Fire Starter Journal 6

Wow, this book may be a little slow in the middle, but the last few chapters are a bang. I mean, really good. Typical King, he spends lots of time building up to an incredible ending. And, King did something nice, something he didn't give us in Carrie -- an emotional conclusion. With Carrie, you were kinda left wondering "what happened?"

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Both books are very much the same:

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1. Both Carrie and Firestarter have a girl at the center.
2. Both are coming of age stories.

3. Both experience serious betrayal. Carrie at school / Charlie by John Rainbird.

4. Both are driven to a destructive conclusion. Carrie, to destroy her high school / Charlie to destroy agents of The Shop. Actually, High School is a lot like The Shop.

5. Both Carrie and Charlie have abilities usually dulled out by the likes of Rod Serling. For Carrie, it's telekinesis / for Charlie it's a pyrokinetic ability.

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Firestarter might have a better ending than Carrie, but it doesn't have a seriously messed up character like Carrie's mom. I think that role was meant for John Rainbird, but for some reason he just doesn't work for me. I was glad to see him go.

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I have just a few pages to read and I'm really enjoying it. The thick of the plot is done, King is just sweeping up the floor and tightening up loose ends. Again, I like it when he does this. Often with King novels we are left to wonder what happened with a lot of the lose ends.

Firejournal 5

Moving into the final section of the book is really a joyful thing -- and a relief. King once tied readers down in Gerald's Game. Pinned with Jessie, the reader spent hours in a dark room as she struggled for freedom. He once pinned us in a car as a crazed dog circled it. In Firestarter, he locks the reader up in the deep inner rooms of The Shop.
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The Shop is not really a happy place to spend time. Full of not so bright hit men and equally moronic head-honchos. Hey, I've got to say once again how much I like the idea of a hit man (a guy who literally has blood on his hands) named OJ. The executives at the Shop spend their time trying to figure out ways to keep their government funding. Meanwhile, they fall prey one by one to Andy McGee's mind powers.
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An interesting note here, King has a character put his hand down a garbage disposal. Wonderful! In fact, the line that the hand was more pointed than a sharpened pencil stuck with me. But, I just saw this show on Food Network where they cut stuff up. And here's the deal: At least on that show, they said that you couldn't hurt your hand on a garbage disposal. I haven't tested this myself, and maybe the way they work has changed in the last 28 years.
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Office politics are also a beast at The Shop. Backstabbing and ego play center stage in this novel. If you work near John Rainbird, don't think those computer files are safe just because you password protected you computer. Hey, The Shop is a nasty enough environment to qualify it for a John Grisham novel (think The Firm). Big Brother and Orwell's 1984 continues to have heavy play in the book. Everything in the Shop is taped (at least in Charlie and Andy's rooms), giving even an indirect nod to the "tele-screen" in 1984.
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McGee's ability to "push" and "shove" people mentally is really the star of the book. Of course, the McGuffin, as Hitchcock would say, is Charlie's power to start fires, but it's Andy who drives the story. In fact, not only does Andy push and shove the folk at the shop, at one wonderful point in the book, he realizes he is going to have to "push" Charlie.
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King certainly spends his time building characters and making the reader more and more claustrophobic. By the time King is ready to knock down his final set of carefully placed domino's, the reader is anxious to see them go. Can he make this book end with a bang? I'll bet he can.

Firejournal 4

The middle section of Fire Starter slows down significantly. The book started with an intense chase, culminating in an awesome battle at a farmhouse. We're talking, fireballs and burned agents of the shop. It was sweet. Then, after a brief description of their life on the run, Andy and Charlie are captured by the shop and brought into custody.
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Character Building
For hours I've listened as King builds his characters. In particular, he is working to build a relationship between Rainbird and Charlie, while Andy is dulled out on drugs.
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While the energy of the early story certainly slows, King's writing remains strong and engaging. Reading King's earlier work shows me how much stronger he's gotten as a writer. Fire Starter is good -- really good -- and King is even better today. Books like Under The Dome, while huge and full of characters with depth, never slow or drag while building those characters. It's as if King has learned to refuel in flight!
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You can do that?
The narration itself is interesting. Often King does things I didn't know were allowed. I've always liked it that King doesn't feel a need to obey every rule. For instance, in narration he says something like: after about 3 or 4 days. . . wait a minute! Isn't he writing in the all knowing third person? And this wasn't said from someones head, this was the narrator speaking. Is the narrator allowed to be unsure? Well, in this scene it helped the story along because it gave the reader a sense of confusion that the characters were experiencing.
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1984
King makes several references to George Orwell. Specifically, to Orwell's famed novel 1984. Also to Orwell's lead character, Winston Smith. In the novel, Smith quietly rebels against his State, represented by Big Brother. In Orwell's London, people are always watched on tele-screens, drugged when necessary, and put to work like drones.
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Of course, in Fire Starter, Andy McGee quickly connects the dots. Once he decides to no longer take the drugs that the shop is giving him, he is essentially rebelling against Big Brother. He feels euphoria, like Winston did, at his quiet disobedience.

Firejournal 3

I'm about halfway through this book, and still loving it.

Fire Starter does have a lot of flashbacks, which King really likes (anyone remember Wizard and Glass?) Here's the frustrating thing with flashbacks -- we already have a clue how it's going to turn out! So for a suspense novel like Firestarter, it feels like the flashbacks slow things down a bit. Especially when the flash back contains extended escape scenes.

I like the illusions to "potty training" in regards to teaching Charlie not to use her fire powers. Also, Charlie's own terror at what she can do is a nice touch.

The Shop: There needs to be a note sometime on The Shop. I'm sure this government agency has been referenced before. They seem to do a lot of science experiements for DOD, but are also pretty incompotent when it comes to catching people. I think maybe The Shop should fire Cap, O.J. and the rest of their team and rent out some CIA badboys.

Firejournal 2

Wow, I really like this book.

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Took my family camping this weekend, which meant a lot of hiking and exploring some caves. Wonderful! And on the long ride home all the girls fell asleep. Alas! Some uninterrupted reading time as I listened to this wonderful novel.

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Just a few notes:

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Bad Guys:

The "bad guys" (the shop) are certainly despicable. But in a big government sort of way! I really like having a goon named "O.J." I mean, the government is cast in the light of Capricorn One. . . which O.J. starred in. "Nah," you say, "it can't be a play on that O.J.!" Really? Well, the dude's other nickname is "the juice."

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I like these people:

King started the book with straight action. In fact, I was worried this would be light on character development. However, as the reader goes deeper into the novel King has a skilled approach to characters. Much better, if I may say, than Grisham. Often in a Grisham novel I find myself really not caring if the lead character lives or dies.

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Charlie and Andy are carving a place in my heart. I'm asking myself, why? What did King do to endear me to these people? I chalk it up to one thing: Good dialogue. Really! Other than just raw action, what King offers is convincing conversation. he doesn't drag it on and on, but what he does give is sharp. Andy becomes human as he talks to the farmer, Irv.

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Adverb anyone?

By the way, there are a lot of adverbs in this book. I know that in On Writing King ranted against adverbs. And he admitted it was a case of "do as I say, not as I do." But at least in this case, I've liked them.

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Heating Up

Now, for what I really enjoyed: The shoot-out at the O.K. Corral. Okay, actually it was just a farmhouse where two old people had taken Charlie and Andy in to their home. But the action, descriptions and and raw horror was splendid. Charlie manages to reduce grown men to burning "rags" and burns down the entire farmhouse! Sweet. And what's truly enthralling is when Andy realizes Charlie enjoys it!

Firestarter Journal #1

I started reading Fire-starter the other day. As I did with Under The Dome, I am going to take down notes as I go. This is a lot easier than doing a longer review once I've finished reading.

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I've held back from reading this because I saw the movie. And, let's just say, it's a typical Stephen King movie -- it didn't work for me. With the release of several early King novels in audio book format, I decided to give Fire-starter a fresh chance. So far, I'm glad I did.

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Genre: As usual with King, this isn't so much about horror as it is characters.
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Notes:

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1. I really like the pacing King has in this novel. As he usually does, King starts in the middle of the story. Act 2, if you will. As the story opens, Andy and his daughter Charlie are on the run from a shadowy government agency called "The Shop."

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2. Dedicated to Shirley Jackson "who never needed to raise her voice." King includes her books, The Haunting of Hill House, The Lottery (a freaky short story), We Have Always Lived in the Castle and The Sundial. I liked Shirley Jackson's work, and like King she has suffered from Hollywood adaptations of her work that really don't represent her well! (though I did hear one awesome radio drama on the Lottery) Anyway, King's appreciation for Jackson is well stated -- it's like a nod from the master of horror, go read this ladies books!

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3. Opening quote: "It was a pleasure to burn." --Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451.

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4. Andy McGee has the power to "push" things into someones mind. In particular, the novel opens with him pushing a cabbie to think a $1 bill is a $100 bill. Interesting, later -- back at the shop -- the dollar bill has been confiscated and continues to effect those who look at it. When Andy uses his power, he is left with severe migraine headaches.
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5. Several extended flashbacks give details to Andy's meeting his wife, Vicky. The best flashbacks regard Charlie, who burns up teddy bears, leaves pillows smoldering and even injures her mother. The parents have fire extinguishers all over the house. The extent of Charlie's power is not revealed early on, obviously it will be the subject of the book.
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picture: Michael Whelan