Salem's Lot Journal #2

Rats.  

Found rats again.  A constant theme in King books.  This time they rush out of the smoldering dump while Dud Rogers blows them away with his pistol.

In fact, King even gives us some satisfying “Batman” sound effects.  (Remember the old Batman tv show?)  Here’s one,
“By-by, Mr Rat,” Dud said, and took careful aim.  KAPOW, the rat flopped over, twitching.

Writing

King does something I really enjoy in Salem’s Lot; he writes the story from above.  That is, he moves for long portions simply as narrator, bopping from subject to subject as he tells the story.  He resists the urge to drop in and paint the scenes, but instead is conent to sketch things out so the reader gets the big picture.  I like this a lot, but was told by someone that it is bad writing.  Well, it works for King!

King uses this style because he is writing about an entire town.  So he needs to drop down from time to time, let us in on a scnee, then quickly pick the reader back up and continue to give us the ariel view.  It gives the book the feeling of motion – that a lot is being accomplished in a short amount of space.

In the chapters titled “The Lot,” King employs a narrative tone that is actually a lot of fun.  I love the way the seasons change.  Time passes easily under Kings direction.  Here’s a great line: “if the only sound is the slwo beat of you own heart, you can hear another sound, and that is the sound of life winding down to its syclic close, waiting for the first winter snow to perform last rites.”  That’s good!

Funerals:

The funeral services for Danny Glick are described, and like in Pet Sematary, there is a disruption.  Tony Glick throws himself at his sons grave, and actually manages to fall in.  Nice!  A parents grief, horror, is so perfectly described in this passage as Tony screams at his son to stop playing around.  The denial, unbelief a person experiences when dealing with the unexpcected death of a loved one is portrayed quite skillfully.

I’ve been to a lot of funerals.  People handle death in a variety of ways.  Some embrace it with rejoicing, placing total hope in Christ Resurrection.  Others grasp to find the right emotion.  Some openly express rage.  Of course, the hardest are when a young person has died – suicide or   car accident.  The parents are left in agony.  Salem’s Lot touches on the shadows of this kind of pain.

I thought Father Callahan’s comments that he would keep the services short, not make the pain drag on and on for these people was quite pastoral – and insightful for a young Stephen King.

I’m not sure I find graveyard’s scary, except under the cool direction of Stephen King’s pen!

Child Abuse

Salem’s Lot also touches on the issue of child abuse.  This is a theme often visited in King’s early novels.  In this case it is a woman (Sandy) who has reached the breaking point with her crying infant.  Her husband (Roy) abuses her verbally and emotionally – and the cycle continues as she hurts little Randy.  Of course, this was a major theme of The Shining,a nd of King’s later novels Dolores Claighborn and Gerald’s Game.