Went running alone for the first time in quite a while. It's hard to make myself run with no one accompanying me. On the good side, I did have Doctor Sleep. It's been a few days since I listened to Doctor Sleep, so here are my thoughts:
This book is really scary at moments. Out running as a dead body was uncovered was just down right creepy. I was running past desert fields, no lights out here, just the moon and a King novel in my ears. As that body was dug up I was actually pretty excited. "Wow this is scary," I thought, looking out toward a dark field.
Slow
Second observation is that the book moves slow at points. So slow that characters I thought were dead are still on their deathbed! However, I accept that as part of reading a Stephen King novel. I'm not sure I want him to write fast paced thrillers. King takes his time telling a story, relishes the scenes and the careful build up. It's worth the journey, even if there are moments I wish he'd drive a little faster.
NOOOO!
Grover Gardner, who read both audio versions of The Stand once noted that it seemed every character in the book had at least one time when they cried out, "noooooooo!" When reading Doctor Sleep, I had a personal "noooooo!" moment.
There is a point when Danny tells what happened to him at the overlook. I was totally excited to get a first person account of the terrors in that hotel from Dan's perspective. The Shining was written thrid person, so to get to see it through Danny's eyes -- even for a few pages -- would be awesome. But as soon as Dan begins telling his story, King cuts away then drops back in as Dan wraps things up. It seems like it would have been an opportunity to add another layer to a story we already dearly love.
An unusual thing happened tonight. I was out running, listening to Doctor Sleep. I'm loving it. That is, I'm loving the novel, not the running. The novel helps me focus on something other than how bad it hurts. But, really was swept away tonight with what was happening in the book. When the naughty vamp tries to get in Abra's head, she has set a brilliant trap. It's hard not to spill it all, because it's so good. In fact, what happens is so good it made me say, "YES!" out loud as I ran through the desert darkness.
I love those "YES!" moments. Times when King brilliantly weaves a story, and you don't even see it coming. At his best, King builds the stories tension, then releases a bit of tension by giving a small victory you didn't even realize was nearby.
Much of this book takes place in the world of the unseen. It's a heady book. A lot is expected of the reader when traveling these pages. We must accept some things -- like ghosts and the ability to jump from one persons head to another. Can you set traps in your mind? Sure! What's really nice is King's own confidence in story telling. He doesn't feel the need to explain for pages and pages why this could really happen. He just lays the story out and expects the reader to go with it. Look -- he seems to say -- some people shine. Those people who shine, they can do some pretty crazy stuff. Now either accept that premise, or go read Twilight! But what King doesn't do is bore the reader with pages and pages of how this stuff happens.
The Bad Guys Better Get It!
In Doctor Sleep, King has given us some pretty bad characters. I think the True Knot are some of the worst monsters in the Stephen King universe. They torture kids! I hope with all my heart Mr. King has a real painful end for this lot. One of the great things about Ken Follett's writing is that the bad guys must suffer such terrible ends. I hope King can do that with Doctor Sleep.
Why does this worry me? Because sometimes King gets a little realistic on us when it comes to the bad guys demise. Sometimes bad people get away with bad things, both in life and the Stephen King universe. There was no great moment in Under The Dome where Big Jim really got what he had coming to him.
People have pointed out that in the movie It's A Wonderful Life, old man Potter never gets slammed with the justice he deserves. He gets away with it! Things turn out good for Jimmy Stewart and family, but Potter doesn't get taken down. And sometimes that's what happens in King novels. For instance, when it comes to giving the bad guys their comeuppances, Mr. King is inconsistent. Needful Things was also disappointing, though the novel itself was great.
In your opinion. . .
Which Stephen King bad guy got what he deserved?
And which SK bad guy really didn't suffer enough?
I got to go running alone last night, which meant a sweet return to Doctor Sleep.
When Danny finally meets up with Abra, some serious Shining goes down. These two are able to talk to each other simply by thinking the conversation back and forth. What's more, sometimes Abra can pick up on more than just what Dan sends her way.
In discussing a boy who was killed by the True Knot, note this snippet of conversation:
Recovering alcoholics strove for “complete honesty in all our affairs,” but rarely achieved it; he and Abra could not avoid it. (food) She stared at him, aghast. “They ate his shining?” (I think so) (they’re VAMPIRES?) Then, aloud: “Like in Twilight?” “Not like them,” Dan said.
Several things to note:
1. Danny can't hide things from Abra the way he does with his AA sponsor.
2. I like the line, "they ate his shining." The True Knot are some of King's most evil villains. They're child killers. They don't see anything wrong in what they do -- everyone has to eat, right? We eat lamb and chicken and turkey; and the True Knot has reduced the rest of humanity to food.
3. The Twilight reference is kind of fun for a lot of reasons. First, we all know King hates Twilight! So he sets out to make it clear that his vampires are NOT like that. Now she could have said, "Like in Salem's Lot?" But she wouldn't have reason to really know about Salem's Lot. Besides, Vampires in Salem's Lot really are naughty, naughty, naughty.
4. The writing here is worth note. I would have been unsure how to write this portion. How do you communicate unspoken dialogue between two people? I think I would have assumed you have to italicize. But King uses a bolder approach, blocking the thoughts in in parentheses.
All interesting, but I'm still stuck on the thought . . . THEY ATE HIS SHINING!
Annie, trying to be scared of a book she never read
The Girl With The Book:
This involves what some might consider whining. Be assured, it is not whining, it is sulking.
Why is she holding a copy of Doctor Sleep in Walmart? Let's just say I have to visit Walmart to see a real print edition of this book right now. I guess part of buying a super-duper copy of Doctor Sleep is the joyful experience of waiting for it. So, my joy and anticipation increases each day. Waiting. waiting. waiting.
What Stephen King Said To Me
One of the things I really love about King's writing is that he is not locked into a single, robotic form or style. He is very free in his narration. The reader can tell when he feels light hearted, or when he just wants to scare us somethin' fierce.
In chapter 5 King speaks directly to the reader. I'm listening to the novel, so it's like he's there -- in my headphones, talking right to me. Here are a couple of examples (I'm choosing quotes I've heard King publically read)
--How many times have you found yourself behind a lumbering RV, eating exhaust and waiting impatiently for your chance to pass? Creeping along at forty when you could be doing a perfectly legal sixty-five or even seventy?
--Or maybe you’ve encountered them in the turnpike rest areas, when you stop to stretch your legs and maybe drop a few quarters into one of the vending machines.
King goes on like this for quite a few pages, talking to us about those RV's that seem like such a normal part of America. It's a shared common experience.
Is this style normal? I don't think so. Usually writers feel compelled to be a little more -- serious. But King has no problem removing the wall between himself and the reader and speaking directly to us. The narrative tone is conversational, easy going and even kind of gentle. But don't be fooled! King is laying a trap for the reader. He is speaking gently right to us, drawing us in so that he can do crazy stuff to our brains and scare us so bad we scream like little girls.
I like the conversational narration a lot. It makes it clear that this is not happening in a fantasy world; this isn't mid-world or OZ; This is happening in our world. Does that matter? YES! King is not really telling a story set in in our world. He is telling a story about vampires and decaying women who come out of your bathtub. To help you with this -- that doesn't happen in our world! But by speaking to me, suddenly my world feels like it is indeed that world. I have been drawn in to King's story, and my entire world with it. Suddenly my world is one where nasty dead bodies could rise up out of the bathtub. My children are in danger of the True Knot.
Shared experiences are important to this book. King not only uses things we are familiar with -- RV's -- but events we all experienced together. Things like the events surrounding 9/11 are given subthemes in the novel, causing the reader to quickly identify. By the way, it says something for our national healing as 9/11 is now beginning to appear in literature as a fictional theme without people feeling traumatized. (Yes, I do remember the towers had a role in the Dark Tower)
So what did Stephen King say to me? (and you, if you'll read it) He said that RV's might seem like a normal part of American life. We all experience some of the same frustrations when we get stuck behind them, but we really don't pay them any mind. However, we should not be so quick to just think of them as part of the landscape of America. It is the perfect place for evil to camouflage itself.
Scraps: Stuff That Caught My Eye:
1. Jerusalem's Lot
2. Hello Tony.
3. I like this quote
America is a living body, the highways are its arteries, and the True Knot slips along them like a silent virus.
The True Knot -- Evil or Not?
King is so good at putting us in the mind and body of his characters that he can actually get the reader to identify with some pretty naughty people. Crazy as it sounds, as the True Knot took "steam" from a young boy, they so perfectly explained their morale that I understood it. They are so incredibly evil! And they know they are evil. But, as they see it, they have to eat. We don't think much of eating a cow. Well, they just happen to eat. . . steam.
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.
Complaining last night that my teenager swiped my ipod -- AGAIN -- so I can't listen to Doctor Sleep. Of course, I can go get the ipod, but I choose sulking over parenting at that moment. Judge me at your own peril.
My wife said, "You could just listen to it on Kindle."
I patiently explained that: 1. Stephen King books usually disable the audio feature on Kindle. 2. The Kindle text-speech feature sounds like a robot. She said, "No, it's called audio immersion." So I don't know how this happened -- if it is because we had already ordred an audible version, or if Kindle just comes with this, but the real audio version began pouring from the Kindle. It was Craig Wasson, reading away with Doctor Sleep! So, in Californian, "Totally awesome, dude. Rock on."
Dreams:
King moves us to the books real starting point by marching a parade of presidents by us. I kinda like it. No need to be date specific, we get the era that each of these guys oversaw. There's the Peanut Farmer president, followed by the Actor president (that can't be trusted, in King's words). The Actor is followed by the Elvis president. Humm, not George Bush. Anyway, the Elvis president (speaking of trust!) is followed by the Cowboy president.
What we discover when the book finally finds a resting place is a broken Dan who uses the same coping mechanisms his father did to limp through life. However, unlike his father, Dan has different reasons to need to cope. For one, his father tried to kill him in the Overlook. That'll mess you up. Worse, his ability to Shine has some pretty bad consequences (think, "I see dead people") and it seems drinking numbs his senses. Dan bops from job to job, always focused on getting to the next place and never seeming to realize what's really going on is he is running from the bad stuff in his past.
The past Dan is running from is not only made by his father, but one he has actively worked at as well. A particular theft haunts him, and an abused child he elected not to help. Dan uses alcohol to do what his lock box won't. "Maybe you can put the things from the Overlook away in lockboxes, but not memories. Never those. They’re the real ghosts."
King once again takes us into the depths of addiction, but with new, deeper, insights than ever before. The feelings of self loathing, struggle and small victories mixed with big defeats are all very real to the reader.
I found this line haunting:
As the moon rose over Wilmington, North Carolina, Dan Torrance lapsed into unconsciousness. There were dreams of the Overlook, but he would not remember them upon waking.
It seems the Overlook has a long reach, even from the grave.
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!
In short, readers both familiar and unfamiliar with Stephen King's novels will find a motherlode of interesting information inside the pages of Brighton David Gardner's insightful and illuminating treatise.
I can't recommend it enough, so be sure to get it either for your Kindle or e-Reader of choice, or buy the print version because it's easily worth twice the cover price.
