About Journal Entries. . .
With The Stand finished, I dived into another long novel -- obviously it was Duma Key. Hopefully I can read fast since I want to read the new books coming out in the fall. The journal entries are my notes as I read, they are not book reviews.
I choose to let wiser/sharper pens than mine review the books. Lilja is always the best, and Charnel House is very good.
If you haven't read the book, then the Journal's are going to be full of spoilers -- because I'm actually talking about the book!
First Person: It is interesting that King uses the first person in such a large novel. I was once told by a writing friend that publishers don't like big first person novels.
The Angry Man: I really like it that Edgar is such an angry, messed up dude! His wife leaves him when he tries to strangle her; though he doesn't remember the incident. Closer to his heart is the time he stabbed her with a spork! (Spellcheck says spork is not a word. Probably becuase to a computer, a spork is illogical. Besides, it was actually a plastic fork.) Anyway, his meanness has cost him his marriage.
Object freely if I am wrong, guys -- I think most men will identify with Edgar and his anger. Maybe it's not the raw, open, oozing anger that Edgar experiences; but I talk to a lot of guys, and almost all of them struggle with anger.
Edgar lashes out at the people around him; people who want to help him. He is in search of peace -- both physically and emotionally. Like Jack from The Shining, he wants to find a place to go and practice his art. For Jack, it was writing a novel. For Edgar, it is painting. Jack did not have the means to choose his path of escape -- he had to take the first open door to him, which was the Overlook. Not so with Edgar. He has the financial ability to seek out any place of refuge he wants. Does he want to live alone on the Florida Keys? Well, he can write a check and make it happen. So for Jack, a bad situation became worse. For Edgar, this does not start out as a bad situation. It is one of his own choosing. But can paradise become hell? Ask Adam and Eve. (And it is worth noting, King gives a full half page to discussing Adam and Eve getting kicked out of paradise. Now, tell me there's not some foreshadowing there, eh!)
Limitations: As we often find in King novels, our hero (?) has some serious limitations. While most writers give us supermen, King gives us people we know and relate to because they are broken. Well, Edgar is a very broken man! Edgar has lost an arm, and has had serious physical and emotional damage done due to a serious accident. The results are evident on the page in front of the reader! Edgar can't think of the right words to use in given situations.
Now imagine making someone who can't think of the right word -- the narrator! That's gutsy!
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