The Shining, or the relationship between Jake and Roland in The Gunslinger) that tended to be a “leader-follower” arrangement.  In this book – and in the one’s in the series that follow – there is more equality as these partners conspire to prevent Hartsfield from committing more mass atrocities.


 A final point – these are detective stories and this first one is (mostly) written as straight detective fiction – but there is a supernatural element that is established here and developed later on.  I have heard some complain about this – “why couldn’t King just play it straight – why the hocus pocus”.  Look folks – complaining about the paranormal in a King novel is like saying “loved that Dick Francis novel – but what’s with the feckin’ horses?”  He probably could have written the books without anything otherworldly – but then it wouldn’t have been Stephen King.  He’s earned the right to be himself.  

DON’T STEAL, DON’T LIFT
Finders Keepers – When you think of a writer living in northern New England who won’t stop writing you think of Stephen King.  When you think of a writer living in Northern New England who didn’t write at all you think of J.D. Salinger. In this book, the two meet.

 The Salinger stand in is “John Rothstein” who has created a fictional persona somewhat reminiscent of Holden Caulfield named “Jimmy Gold” and then stopped publishing anything about the immensely popular character.  When an obsessed fan named Morris Bellamy ends up murdering Rothstein as part of a botched robbery, he walks out of the house with all the accumulated writings of the author’s career – unpublished and unsaleable.  Bellamy hides the goods – and then proceeds to get sent up for life because of an unrelated crime.  The manuscripts are still out there, and, like Gollum with the one ring, they seem to have to be found. 

 Found they are – by young Pete Saubers, a teenager with a direct family connection to the crime that is central to the plot of Mr. Mercedes.  When Bellamy is paroled – he wants his ill gotten gains back – and Saubers needs the team of investigators, lead by Bill Hodges, to protect him. 

 While this book is, at its most basic, simply a good yarn – bubbling in the background is the presence of Brady Hartsfield, the villain from the first book and someone who is clearly destined to come back to prominence.  But also bubbling back there is the fact that this is yet another King book on writing.  Clearly the Salinger reference is out front – but also in there is the writer to whom King dedicates the book with the simple phrase “Thinking of John D. MacDonald”.  The prose in this work resembles, and is likely an homage to, MacDonald.  Known mainly for his Travis McGee novels (each of which contained a color in the title) but a prolific writer of other works – MacDonald is, in some ways, King before King.  A writer of popular fiction, lightly regarded at first but increasingly acknowledged as a master craftsman skilled enough to have easily crossed the border into fine art.  Here’s a tip for the King fan who wants to find someone else’s works that give them the same sort of jolt.  Take a shot of MacDonald.

LIGHT YOURSELF A CANDLE
End of Watch – Let’s talk about secondary characters. In most King novels there is a hero, often flawed, often reluctant.  There is often a villain to accompany this hero – sometimes redeemed, more often purely evil.  The only time I think this doesn’t apply would be those instances, like The Stand, where there is a true ensemble cast – and even in those cases there is usually a villain.  There is nothing in what I have just said that is earth shaking – just about all books have such elements.

What makes a King novel better than the average paperback to be found in the “Horror” or “Suspense” section of the bookstore are the secondary characters that support these primary players. Right back to the time of Sue in Carrie, through to the daughter in Dolores Claiborne and the other occupants (both convicts and guards) of death row in The Green Mile, King imbues his supporting cast with a bit more life than most writers. When he fails to do that – his books suffer.  In the Hodges trilogy King has not forgotten to make his secondary characters important, able to leap out and support a portion of the book by themselves – and the best example of that is a character that comes to the fore in this book – Holly Gibney.

 Gibney entered the books early on as the annoying, simpering cousin of the love interest in Mr. Mercedes.  However – she is soon revealed to be the victim of bullying (a recurring King theme) and is probably residing somewhere on the autism spectrum.  Observing her overcoming these obstacles while charting the three book growth of Holly’s character may be one of the most engaging feats of King’s literary career.  Contrast these passages, first from Mr. Mercedes:

             Her eyes widen. “How do you know I take Lexapro – did she tell you?”

“Nobody told me – nobody had to.  I used to be a detective.” He tightens the arm around her shoulders a little and gives her a small, friendly shake. “Now answer my question”. 

“It’s in my purse.  I haven’t taken it today because….” She gives a small shrill giggle. “Because it makes me have to pee.”

 Then from End of Watch:

“Guard your thoughts. I know how crazy that sounds, but I am crazy, at least some of the time, so I can say it.  If you should have any ideas about…well, harming yourself…call me.  Call me right away.

The former represents a scared child whose greatest act of rebellion entails skipping their meds.  The latter shows a self aware leader who can give orders.  The evolution of that character is skillfully accomplished and most fully realised in this book.

 The plot of End of Watch brings us full circle – Brady Hartsfield is back – using a combination of modern technology and good old fashioned telekinesis to wreak havoc. Hodges, Holly and Jerome (another strong secondary character) need to stop him before time runs out.  Really runs out, as far as Hodges is concerned.

 I rate these books collectively – and very highly.  Some of those points are, admittedly, granted simply due to King’s willingness to try a new concept – the recurring detective character – at such a late stage in his career. But I make no apologies for that – there is no reason why we should do anything but celebrate the fact that to the firm of Holmes, Poirot, Marple, Brown and McGee a new name partner has been added.

WALK ON YOUR TIP-TOES
The Bachman Books - if people worried that I'd gone too highbrow in ranking Everything's Eventual so high - don't worry, just look what's next.  Stephen King created Richard Bachman to see if the books would sell even without the King name on the cover.  They sold OK - but I also think that King wanted to let his comic book loving side run a bit more freely.  The result was a series of books that were much shorter than things like The Stand or The Shining, and also a bit more "out there".  In The Running Man King imagines the sickest behaviour turned into a game show - "The Most Dangerous Game" turned to mass entertainment.  In The Long Walk a contest features again - but this time it is an evil state that provides the rules.  Fans of The Hunger Games should be drawn to this, one of its clearest influences. In Roadwork King again takes on an uncaring government bureaucracy as a man fights to preserve his home against takeover by "eminent domain".  Personally, I think "eminent domain" may be the most chilling legal phrase there is - it seems the modern equivalent of "prima noctis" - it just sounds bad.  There is another Bachman Book - King has removed it from publication.  Suffice to say that it was pulled because the worry was that reading it would push vulnerable young people over the edge into insanity.

IT’S SOMETHING YOU DID
11.22.63 – Just a quick update to fit Stephen King’s latest release in to the blog and give people an idea of what the fuss is about.  At this point die hard King fans know that 11.22.63 has made the New York Times list of the five best works of fiction for the year – a first for our hero and a sign that the re-assessment of his body of work as one of consequence has begun to pick up pace.  Non-King fans may know this as well, and that’s a good thing - but not a legitimate reason to feel that this book is somehow "different".  There are those who immediately have tried to point out that “this is not your typical King book” (read:  no vampires) and therefore is somehow deserving of high praise.  I believe Slate magazine’s recent review has a better reason for the book’s mainstream acceptance – rather than a true departure this book is actually just as much a King book as any other (albeit with some aspects that make it more accessible to newbies and horror averse readers).  The critical praise is really just an indication that the sub-species of so-called “genre” writing is finally getting some much needed respect.  This may, in itself, be largely due to King’s yeoman efforts (the sub-headline in the Slate review read something like “four first time novelists and one 51^st time novelist make the Times list this year” – funny but, holy shit, 51 freaking books – wow). Another thing that I think has made the idea of “genre” so much more palatable to critics is that, clearly, the single most relevant cultural form currently being mass produced is, believe it or not, not literature, or cinema or music.  Finally, after decades of being a “vast wasteland” television is not just entertaining and sometimes brilliant in scope, but brilliant from the get go, and entertaining because it’s so smart.  No, I’m not talking Two and A-Half Men – but the series that have developed, largely on cable, are now worthy of serious recognition as art forms.  This is a revelation that comes grudgingly, in the same way that critics in the sixties and seventies must have had to be dragged kicking and screaming to finally regard film as art, but with The Sopranos, Breaking Bad, The Wire, Mad Men, Dexter, etc. TV has finally grown up and, lo and behold, all of those examples given above are “genre” bits.  Gangsters, criminals, period pieces - - genre looks good these days because the best stuff out there is all genre stuff – and who’s been the best at that type of writing for the past three decades – why hello Mr. King. 

On to the book itself.  New York Times lists to the contrary – it’s not King’s best novel, but it is damn good.  Jake Epping is a high school teacher coming off a bad marriage who befriends the owner of a diner who just happens to have a wormhole to the past in his pantry.  When said diner owner turns up dying of cancer and implores Jake to take up a job he’s been pursuing in the past – namely hunting Lee Harvey Oswald down and preventing him from killing JFK, Jake consents – not only to stop Oswald, but to assist in righting a few other wrongs.  Transported back to the past Jake takes on a new identity, finds love, wrestles with the past’s unwillingness to change and confronts moral dilemmas a-plenty.  Dom Delillo and Norman Mailer have both tackled the analysis of Lee Oswald’s journey to the window of the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository and, without giving away too much plot, let’s just say King holds his own, still manages to build in references to his past works (the Book Depository is the Overlook Hotel, Jake drives Christine’s good sister, and “It” characters abound) and brings back a time where you could still buy Moxie.

I did something different with this book.  I listened to it first (I will buy it, but wanted to try a lengthy audiobook).  It’s a very different experience – but not necessarily a bad one.  The few annoyances that exist (the reader turns FBI agent James Hosty into James Stewart, for instance) are counterbalanced by the fact that I’m not in high school anymore – and having two kids, a busy job and limited hours can make tackling a massive King novel a time investment that is sometimes really hard to pull off.  I could listen in the car on the way in to work in the mornings and absorb more than I can with the interruptions associated with holding a book in your hands.  In a perfect world I’d still prefer to have the time to read a book like this by physically holding it – and for most I will.  But the world isn’t perfect, it’s as good as we can make it now – and after experiencing 11.22.63 I’m quite content to be satisfied with that.


SAYS HE'S GOT A BAD COUGH
The Stand - If you discount the Dark Tower books as being a series then this work stands as King's magnum opus - the single book in which you can find most, if not all, of the elements that stretch throughout the body of the rest of his works.  Here is the stark good v. evil, the meddling, incompetent government, the apocalyptic event that transforms the world, the reluctant hero, the vicious bullies, the disabled underdog who overcomes his handicap, along with the paranormal elements that make it so completely a Stephen King book.  Briefly - a new government created disease wipes out much of the world's population, the remainders of which divide into two opposing camps (the baddies are to be found in Vegas).  The book challenges the reader to think about what side he or she would end up on, not because they intend to be part of the "bad guys" but because they might not figure out who was who until too late in the game.  That's scary - and timely, no matter when you pick up and read the book.

MIXING UP THE MEDICINE

On Writing - Right now my son is reading Charlotte's Web as an assignment from school.  The book, written by E.B. White, is a children's classic - but I never realized until I went to college that it was only the second most influential book White ever wrote (no, I'm not talking about Stuart Little).  White also was one of the co-authors of a little volume called The Elements of Style, which has been long regarded as one of the best books on the craft of writing ever published.  The only thing given to college freshmen more than The Elements of Style is herpes. Stephen King's On Writing is better than The Elements of Style (it also beats the hell out of herpes). It is part memoir, part guidebook, part confession and part journal.  There are many parts of this book that delight but the one I like best is where King relates how the man who had nearly killed him while carelessly driving had told an investigator that he reason he was on the roads was "because he wanted some of those Marzes-bars they have up to the store".  "It occurs to me I have nearly been killed by a character right out of one of my own novels" he writes.

IN THE BIG PEN

The Green Mile – The idea of crafting your story in widely spaced out "episodes" did not originate with T.V. series.  Before The Sopranos made serialized entertainment back into high art, there was I Love Lucy.  Before I Love Lucy made periodic absorption of an ongoing story palatable, there was radio.  And before radio shows like Burns & Allen made the communal gathering to share a common experience typical -there were serialized books. Charles Dickens used to write his books in serial form - a new chapter would come out every month or so - and he was so popular that crowds would gather down by the piers on the day the ship carrying the next installment was due to arrive. Magazines would bring novels to the general public in serial form, a new section each month - and circulation numbers would skyrocket when a really good one was being printed.  People once were used to receiving their reading material over a period of time, digesting and absorbing the characters slowly, rather than in one big rush.  This changes the way that literature is perceived - and it was an experience that was largely foreign to modern readers until 1996 when Stephen King published The Green Mile in six installments.  I have a soft spot for this novel because it was coming out during the time that my wife and I were first going out - and each month one or the other of us would pick up the next installment to share.  King's willingness to try serial publication certainly stems, in large part, from his success.  Most authors don't get this option.  But it also has roots in his courage to experiment and his publisher's trust in his ability to pull it off.  The result is a novel that explores not just the obvious issue of capital punishment, but also addresses the question of aging, death and the burdens of living. 

GET JAILED, JUMP BAIL

Different Seasons - There are novels, which are long.  There are short stories, which are (wait for it) short.  Then there is the dark and difficult land between the two - not quite long enough to be a novel, too long to be a short story.  Some writers call these "novellas" and are never heard from again, but most call them "unpublishable" and move on to the next project.  Not Stephen King.  He is the one remaining holdout who regularly publishes material in a form that, while it never thrived, at least lasted for many, many years in various magazines and certain books.  I like novellas - I've read tons of novels that, when I've finished, cause me to say "that was all right - but it could have been a bit shorter".  I've also read many short stories where I've ended up saying "tell me more, tell me more".  (The latter is not necessarily as bad as the former).  Stephen King is confident enough to (very occasionally) put his pen down before travelling down a road too long.  The payoff for the reader is to be found in this collection of four novellas - undeniably, I feel, the greatest such compilation in the history of American literature.  Some may say this is like awarding someone the status of being the greatest ice hockey player in Jamaican history, but, what the hell - the best is the best.  In this book you'll find Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption.  There is a reason why this is now appearing regularly on people’s lists of their "ten best" films, and it isn't because of the brilliance of Tim Robbins.  It's because the film springs from a great story of friendship and redemption, one that, by itself, would make this book outstanding.  But it is accompanied by The Body (which also became a damn good movie, and not because of the fiery brilliance that is Corey Feldman).  The story of four friends walking through the woods to find a dead body is one of the great coming of age tales of this century.  The other two novellas, Apt Pupil (a story of evil's corruptive powers) and The Breathing Method (a classic "let's tell a story around the fire" shocker) are good in their own right, but it is when it is considered as a whole, when it is acknowledged as a repository for a dying art, that Different Seasons ripens into the status of classic. 

YOU BETTER DUCK DOWN THE ALLEY WAY

Salem's Lot - OK - it's the first Stephen King book I picked up, and it's still my favorite.  There is no logic here other than before I read the book I wouldn't have thought I'd like this sort of stuff, and now more than thirty years later I read everything the guy writes (well, almost).  It is the story of a town that finds itself under siege by vampires, how the ones who are smart enough to realize what is going on come together to fight back and the resulting battle.  But it is also about small town politics and the sort of "everybody knows everybody but nobody really knows anything" dynamic that pervades such places.  I grew up in (and when I first read this book was growing up in) such a small town and this book really captures that dynamic.  As much as I like some of the other books on this list, and as much as I know there might be more practical reasons to go in a different direction, if someone came up to me and asked "I've never read a Stephen King book before - which one should I start with"? - I'd hand them this one.

So that's it.  There are other places to find the odd bit of King writing, and they are worth hunting down, but the above covers most of the mainstream material.  I did promise a "mystery gift" for those who make it through the whole entry (hope you didn't cheat) - and here it is.  On Stephen King's website (Link here:  http://www.stephenking.com/faq.html#5.1) there is a section called "The Office" which, if you answer all of the hidden questions, will supposedly allow you to download an unfinished work called The Plant.  I've never been able to find all the questions, and hence never been able to read The Plant - maybe you want to try?