Doctor Sleep Journal 1: Time Warp

A note on Journals: The journal entries are not reviews.  They are simply my notes as I read the book.  If you want a review of Doctor Sleep, I recommend the New York Times and Lilja's Library.  Since I'm talking as I read, I'm sure there are "spoilers" -- an absolutely ridiculous idea in my opinion.  If you don't want to know about a book, don't read about it!  But you've been warned and I now feel free to write.

One of the great things about a Stephen King novel is his ability to effectively time warp the reader to time gone by.  In 11/22/63 he took us right back to the 1960's.  I wasn't even alive in the 60's and I felt like I was going back to a place I knew.  Joyland was a trip back to the 1970's.

Often a King book is time warp because I'm reading stuff he wrote years ago.  His books have a flavor of the era they were written in.  The Stand feels like the 1970's.  Even when King updated it, the 70's were still lingering nearby.  King has said he is more an author of the present. What he does so effectively in opening chapters of Doctor Sleep is time warp us back to the late 70's and then the early 80's.

I love the passing references to the peanut farmer and the actor -- even if I do disagree with his assessment of the actor.  Little references to Three's Company bring back a flood of memories that make me smile.  That was such a dumb show!  You remember Three's Company, right?  It's the one about the big misunderstanding. . . every single episode!

The trip into a movie theater is great, as King puts Raiders of The Lost Ark right onto the screen.  It's cool to have a story take place in front of a backdrop that's so personally engaging.  King uses things most of us remember to transport us into  his scenes.

The story moves almost seamlessly from The Shining to this new novel.  Danny is still Danny, Wendy still herself (what little I've seen of her thus far) and Dick is just as charming as ever.  I love scenes were Danny and Dick can sit and have a private conversation just in their heads.

After some spooky-doo scenes that are well worth the price of admission, King does something he didn't do much of at all in the original novel; He turns to other characters.  In The Shining, almost every scene involved one of the three family members.  It was a tight, introspective novel that was great, if not a little slow at points.  But with deep character development already completed, King is now able to keep the action flowing and introduce new characters.  The story no widens as we learn about new people with special gifts.

The scenes thus far are short, crisp and well written.  King's narrative voice is a little more sassy than it was in The Shining; a sign of growing confidence I suspect.  Can we trust that actor, Mr. King?  Of course we can!

Watch out for rattlesnakes, y'all.