Recently read: The Stand by Stephen King

Last night, I finished this brick by King. I'm still a bit too exhausted by it to comment in any detail (and I think that exhaustion was part of his plan). But I have these musings hopping around in my head:

• I have a suspicion that the ending is a bit weak. Once Stu and Tom make it back to Boulder, the book feels a bit vague, unfocussed, and rushed. The "dark coda" attached to the end of the "director's cut" edition also feels a bit trite to me, but that could be an artifact of how sadly common this device has become in the years since this edition of the book has been available. I wonder, in fact, whether this dark coda tendency was started by King.

• I have a suspicion that the implied author is very puritanical; those with even a minor flaw in their characters come to a sticky or abrupt end in this book. I'm not sure that I feel very comfortable with the puritanism on display in this book, or the metaphysical picture of the universe it proposes. For example, I'm disappointed by the author's presentation of the inevitable reward for Larry's character development throughout the book. I think I would have been a bit more in line with the narrative had Larry and Stu's position in the end been reversed, but I do see that this would have "unfairly" punished Fran's character (but as it is, what about poor Lucy? I note how neatly King avoids dealing with her in detail in the last part of the book). To me, the most interesting characters in this book are Larry and Lucy -- those people who have deeply seated flaws, which they are all too cognizant of, and who work really hard throughout the course of the book to both overcome their flaws and to choose an upwards rather than downwards path. In the end, what real effort is there in the stories of Stu and Fran who, frankly, don't have all that much growth to make to manoeuvre from A to B.

• Don't get me started on the inevitability of Nadine and Harold's fate. Feh. See comment on the puritanical implied author above. Pimply, pompous teen-age geeks beware. Ditto virginal spinsters who work with children (and have a dark past).

To really discuss this book intelligently with someone, I'd have to read it again, closely, and the thought of having to do that dismays me. It is a good book. It is a long book. I don't need to read it again any time soon. Which is not to say that I didn't like it; just that there were aspects I didn't really care for.

Recently read: The Stand by Stephen King

Last night, I finished this brick by King. I'm still a bit too exhausted by it to comment in any detail (and I think that exhaustion was part of his plan). But I have these musings hopping around in my head:

• I have a suspicion that the ending is a bit weak. Once Stu and Tom make it back to Boulder, the book feels a bit vague, unfocussed, and rushed. The "dark coda" attached to the end of the "director's cut" edition also feels a bit trite to me, but that could be an artifact of how sadly common this device has become in the years since this edition of the book has been available. I wonder, in fact, whether this dark coda tendency was started by King.

• I have a suspicion that the implied author is very puritanical; those with even a minor flaw in their characters come to a sticky or abrupt end in this book. I'm not sure that I feel very comfortable with the puritanism on display in this book, or the metaphysical picture of the universe it proposes. For example, I'm disappointed by the author's presentation of the inevitable reward for Larry's character development throughout the book. I think I would have been a bit more in line with the narrative had Larry and Stu's position in the end been reversed, but I do see that this would have "unfairly" punished Fran's character (but as it is, what about poor Lucy? I note how neatly King avoids dealing with her in detail in the last part of the book). To me, the most interesting characters in this book are Larry and Lucy -- those people who have deeply seated flaws, which they are all too cognizant of, and who work really hard throughout the course of the book to both overcome their flaws and to choose an upwards rather than downwards path. In the end, what real effort is there in the stories of Stu and Fran who, frankly, don't have all that much growth to make to manoeuvre from A to B.

• Don't get me started on the inevitability of Nadine and Harold's fate. Feh. See comment on the puritanical implied author above. Pimply, pompous teen-age geeks beware. Ditto virginal spinsters who work with children (and have a dark past).

To really discuss this book intelligently with someone, I'd have to read it again, closely, and the thought of having to do that dismays me. It is a good book. It is a long book. I don't need to read it again any time soon. Which is not to say that I didn't like it; just that there were aspects I didn't really care for.