My Long Walk Through Stephen King's Lot

Reflections on Rose Madder : Part One (pp. 1 – 192) In the early-to-mid 1990s, Stephen King wrote a small string of books—tenuously, but intriguingly related to one another—featuring abused female protagonists who come up against a different sort of evil than is customary in King’s horror fiction: the sort of evil perpetrated by vicious men.   I found the first of these novels, Gerald’s Game , to be vaguely exploitative, unnecessarily grim and too vulgar for its own good, but the second one, Dolores Claiborne , to be a terrific achievement.   Rose Madder , the third book, seems to be widely regarded as the worst of the batch—and not just that, but also as one of Stephen King’s “lesser” books overall.   This reputation preceded my reading of the novel, yet a mere few chapters in, I could already see what a great work of empathy it is. To begin with, I have not always been enamored with King’s ability to write from the perspective of women.   I ...

At this point in my tenure as a Stephen King fan, it’s not too often that I am blindsided by some new knowledge of his work.   Yet I just recently discovered Stephen King had written a Sherlock Holmes story!   How had I not realized this?   As fortune has it, this particular short story—“ The Doctor’s Case ,” originally published in 1987 in The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes —was later added to the compilation Nightmares & Dreamscapes , so I even had a copy on hand, and didn’t need to track it down!   Having just read it, I found the story to be pretty great.   King obviously put effort toward striking an authorial tone that breaks form with what is most familiar for him and pays homage to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.   I noticed this immediately in King’s use of certain language, phrasing and cadence, and the essential tone.   There is a certain formalized air to it that masks King’s usual style and places it nicely in the vein of Doyle’...

    Confession: I was pretty excited to pick up a copy of “The Dark Tower” blu-ray on Black Friday.   I saw the film during its theatrical run, liked it, and planned to add it to my collection when it made its way to video.   Plus, it certainly didn’t hurt that I could snag it for such a good deal! I know, I know.   There are, of course, many who do not share my enthusiasm for this particular movie.   Some are casual moviegoers, others are critics.   Some, of course, are Stephen King fanatics who apparently find this film version of his most complex and expansive literary work to be a failure.   Some of this backlash seems to be rooted in the feeling that the filmmakers have changed too much of King’s source material.   For one thing, the entry point into this story is Jake, rather than Roland.   I’ll admit that I was disappointed that the movie did not begin as The Gunslinger does, with King’s excellent opening l...

The Mist is a Stephen King story I've wanted to read for a long time.  I have always been aware of its positive reputation, but when I began hearing it referred to as maybe the best of his novellas, I figured it was high time I gave it a look.  The image above is from the paperback copy of Skeleton Crew I recently purchased.  It’s far from my favorite cover image, but the therapist in me does like the Rorschach-ian quality of it.  The novella is not necessarily what I expected, and that is in no way a bad thing. This is not a “scary” story; at least it isn’t for me.  But it is, in certain ways, intense and unnerving.  There are some nice short sequences of suspense, but mostly the story works because King so effectively draws us into what is a very disconcerting, hopeless-feeling scenario.  King generates a good amount of empathy for the plight of those trapped in the supermarket, especially by focusing on the distress that comes from knowing...

  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 att...

I came across a couple of YouTube videos where fans were making recommendations as to what would be a great first read for the King uninitiated.   That got me thinking: what would I recommend? Without confirming the precise number, Stephen King has written approximately 60 novels and something like 200 short stories.   That’s an incredible body of work, and a huge task in determining where to begin.   There are at least a few novels that I think would be a less than ideal place to start.   For me, those would be Dreamcatcher , Gerald’s Game , and Mr. Mercedes .   The first two titles are, for my money, not particularly well written books.   The third is perfectly adequate, and features some good characters, but is, on the whole, fairly “by-the-numbers” plot-wise, and therefore not a good representation of King’s writing and creativity overall.    I also think the Dark Tower books are probably not the right entry point either. ...

Stephen King is not just an author who churns out a ton of stories—although, yes, he certainly does do that.   King is an author who has created (and is still creating ) a vast, interconnected literary universe.   One of the greatest pleasures in being a devoted fan is in finding how often King references, and connects to, characters, story elements, and locales found throughout his literary canon.   King often refers to his most ardent fans as “Constant Readers.”   It is a term he uses to regard those readers who’ve put a lot of money into his pockets and faithfully stayed the course with him over numerous decades, reading everything he’s published.   I imagine King is flattered by such commitment from his audience, and counts himself blessed.   But the truth is, he gives his most faithful readers a lot to enjoy on the other end, and rewards their diligence with special insight into his fictional landscape that many casual readers are not privy to. ...