A Consideration of King's Most Notorious Novel

 

Rage is a fascinating entry in King’s canon.  It attained a certain level of infamy, as it is the only book he ever pulled from print.  It is not particularly hard to get your hands on a copy, but you can do so now only as part of The Bachman Books collection.  My history with the novel is such that I tried to read it two or three times over the years, but somehow was never able to move past the first three chapters.  Something about the overall tone put me off to it.  Now, having finally given it a fairer consideration, I find that, yes, the style still bothers me—but perhaps not as much as the grim subject matter.

Is it predictable for me to say that?  Probably.
 
Is it unfair of me?  Maybe, especially since I am regarding the novel from a distance and perspective far removed from when the novel was first published.  School shootings are more prevalent in today’s culture.  Certainly more attention is given to them, considering how media-focused we are, forty years later.
 
For my money, Rage is a fairly well-written, occasionally insightful, novel by a young writer who was obviously ambitious, full of passion, good with language and very expressive.  Within the context of the novel’s set-up—the takeover of a high school classroom by a violent teen—the characters, situations, and dialogue all come off with an essential realism and just enough dimension to be intriguing.
 
It also struck me, however, as an angry, mean-spirited work that is, consequently, off-putting to read.  It is told from the first-person perspective of its main character, Charlie, which lends to the disturbing tone.  I do not think everyone will see the book on the same terms I did, but that was my experience with it.
 
For all the negative feelings it evoked in me, somehow it didn’t feel like a terribly substantial work by King.  It is worth a read, especially if you are interested in the books King wrote as Richard Bachman.  And there is some charm in knowing it was at least partly written when King was still in high school.
 
King often writes about “dark” themes, and even when his stories are not overtly scary, they are mostly grim, tragic, and disturbing in various ways.  But Rage struck me as almost unnecessarily harsh and bleak.  I have to give King credit for attempting to enter into the headspace and emotional viewpoint of a disaffected, unstable, dangerous youth, but there is a big question as to whether it is rewarding to take that trip as a reader.
 
Certainly the book is affecting in an unpleasant way—or at least was for me.  But the other question is whether or not the book is dangerous.  King himself obviously feared it to be, since he acted on taking it out of print.  In his essay Guns, King admits: “I suppose if it had been written today, and some high school English teacher had seen it, he would have rushed the manuscript to the guidance counselor and I would have found myself in therapy posthaste.”  This is, of course, King looking at the book through the lens of time and the apparent changes in our culture in terms of mass shootings.  But it is worth bearing in mind that there were at least four incidents which gave King reason to worry.  On such occasions, students who carried out violent acts (or at least had planned to) were found to have copies of the book, and seemed to be inspired by it. 
 
For me, the answer to the question of dangerousness is: I don’t know.  I’m a thirty-six year-old guy reading the book.  I have the benefit of a fair amount of life experience and perspective behind me, and am no longer filled with the sort of angst I was as a teenager.  Perhaps because of those reasons, I simply didn’t feel a connection to the book.  Rage is written from Charlie’s point of view, which is probably the right choice for making the story persuasive and engaging, but is also unfortunate in terms of the book’s implications, since that is what gives it its strong, nasty tone.  Charlie’s feelings and perspective, I would guess, are what young people would identify with, if they were take to the novel in a strong, personal way.  I saw a young reviewer on YouTube talking about Rage, and he claimed to have read first read it at around eleven years old.  I’d be lying if I said I didn’t find that a little worrisome.
 
Rage is not, ultimately, one of my favorite Stephen King books.  There are flashes of brilliance in it, a good grasp of character, and a reasonably confident authorly voice overall.  I am impressed that this book was evidently one of King’s earlier attempts, as it further proves for me how crazily talented the guy is.  I admire the novel for what it represents in terms of King’s burgeoning skills, but cannot say I have any particular affection for it.