I'm sure there are spoilers here. If you are whiny about spoilers, you probably shouldn't read blogs about books you haven't read yet. Because, it is totally fair for a community of readers to discuss portions of the book as they progress, not just give vague overviews.Some short notes:
1. This is the second book this year in which King tells the story from a primarily male perspective. Both Doctor Sleep and Joyland are about young men finding their way in this world. Neither is particularly tied down as the novels begin, and each begins to make their own tangled webs of relationships as the novels progress. Just because each is a young man does not mean their perspective is the same. Devan Jones sees the world through pretty innocent eyes -- even though the story is being retold by and older Jones. Dan's point of view is much darker; haunted. I like them both, but personally identify more deeply with Jones than Torrance.
2. She Shines! The reader knows as soon as Abra is introduced that she Shines. Her father describes the families ability to work around her shining as the adjustments the family of a blind child might make -- but in reverse. I liked that analogy.
King reveals a connection that the reader picks up on quicker that the characters in the story. The good doctor has links to both Dan and Abra. Might he be the connecting point? The chalkboard scene is reminiscent of scenes from Bag of Bones in which refrigerator magnets moved about.
So what's up with Abra? As her doctor discusses possibilities of what might be going on with the strange kid, I sense King replaying characters he's introduced us to in the past. She's not like Carrie, though she can move objects -- she's more powerful than Carrie! And she's not like John Smith, who knows things -- she's more powerful than John. So what's up with her? The reader knows she Shines. But she is doing stuff Danny never did. In fact, things would have unfolded much more decisively in Danny's favor if he shined the way Abra does.
Here is the song referenced concerning Abra as a baby:
3. Realistic family tones: The friction blended with camaraderie for the sake of a beloved child between mother-in-law and son-in-law is both sweet and all so real. King makes these scenes work like a master, grasping bits of insight that ring true to the reader. There is something tender in this love/hate relationship.
4. Back to New England. The scenes in New Hampshire remind me of the early tone King used in Needful Things. Of course, both are pretty deep in New England -- but I could swear that for a moment I was back in the beloved Castle Rock.
5. Okay, I've gotta say. . . THE CLOWN CREEPS ME OUT!
 |
| They Shine Abra... They Shine and when you're down here with me, YOU SHINE |
The clown at the birthday party will give any Stephen King constant reader pause. Just the presence of a clown in a King book gives the reader a heads up that something is going to happen.
Clowns, in John’s opinion, were highly overrated. They scared the ---- out of kids under six. Kids over that age merely found them boring.Well, the doctor proves wrong more than once, and I think his take on clowns is dead wrong. Kids over six find them plenty scary! I think we have an almost communal fear of clowns. After all, if Pennywise didn't put the fear of clowns into you, then Steven Spielberg must have in Poltergeist. If Spielberg and King didn't do it, how about Joker or John Wayne Gacy.
6. Return Visits To The Overlook. Memories of the Overlook are intense. King takes us back to the haunted hotel via Danny's memory -- and that is much more powerful than simply reading The Shining again. Because when Danny goes back to the overlook in his memory, he is doing it personally, experiencing it again with renewed fear he can't stifle.
Was the hose a hose, or a snake? In Dan's mind it was a snake, no doubt about it. But he also knows he was really just a hose. Dan does not try to rationalize his experience at the overlook, telling himself some garbage about it all having been in his head. He knows full well the place was very haunted and that the ghosts in the hotel drove his daddy crazy.
Is it a snake or a hose?
Who can say, my dear Redrum, Redrum my dear? Who can say?
It buzzes at him, and terror jumps up his throat from his rapidly beating heart. Rattlesnakes buzz like that.
7. Haha Mr. Kubrick, the joke is on you!
Kubrick digs abound! King rightly insists that the true history of The Overlook comes from his novel The Shining, not the Kubrick movie. In the current issue of Cemetery Dance (#70), Bev Vincent calls the 1980 Kubrick adaptation "pollution."
Yes, it was room 217, not room 237. Dick Hallorann is alive. And yes, the Overlook is gone, burned to the ground after the boiler exploded. . . . Int he Stephen King universe, Jack Torrance never wrote "all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy." There were no creepy twins in the hotel corridors, nor did gouts of blood erupt from elevators. Danny's father never said, "Here's Jonny."There are other subtle jabs at Kubrick. In particular, King insists several times in Doctor Sleep that ghosts are evidence of life after death. Of course, Kubrick didn't necessarily believe in life after death, and certainly not hell. Don't tell Dan Torrance that, because he has seen beyond the grave.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete