And, I quote Collective Soul: “C’mon and shine!”

Finished The Shining on 8/16/11…but just now getting around to my review (note: I started my review towards the end of September...and just finished it today (12/5/11). I blame (a) laziness and (b) the new fall TV season (there’s so many great shows on this year!) And this is why I refused to limit myself to a time frame for this project. I knew it’d be pointless to do so). Took me a little longer than I expected to read it and, looking back, I know why: I pretty much knew what to expect. It’s hard to really get into a book if you already know the outcome. I zipped through ‘Salem’s Lot (considering its length) because I was exploring a new world. I’d been down The Shining’s path (*snicker*) a couple times already…visually. I just hadn’t read it yet. Well, all that’s changed. I’m a new man. The sky’s bluer. The Sun’s brighter. The birds sing sweeter. I, Philip Colander, have read The Shining…and it was good!

Here are my notes (spoilers abound):

“Chapter 1 – Like how King introduces the Overlook Hotel” ― “Can only see Jack Nicholson in my head!” ― “Drinking problem”

King once again utilizes a great tactic in introducing readers to his book’s setting. This time, he uses Jack’s interview with Stuart Ullman, The Overlook’s manager, as a way to show the reader around the hotel, as well. King effectively put me right there with Jack during the tour. Unfortunately, I could only see Jack Nicholson as Jack Torrance, as there was no physical description of Jack, as yet. Jack’s history of drinking is brought up during the interview. Jack swears to Ullman he’s sober and the fact there’s no alcohol available in the hotel over the winter should help put Ullman at ease. Yeah, right.

“Chapter 2 – Jack hurt Danny” ― “Also hurt student in Vermont (how he lost teaching job)” ― “Can only see Shelley Duvall!”

Child abuse. Once again, King visits the subject. Jack broke then-three-year-old Danny’s arm while he was drunk. Not cool. Wendy still holds it over him from time to time. Jack is genuinely remorseful for it, but his temper flares again when a student (who felt wronged by Jack) slashes his car’s tires. Jack punches the student, who falls awkwardly and bangs his head hard, very nearly killing him. Jack was fired as a result, which is why he and the family are in Colorado, getting a job arranged by Jack’s friend…and drinking buddy. Wendy is introduced in this chapter and I can only see Shelley Duvall. Ugh.

“Chapter 4 – Introduction to the shining” ― “Premonitions?” ― “Tony??” ― “REDRUM”

King teases us about the shining, without giving it a name yet. It seems to be premonitions and, in Danny’s case, also seems to manifest itself in the form of his imaginary friend, Tony. Danny will zone out and, while zoned, see things in his mind’s eye, like images of a snowbound hotel, a dark room with strange furniture, and a mirror with glowing green letters that spell “REDRUM.” Too bad Danny doesn’t know what it means. Course, we wouldn’t have much of a story if he did. It made me wonder: how many people knew that REDRUM was MURDER, backwards in the mirror, when The Shining was first published. And, did people keep it a secret from others, like Bruce Willis actually being dead the whole time in The Sixth Sense? (sorry if I let a cat out of the bag on that one…you have seen the movie, right?).

“Chapter 5 – alcoholism” ― “What’s with the bike that he and Al run over?”

This chapter delves deep into Jack’s bouts with the sauce. I’m not an alcoholic and don’t (knowingly) know anyone who is, but, based on King’s description, I don’t want to be one or know anyone that is, thank you very much. And, with regards to the bike that a drunk Jack and Al (who was behind the wheel) ran over in Vermont, I wasn’t sure of the point of that. Unless I missed something, it was just an abandoned bike in the middle of the road. They didn’t run over anybody…did they? I reread it a couple of times and, when it was mentioned a couple more times later in the book, I still didn’t get the sense that anyone was killed on their drunken drive. If I missed something, my bad. Let me know.

“Caul?”

The hell’s a caul? Here’s the passage I read from Chapter 6:
“But of course there had been a face, Danny’s own sweet face, and the caul that had covered it at birth now resided in a small jar which she had kept, almost shamefully. She did not hold with old superstition, but she had kept the caul nevertheless.”
And, for those who don’t know, a caul, apparently, is the “inner fetal membrane of higher vertebrates especially when covering the head at birth.”
Uh…*clears throat*…gag.

“View of Overlook – same scenic overlook on Highway 36 looking onto Estes Park?”

Probably. If you’ve driven into Estes Park on northbound Highway 36, you know which one I’m talking about.

“Wendy has ‘golden hair.’ Now I see Rebecca De Mornay (thank god)”

‘Nuff said.

“Halloran” ― “Nice guy” ― “Shines like Danny”

Now, if I hadn’t seen either the film or the miniseries, I would’ve said, “Oh, token black guy. He’ll die.” Glad he didn’t. Got hurt real bad, but he lived. I liked the way he and Danny got along.

“The Shining = precognition and past images” ― “Danny is a very strong shiner”

Danny can shine so strongly, he makes Halloran wince when they speak to each other with their minds. Later, Danny shine is so strong, he nearly knocks Halloran down. I like how Halloran can smell oranges when a shining moment is about to occur for him. For Danny, it’s seeing Tony.

“Halloran tells Danny to ‘holler’ if he needs help” ― “I remember the black man in the miniseries coming to help Wendy and Danny”

And, he does in the book. Danny “hollers” to Halloran, who hears him in Florida.

“Firehose fear?”

Danny sees an old-fashioned fire extinguisher (basically just a firehose) in the hallway and is extremely frightened by it. I wondered if he had some sort of past experience with it, but no. He may have just had a feeling about it…since later in the story it comes to life and “slithers” after him.

“Timer?”

I had no clue what the timer was all about. Later, King explains that the student Jack punched earlier felt wronged by Jack during a speech debate. The student was convinced Jack had purposely sped up the timer during the student’s speech, which caused him to fail. Jack defended himself, saying he never touched it, nor would he ever think of sabotaging the student. The student thought otherwise and slashed Jack’s tires in retaliation. During the scene where I wrote, “Timer?”, Jack had blacked-out briefly and told Danny that he (Jack) never touched the timer. Jack was unconsciously projecting his incident with the student onto Danny. First real hint to me that Jack is starting to lose it.

“Wasps - back to life? - how??”

No clue. The hotel brought them back to life? Not sure. Either way, creepy as all hell.

“Interesting doctor visit”

Lots of stuff about precognition. Tests and questions and actual answers regarding Danny’s condition. Rare for a book like this to lay all that out that early in the book. It was refreshing. Of course, not all is reveled for Jack and Wendy.

“Legalized gambling in Colorado in 1947??”

I know gambling’s legal in Colorado now, but I didn’t know there was a push for it back in the ‘40s. This is mentioned as Jack is reading the scrapbook he finds in the basement. All the talk of the mafia running the Overlook way back when.

“Horace Walpol?”

Wendy mentions eating dinner, just the three of them, in the spacious, empty dining room is like having dinner in the middle of a Horace Walpol novel. Walpol wrote The Castle of Otranto, which is generally considered the first gothic novel. Since I’ve never read that particular novel, I’m not sure what the correlation is. Feel free to explain it to me if you know.

“Caul again??”

Well, now that I know what a caul is, its second reference in the book makes more sense:
“…born with a caul over his face, a simple tissue of membrane that doctors saw perhaps once in every seven hundred births, a tissue that the old wives’ tales said betokened the second sight.”
Ahhhhhhhh.

“Hedge animals = cool”

Much, much cooler than the CGI hedge animals (topiary) in the miniseries. Nice try, but my imagination (and King’s descriptions) made them much cooler. They’re MUCH cooler than the hedge maze in the movie. Ooooooooooo….scary.

“Room 217”

Awesome. Creepy. If you’ve read it, you know. If you haven’t, for once, I won’t spoil it for you. Just know…it may be the coolest room in all of bookdom.

“Jack remembers abusive father” ― “Breaks CB radio in dreamlike trance”

Jack’s drunk, abusive father is yet another painful broken family scene that King paints. I’m noticing a pattern here. And, naturally, he destroys the radio. No way to communicate with the outside world. Perfect.

“’It was her’” ― “Danny’s cry makes Jack accuse Wendy of strangling Danny” ― “Wendy thinks Jack did it while ‘asleep,’ when he breaks CB radio”

When Jack and Wendy find Danny after his visit to Room 217, they asked who strangled him, as he has handprints around his neck. Danny screams, “It was her!” “Her” of course is the dead woman in Room 217, not Wendy, whom Jack assumes Danny means. Since Jack doesn’t remember breaking the CB radio, Wendy thinks Jack choked Danny, too. Ah, the corners are fraying ever more.

“Danny tells them about shining and Room 217”

In another move I applauded, King has Danny explain everything to his parents. Not at the end, when everyone’s dead and it’s too late. Rather, in the middle of the story when his revelations can affect change. How novel! I hate it when book or movie kids have all this unexplainable stuff happen around them, yet they fail to tell anyone. It’s just not realistic.

“Jack goes to 217, nothing happens at first, but then there’s a sudden smell of soap, shower curtain rings rattle, a shape appears behind the curtain, and footsteps approach him.” ― “Jack chooses not to tell them what he heard, smell, saw. First, no talk of the hedge animal experience he has, now this!”

While Danny tells all, Jack clams up. *sigh* Oh well. Guess someone in every story like this has to keep important information from everyone. No dramatics otherwise.

“Wendy suggests snowmobiling out of there”

Jack’s concedes that they should…but doesn’t act right away.

“Jack thinks Danny hurt himself”

Jack, already on a downward spiral, mentally, thinks Danny choked himself. Jack’s convinced both Wendy and Danny are out to sabotage him he make him lose his job as caretaker. Delusions galore.

“Jack doesn’t like the idea of leaving” ― “Has thoughts of killing Wendy” ― “Danny tosses and turns in his sleep as Jack has these thoughts”

Danny doesn’t have to be awake to shine. He feels his Dad’s murderous thoughts as he sleeps.

“Jack dreams of Room 217’s bathroom and George Hatfield” ― “Bike belongs to George??”

Jack can’t get that room out of his mind and it screws with him. George is the name of the student Jack nearly killed. There’s still no confirmation about that damn bike.

“Imagines killing George” ― “George’s face becomes Danny’s”

Jack’s hatred towards George in the past manifests itself into his current hatred towards Danny, subconscious or otherwise. Jack is clearly losing it.

“Jack sabotages the snowmobile...dumbass”

I knew he was going to but, even as he was doing it, I just couldn’t believe it.

“When hedge animals attack”

Just reiterating my earlier comment on the cool hedge animals. In the film, the animal hedges (topiary) were replaced by a hedge maze. There is absolutely nothing more foreboding and bone-chillingly scarier than a hedge maze (note: the last sentence was written dripping with eye-rolling sarcasm). In the miniseries, the topiary came to life, but not too convincingly (very cheap-looking CGI FX). The book, however, feeds your imagination with the right sense of fear and suspense with regards to the topiary that I genuinely felt chills. Great narrative to all the scenes with the animal hedges.

“Danny knows that Jack saw the hedges move, too” ― “Jack slaps him”

With the broken arm incident, any time Jack touches Danny inappropriately, Wendy freaks (for good reason, of course). This scene was Danny’s realization that Jack is truly being affected by the hotel.

“Confetti/party mask in the elevator”

This was Wendy’s first confirmation that the hotel was truly messing with them. The sounds of partygoers, music from the ‘30s and ‘40s, and now, with only the three of them there, party favors in an elevator that moves by itself. Yeah, I’d be pissed at Jack, too, for dismissing it as “no big deal.”

“REDRUM explained...cool”

I’ve always known what REDRUM meant, but, if you’d read this book when it first came out with no prior knowledge of it, how cool would that scene have been, reading it for the first time?

“Cukes?”

“’Get your cukes, did you?’ Masterson asked.”
Now I know what cukes are. Cucumbers. Hallorann was at a vegetable market, so that makes sense. Cukes must be a Florida or Deep South thing, since that’s where the scene takes place.

“McTeague the Dentist?” ― “Frank Norris’ great novel?”

Wikipedia answered both questions for me in two sentences: “McTeague is a novel by Frank Norris, first published in 1899. It tells the story of a couple's courtship and marriage, and their subsequent descent into poverty, violence and finally murder as the result of jealousy and avarice.”
So, again, King turns to what I assume is another of his personal favorite books and/or authors to relate to some situation he puts his own characters through. In this instance, Jack makes this comparison with his own parents in another scene from Jack’s past that spotlights his abusive father’s relationship with his mother.
On a personal note, McTeague sounds like a charming read. *ahem* Not.

“Like how Jack goes from ‘he’ to ‘it’”

This appears near the end of the book. Jack is gone, mentally. He’s going after his wife and son like a rabid wolverine. The human that Jack was is replaced with an animal and King plays this perfectly by replacing pronouns. It’s no longer “he panted at her through his grin.” Now, it’s “it panted at her through its grin.” Brilliant.

And, these are the notes I wrote. As seems to be the case so far in this endeavor of mine, I’ll jot down tons of notes at the beginning through to the middle, then, as I get immersed into these stories, I forget about the notes and just keep reading. I’ll take this opportunity to mention how I loved how Hallorann nearly wrecked the car many times over in Florida, distracted while Danny telepathically screamed at him from Colorado. Also loved Hallorann’s journey from Florida to Denver, then Denver to Sidewinder. I felt I was right there with him. And, of course, the explosion of the Overlook and Jack’s death. Loved how Danny finally figured out (after it had been nagging him for so long) that Jack (and the thing possessing Jack) had forgotten to dump the boiler. Much more satisfying than freezing to death in a hedge maze.

And, that’s my review of The Shining. Great book, but not scary enough to put into the freezer (like Joey from Friends). I was never truly scared, but I assume that’s because I already knew what happens. What was great was delving deeper into the characters and situations and King made that very enjoyable.

Up next for me is some more writing. I’ve got a short story in my head that I need to get out. Then, I’d like to get back to writing more of my second novel. Ideas galore, just got to get them out of my head, too. In other words, it may be awhile before I get to the next King novel, Rage, which kind of stinks because I can’t wait to read that one. I’ll let you know when I get to it. For all of you who wait with bated breath for my reviews (all both of you), my apologies for my delay with this one. Hope you enjoyed.  Happy holidays!

The Shining (1977)

Who’s up for a glass of Red Rum?

I prefer Captain Morgan myself.

Yes, yes, I know redrum isn’t a potent potable. But that’s not the only thing I know about The Shining.

I bought the recently published Pocket Books paperback edition, with a new introduction written by King in 2001. It has a cover similar to Carrie, complete with half of a creepy kid’s face and the addition of a hotel in the background. It differs in that the cover for Carrie is red, whereas the cover for The Shining is a Big Bird-yellow that screams LOOK AT ME! It’s distracting and, if I weren’t on this mission, I wouldn’t buy this copy. Oh well. I’ll live . . . somehow.



Here’s the back cover:

The Overlook Hotel is more than just a home-away-from-home for the Torrence family. For Jack, Wendy, and their young son, Danny, it is a place where past horrors come to life. And where those gifted with the shining do battle with the darkest evils. Stephen King’s classic thriller is one of the most powerfully imagined novels of our time.

Here’s what I know: A guy agrees to be the off-season caretaker for a Colorado hotel. He brings his wife and young son along with him. Over the course of their stay, the guy sees rotting corpses in bathtubs, chats with a dead bartender, and slowly goes insane while quoting Ed McMahon; his wife screams a lot and then screams some more; and their son sees twin girl ghosts and shines stuff. The end.

Yeah, I know there’s more stuff in between and that the son doesn’t use a buffer. I know about The Shining (without having read the book) because I’ve seen both the film and miniseries adaptations.

Stanley Kubrick’s interpretation . . . um . . . well, it sucked. Nicholson was . . . Nicholson. Shelley Duvall did a two-and-a-half hour Marty Feldman impression and screamed on cue. I barely remember the kid. It was forgettable.

The miniseries was better. Why? Uh, because Stephen King was directly involved in it. Oh, and here’s a novel idea: why not use the actual hotel that inspired the novel as the setting? Brilliant! The Stanley Hotel is creepy enough without it’s connotation to The Shining. Steven Weber actually scared me, Rebecca De Mornay showed (gasp) range. But . . . the kid had duck lips. I can’t feel any sort of emotion for the kid if I’m continually laughing at him. Additionally, being a miniseries, it was long. Yeah, they got everything in there, but not everything was interesting.

I’m really looking forward to reading this book. In most (read: all) cases, books are better than the movies that they beget, and I feel this will be the case here. I couldn’t help but notice King has another Danny in a book. This one a vampire, too? If nothing else, I wanted to finally fully understand what the hell the shining is. I’m pretty sure it has nothing to do with bootblacking (go ahead . . . click on the link . . . explore the topic further . . . then take a hot shower and use plenty of soap).

Check back for my review of The Shining.

Okie-dokie. Let’s talk about vampires, haunted houses, towns in Maine (where else?) named after pigs, and enough characters to fill the Rose Bowl seven times over. Let’s talk ‘Salem’s Lot.

I loved this book. Carrie was a nightie-night lullaby compared to this. King dug deep, real deep, and crafted a phenomenal read. It amazes me ‘Salem’s Lot was written the year I was born. It still holds up strong 36 years later. I finished reading it on the May the 6th but, between birthday parties, visiting the folks, and just plain old being lazy, I’m just now getting to this write-up. I even read another book (not by King) in between. Told you I would from time-to-time.

First off, allow me to point out something with my copy of the book. I don’t know why but, scattered throughout the book, there were tiny smears of red on the pages. Nothing distracting. Just a miniscule smudge of red . . . ink? . . . on the pages. Don’t know what it is. Not sure that I want to know. Creeped me out either way. Moving on . . .

Here are my notes (spoilers abound):

“Man and boy in the beginning – who are they?”

Why, that’d be two of our main characters, Ben Mears and Mark Petrie. More on them later.

“Interesting history of ‘Salem’s Lot in newspaper article”

I enjoy King’s approach to the history of a place: newspaper articles. He dropped a lot of hints and names early on in the book with a newspaper article, written after the events in the book. Very coy.

“Ben Mears in motorcycle accident that killed his wife, Miranda” ― “Ben thinks about driving past ‘Salem’s Lot and continuing on to Chamberlain”

Ben’s accident before the events of the book gave him a sympathetic back-story that I liked. Also liked the first of (no doubt) many references between his books. In this instance, King mentions Chamberlain, Carrie’s hometown.

“What’s with Ben and the Marston House?”

I jotted this down because King kept drilling into me that Ben did not like the Marston House. I knew I’d find out later, but, man, was he (Ben) fixated on it.

“Susan Norton . . . love interest?”

Yeppers.

“Jerusalem’s Lot. Named for Charles Belkamp Turner’s wild pig, Jerusalem” ― “’Keep ‘ee out o’ Jerusalem’s wood lot, if ‘ee want to keep ‘ee guts in ‘ee belly!’”

Ok, just friggin’ awesome. LOVED the explanation for the town’s name. One of the town’s earliest resident’s has one of his pigs, named Jerusalem, escape, it turns feral, and keeps to the woods, chasing away anyone that dares come near. So original and, again, awesome.

“Ben Mears’ hazing as a kid” ― “Sees the Marston ghost”

And now I know why Ben hates the Marston House. So would I. Very creepy scene.

“Sandy McDougall―makes a great spokesperson for anti-teen pregnancy”

Yeah, not exactly mother-of-the-year material, that one. Hated Sandy. Guess I was supposed to.

“Milkman Win Purinton’s (great name!) dog, Doc, impaled on cemetery gate. Found by caretaker, Mike Ryerson. Whodunit?”

Poor dog. A mongrel cocker to boot (miss you, Quincy . . . sorry, personal moment).

“Charlie Rhodes―bus driver―bastard”

Didn’t like Charlie, either. One of those stick-up-the-ass types. I figured he’d get his (he did).

“Mark Petrie vs. Ritchie Boddin―love it when bullies get theirs”

I’m a big fan of revenge stories and when bullies get what’s coming to them. My new book (in progress) has a cool revenge scene that I’m proud of (end self-plug).

“Who the hell is Richard Straker?―described as tall man―same tall man from the beginning of the book?”

Nope. Barlow’s (the main vampire) familiar.

“Danny and Ralphie Glick” ― “Ralphie disappears (taken by ‘dark figure’ to Harmony Hill Cemetery and sacrificed)”

And so begins the sad tale of the Glick family. And, yes, Ralphie was indeed sacrificed. Eww.

“The Lot (I) Chapter―a day-in-the-life type chapter―cool”

The sacrifice of Ralphie Glick ended the chapter The Lot (I).  I liked the structure of this chapter. It was a one-day-in-the-life-of introduction to all the residents in town.  Introduced a (‘Salem’s) lot of characters (yuk-yuk).

“Danny Glick has leukemia?”

Nope. That’s what experts call a misdiagnosis. Of course, I don’t think most (if any) doctors would immediately think vampirism.

“Hank and Royal must be moving a coffin containing the vampire at the dockyards”

Duh.

“Danny Glick dead . . . why?”

I assumed why, I just didn’t know precisely how. Found out later, of course.

“Edward Albee’s line about ‘monkey nipples?’”

“Monkey nipples” grabbed my attention. So I looked it up: Edward Albee is an American playwright who wrote Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolff?"  Apparently, there’s a scene in the play where a man and woman dance so close together, it’s a though their nipples are touching.

Honey: They dance like they've danced before.
George: It's a familiar dance, monkey nipples, they both know it.

Alrighty then.

“Son of a whore”

My friend, Tina, uses this phrase a lot in jest. Made me think of her.

“Mike Ryerson digging up Danny Glick’s grave . . . creepy”

This was a very disturbing scene. Ryerson’s absolute need to dig Danny up to “see if his eyes were open.” The influence of a vampire is powerful indeed.

“Poor Randy McDougall”

Damn scene of atrocious child abuse nearly brought me to tears. King’s description of the bloodied and bruised infant was awful and disturbing to read. Anyone who does that in real life deserves no respect whatsoever.

“Dud Rogers, dump caretaker, has first acknowledged meeting with Barlow?”

For the first time, King’s vampire, Kurt Barlow, is described. Not in name, however. His presence is effectively disturbing. A nice take on the refined, European vampire.

“Mike Ryerson has bite marks on neck. Bitten by Danny Glick?” ― “Mike out of it, sleeping, unable to eat from Sunday through Thursday. Spent night at Matt Burke’s house. Let vampire in . . . Danny Glick?” ― “If yes, how/when did Danny become a vampire?”

Yes, Mike was bitten by Danny. His inability to eat or sleep were signs of his change. And, yes, Mike let Danny in while staying at Matt Burke’s house. The old a-vampire-can’t-come-into-a-house-unless-invited-in rule.

“Mike Ryerson back in Matt’s bedroom after his own autopsy . . . definitely a vampire”

And, we have confirmation.

“Matt has heart attack. Why?”

A ploy by King to have him out of the action I suppose. Matt got so scared his heart seized. I was hoping Matt would be around for all of the vampire hunting.

“Danny Glick killed and turned Randy McDougall. Thank God for Randy”

I was really hoping Randy would be turned, so he could rip his worthless mother’s throat out. Nothing creepier than an infant vampire.

“Danny Glick turned his mom, Margie?”

Yep. Danny’s been busy.

“Danny tries to get Mark. Mark uses a cross”

In King’s world, vampires don’t like crucifixes. Nice old school touch. Loved the description of the crosses (or anything holy) glowing whenever a vampire was near.

“Gahan Wilson cartoon?”

Apparently, Gahan Wilson is a cartoonist who draws surrealistic imagery. King had a character reference him to describe the odd happenings in the Lot. Looked at Wilson’s website. A bit infantile, if you ask me. (Wilson-lovers . . . all both of you . . . feel free to e-mail your grievances).

“Jim Plunkett played for either the Packers or Patriots?”

I always thought he played for the Raiders only. King mentions a character watching the Packers-Patriots game and watching Jim Plunkett. Looked it up. Plunkett was drafted by the Patriots, played with them awhile, before being traded to the 49ers, and then the Raiders. Learn something new every day.

“Travis McGee?”

Travis McGee is a character in a series of books by author John D. MacDonald. Apparently, King is a fan.

“Uh-oh”

I wrote this after finishing page 423. There, Mark and Susan have entered the Marston House looking for Barlow. They approach the open cellar and are about to descend when they hear a creak behind them. They turn and there’s Straker, who immediately punches Mark unconscious. I determined that to be “not good.”

“Susan turned. Bummer”

I applaud King for not letting up on who got turned and who didn’t (who lived and who died). Although I didn’t want Susan to become a vampire, it made it more realistic that she did.

"Peter Kurtin?”

The “Vampire of Dusseldorf,” apparently. Psychotic whack-job of a serial killer. Look him up, if wish. Although, his name his Kürten. Not sure why King changed the spelling.

“Shylock’s bargain? Isn’t that Shakespeare?”

Yep. And, I haven’t even read The Merchant of Venice. I’m a smartie every day.

“The Lot (III). Lots of people being turned”

According to the chapter, The Lot (III), the whole town is pretty much vamped, turning the odds slightly in the favor of the bloodsuckers.

“Barlow’s elegant but cruel letter. Nice”

Reminded me of something Hannibal Lector would right.

“’My good friend, Matthew Burke.’ Is Matt another familiar for Barlow?”

At first, when I read this, I thought Matt was partially turned into a familiar or something. Unless I missed something, I don’t think that was the case. The wording in Barlow’s letter simply had me confused.

“Poor Susan had to die”

Like I said before, I didn’t want her to die, but she had to.

“Left-handed gift from the gods”

This is described as yet another character has a heart attack. Is this slang for a heart attack?

“Callahan turned? Wow!”

I was not expecting that.

“’I love you’”

I found this an odd thing for Ben to say to Mark after hacking through the cellar door with an axe to get to Barlow. Why does Ben . . . love Mark?

“What happened to Callahan?”

The guy got on a bus and left. Is he, in fact, turned or merely a familiar? King never says. The back of the book says: “Read more about Father Callahan in Stephen King’s The Dark Tower V: Wolves of Calla and beyond.” Guess that means he is immortal and ends up in other King books. Going to have to find out.

This was the last of my notes.

It may seem like a lot, but it really isn’t. I was so engrossed in the book, especially towards the end, I read more than notated. I didn’t mention how cool it was when Barlow killed Mark’s parents being effortlessly smashing their skulls together. How the man and the boy at the beginning of the book were actually Ben and Mark, preparing to return to ‘Salem’s Lot and burn it to the ground to kill the rest of the vampires. And, a whole bunch of other really, really cool stuff.

Anyway, to sum up, I loved ‘Salem’s Lot. A thoroughly entertaining read. A lot of characters to juggle around in my head, but, as long as I care about them, it doesn’t matter. I’m glad I finally read it . . . and enjoyed it.

Up next . . . The Shining. For real this time.

'Salem's Lot (1975)

Oops. The Shining isn’t next. ‘Salem’s Lot is. I could’ve sworn The Shining was King’s second novel. Either way, no worries. I certainly don’t mind reading a vampire story next.

I’ve purchased the most recently published Pocket Books paperback edition and, like Carrie, this version has a new introduction written by King in 1999.  I also like this book cover.  The puncture wounds on the neck make it obvious I'm about to read a vampire novel.  I like how everything else is either black, white, or grey.



Here’s the back cover:

Stephen King’s second novel, ‘SALEM'S LOT, is the story of a mundane town under siege from the forces of darkness. Considered one of the most terrifying vampire novels ever written, it cunningly probes the shadows of the human heart―and the insular evils of small-town America.

Here’s what I know: it’s a book about vampires and . . . that’s all I know.

I know it has been made into a miniseries twice, once in the late 70s and again recently. I haven’t seen either one. This will be the first King novel I’ll read where I know nothing of plot, characters, or situations and that makes it exciting for me. 

There is something I've found out prior to reading: ‘Salem’s Lot is short for Jerusalem’s Lot. I don’t know why but I think that is just completely awesome. One thing I have noticed about Stephen King before starting this blogging endeavor is he comes up with the coolest sounding place names and character names (Miss Desjardin – Carrie, Andy Dufresne – Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank (cool name in and of itself!) Redemption, Jerusalem’s Lot, etc . . .). What’s cooler is that I thought this while watching movies based on his books. Now that I’m reading King, I have a greater appreciation for the names he comes up with. For example, Miss Desjardin is given the bland name Miss Collins in the film version of Carrie. I remember when I was writing my book, I paid close attention to my character and place names, going so far as to looking in the phone book for cool-sounding names or recalling a unusual last name of a patient I transported when I used to work at the hospital. I wanted names that sounding interesting and cool to me. For all I know, King just picks names out of his head . . . but I’d like to think he puts as much thought into it as I do.

Check back for my review of ‘Salem’s Lot. 631 pages. It may take awhile longer than Carrie.

And . . . done.

Finished Carrie on Friday the 25th. Took all of six days (quick, for me).

Been working on my blog every day since then. But, what with my wife and I visiting my parents, and my brother and his wife having their baby last weekend (welcome, Emma Violet Colander!), I’ve been a tad busy.

Anyway, phenomenal read. Had me hooked real quick.

Allow me to say my reviews will be full of spoilers. If you haven’t read Carrie, read it, then come back. Spoilers will abound in these post-read blogs.

I can only assume Stephen King took a high school girl, her life-long history as a victim of bullying, a sickeningly religious and verbally, mentally, and physically abusive nut-job of a mother, a nice girl and her boyfriend trying to right a wrong, a first-class bitch and her psychotic greaser boyfriend with a vendetta, a high school prom, two buckets of pig’s blood, telekinesis, a revenge plot (complete with matricide), and 458 fatalities . . . and hit frappe.

It reads so well. I liked the presentation. The narrative, with excerpts from interviews, books, and reports interspersed within the text, made for a swift and hard-to-put-down read.

Here are some notes I wrote as I read:

“Right about the virgin blood” ― “Carrie has her first period at nearly 17-years-old” ― “Mother never told her about periods” ― “How horrific it must be for a girl to have her menstrual period without knowing what the hell is going on”

The shower scene establishes a lot. We meet Carrie, Sue, and Chris, among others. Sue Snell is the “good girl” of the book. During the shower scene (where Carrie experiences her first menstrual period at nearly 17-years-old), while she laughs at Carrie and joins in throwing tampons and sanitary napkins with chants of “PER-iod, PER-iod” and “Plug it up,” Sue ultimately feels bad for the girl who’s always getting picked on. She tries to atone for it later. Chris Hargensen is the bitch, the first to humiliate Carrie with an onslaught of catcalls and feminine hygiene products (I wondered as I read where all these girls got all these tampons and sanitary napkins. They just seemed to be continually pelting Carrie with them. Don’t women have a couple on stand-by, not (seemingly) dozens?). Later, Chris is instrumental in Carrie’s Prom Night humiliation and, ultimately, the destruction of the town (Chamberlain, Maine) and the deaths of 458 people . . . including Chris.

“Very effective details of bullying Carrie” ― “Feel very bad for Carrie”

King takes almost two pages worth detailing Carrie’s past verbal and physical bullying. Man, I know I sure felt bad for her.

“Carrie a chunky girl?? Complete opposite of Sissy Spacek”

Until King described Carrie physically, I already had Spacek in my head. King's details of Carrie’s physical make-up made me forget about Spacek. She somehow seemed more realistic as a chunky, pimply, fish-belly white girl, not a rail-thin twig.

“Carrie’s mother refused to believe she was pregnant. Instead, had a “cancer of the womanly parts”

How twisted and sad.

“Momma = Church; Carrie = congregation. Momma does Church in home three days a week, two to three hours a day”

Wow! I sure as shit would call that extremely religious, especially considering Momma’s idea of religion.

“Momma introduced. I don’t like her. Beats Carrie”

If King’s intention was for me to absolutely hate Momma . . . mission accomplished. What a whacko! Earlier in the book, 3-year-old Carrie wanders over to her neighbor’s yard, stares at the bikini-clad body of her teenaged neighbor, and asks about the neighbor’s breasts (“What are those?”). Carrie’s mother freaks out about it, drags Carrie back home, and yells at her and (we assume) beats her. Carrie’s retaliation is the ice and stone storm that she conjures over her house, her first use of her telekinetic powers. That sure shut Momma up. That is, until Carrie has her first period. Here’s what happens when Momma comes home from work after the shower scene:

Momma closed the door behind her. “You’re a woman,” she said softly.

Carrie felt her face twisting and crumpling and could not help it. “Why didn’t you tell me?” she cried. “Oh Momma, I was so scared! And the girls all made fun and threw things and―”

Momma had been walking toward her, and now her hand flashed with sudden limber speed, a hard hand, laundry-calloused and muscled. It struck her backhand across the jaw and Carrie fell down in the doorway between the hall and the living room, weeping loudly.

A mother-of-the-year candidate, for sure.

“Momma equates a woman’s first period as her first sinful act” ― “Carrie let ‘sin in’”

See above “whacko” reference.

“Miss Desjardin is sticking up for Carrie. Something bad is going to happen to her”

Desjardin, the gym teacher who comes to Carrie’s rescue during the shower scene, later sticks up for Carrie by giving Chris (the bitch) detention and taking the prom away from her for instigating the shower scene. Good for her, I thought to myself. So when is she going to die? Turns out, she lives, despite being telekinetically tossed aside by Carrie at the prom itself. Desjardin simply had a busted nose. But, I had a feeling she was going to die somehow. I’m glad she didn’t.

“Good job by Principal Grayle for standing up to Mr. Hargensen”

Mr. Hargensen is Chris’ father and is a lawyer (of course). Whenever Chris gets in trouble, Daddy swoops in to threaten with lawsuits and the like. I was glad to see Grayle stand up to him and (ultimately) dissuade him.

“Chris Hargensen . . . responsible for bucket of blood?”

I wrote myself this note after reading a letter Chris wrote to a friend:

“So I’m out of the Prom and my yellow-guts father says he won’t give them what they deserve. But they’re not going to get away with it. I don’t know exactly what I’m going to do yet, but I guarantee you everyone is going to get a big fucking surprise . . .”

The answer was yes.

“JFK . . . upcoming 11-23-63 novel . . . is King a JFK buff?”

In the book, King states the following:

“. . . the two most stunning events of the twentieth century have been the assassination of John F. Kennedy in 1963 and the destruction that came to Chamberlain, Maine, in May of 1979.”

With King’s upcoming 11-23-63 novel coming out soon, it made me wonder if King is a JFK assassination buff, like me.

“Blood = pig blood”

Well, at least it wasn’t human blood. The killing of the two pigs by Billy (Chris’ boyfriend) and his posse (sledgehammer to the head then slash the throat to collect the blood) was pretty gruesome. I’ve never felt sorrier for porcine in my life.

“Sue says: 'I’m not that sorry that Tommy is dead anymore.' and 'He and George and Frieda had less than two hours to live.'  I like how I’m finding out they’re dead, but not how they died”

Just as I said in my note . . . I liked how King lets us know they’re dead, we just don’t know how yet, as it’s revealed before the narrative describing the actual Prom Night events as they happened. Great way to make me not want to put down the book.

“Tommy killed by bucket falling on his head??”

No. Tommy was knocked out, lost consciousness, and ultimately died in the fire that consumed the school. However, there was something about King’s description of Tommy’s demise that confused me . . . at first. King mentions the quarter-full bucket of blood falling atop Tommy’s head, knocking him out. Just before the bucket strikes him, Tommy hears the sound of the buckets moving, which reminds him of the sound of milk buckets at his uncle’s farm. As presented in the text, however (“there go the milk buckets”), I thought Tommy knew there were buckets of blood that had been set-up to humiliate Carrie, so I was thinking he was somehow in on it. I even went back and reread the scene where Billy acquires the blood, to check if Tommy was with them (he wasn’t). Now I realize the reference was simply Tommy recognizing the sound of metal buckets (like those found on his uncle’s farm) and nothing more. Poor Tommy.

“After seeing and feeling Carrie die, Sue wanders away, dazed, and has her period. Weird”

There’s some meaning behind that . . . I just don’t know what it is. Any thoughts? Is Carrie now the patron saint of menstruation?

All in all, I loved this book. A great, entertaining read that kept my attention. When I read, that’s all I ask for: my undivided attention. I cared about the people I was supposed to care about and despised the ones I was supposed to hate. Believe me, if my first book was anything like Carrie, I would have sold millions of copies, too.

Up next . . . The Shining.

Carrie (1974)

And so it begins.

Carrie is Stephen King’s first novel, published one year before I was born. I’ve purchased the Pocket Books paperback edition, which features a new introduction written by King in 1999.  Since I'm a big critic of book covers, I have to say, I like this one.  Very stylized and effective.  The girl and the red coloring gives it a certain creepiness.



The back cover reads as follows:

A modern classic, CARRIE introduced a distinctive voice in American fiction―Stephen King. The story of misunderstood high school girl Carrie White, her extraordinary telekinetic powers, and her violent rampage of revenge remains one of the most barrier-breaking and shocking novels of all time. Make a date with terror―and live the nightmare that is CARRIE.

Ok. I’m going to pretend for a minute I’ve never heard of Carrie or Stephen King before. If I picked up this book in the store and read the back cover, I probably wouldn’t buy it. The only thing that might interest me is the “rampage of revenge.” I’m a big fan of revenge stories. But, high school girl, telekinetic powers . . . meh . . .

However, I do know Carrie . . . sort of. I know there’s a girl, she has telekinetic powers, has either a mean or uncompassionate mother, goes to the prom, is tricked (somehow) into believing she’s been made prom queen, and the other students humiliate her by dumping (I think) blood on her, she gets pissed, telekinetics everyone to death, and . . . I don’t know . . . lives happily ever after (not likely).

I know all this based on mere snippets of the film, Carrie, that I’ve seen . . . mostly on specials featuring Hollywood’s scariest moments or Stephen King retrospectives and the like. I’ve never seen the film all the way through. I know Brian De Palma directed it and it starred Sissy Spacek, John Travolta, Amy Irving, and the Greatest American Hero, William Katt. Other than that, I’ve only seen snippets of the prom scene, which begs the question: is that blood that’s dumped on Carrie? If so, is it human blood? Animal blood? Either way, gathering a bucket full of blood requires killing something alive to get it. Sounds like Carrie’s the normal one and her classmates need a good brain scrubbing. I don’t know, maybe they swiped it from the blood bank. Something tells me the blood symbolizes virgin blood. Just a guess. I’ll have to read and see.

Speaking of reading, time to do just that. 253 pages. Shouldn’t take too long. Check back for my review of Carrie.

Welcome to 1974 Value Street. 

This blog will chronicle my journey into the world of Stephen King. I know a lot about King and his works and have seen plenty of films based on his novels and short stories. However, I have never read any of those novels or short stories.

Well, let me amend that: I tried to read Misery, but picked it up after having watched the film adaptation. With the film’s imagery still fresh in my mind, I simply couldn’t separate the film from the book and put it down after maybe fifty pages. Didn’t help that I was fifteen-years-old at the time. After watching the film The Shawshank Redemption in 1994, I read film reviews and articles that indicated the film was almost a verbatim adaptation of the short story and I wanted to see if that was true. I borrowed Mom’s copy of Different Seasons, read Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption, found that it was indeed an almost verbatim adaptation, and absolutely loved it. I remember telling myself, “Hey, maybe I should start reading Stephen King.”

I just never did.

So, after successfully reading one short story and a mere fifty pages of one novel, I’ve decided to commit myself to reading every novel and short story Stephen King has ever written.

Daunting?

Uh . . . kinda.

That being said, I’m not going to set an end date of any kind (i.e., read them all by December 31st, 2012) or read only King until I’m done ( I just got a whole bunch of books with Christmas gift certificates that I want to get to, too). I’m just going to start at the beginning (Carrie) and read through to his latest (Full Dark, No Stars, as of March 2nd, 2011 . . . although, I just saw an alert on stephenking.com stating his next novel comes out November of this year. Called 11/22/63, it will deal will the JFK Assassination. Allow me to say . . . King + JFK assassination = awesome!). For all I know, this may take me five years . . . if not more. I have no doubt that King will add even more novels and short story collections as the years roll on.

I will read them by date of publication and will include the books written under his pseudonym, Richard Bachman, as well as his collaborations with Peter Straub. I will read the Dark Tower series based on their publication date, as well. I want to approach them as they were originally presented to the general public. I understand a lot of King’s novels somehow connect with the Dark Tower series, so seeing how they relate to other novels, as they were published, should be interesting.

Additionally, there are some short stories I will not have access to. People, Places, and Things: Volume 1 and The Star Invaders are not available to the general public. I also won’t be able to read Ur, a novella written exclusively for Amazon’s Kindle . . . because I will never, ever own a Kindle, Nook, or any other kind of electronic reader. Ever. I can only hope that King will include Ur in an upcoming short story collection, as he did with his first electronic book, Riding the Bullet, which found its way into Everything’s Eventual.

I haven't decided whether to include his non-fiction works into my regimen (Danse Macabre, On Writing, etc.). I’m leaning towards no. We’ll see.

When I purchase each new King novel and short story collection, I’ll blog my thoughts and/or feelings going into the read. As I finish each, I’ll return to this blog to write up a review and give other thoughts. I will not blog while reading each individual novel. Only before and after the process. For the short story collections, I will treat each story within individually and blog accordingly. Please feel free to give me your thoughts on each book or short story, or on my review of each. I would love to know what others think.

I’ll see you again in a couple days (most likely a week or two realistically) after I purchase my first Stephen King novel, Carrie. I have to finish The Fellowship of the Ring first (I have roughly 150 pages left to read). Wish me luck as I enter the mind of celebrated author, Stephen King.

Oh, by the way. Some of you may be asking, “What the hell does 1974 Value Street have to do with Stephen King? Well, King has had a few unpublished and unfinished novels over the years. One of them was called The House on Value Street. It was to be King’s fictionalized account of Patty Hearst’s kidnapping by the Symbionese Liberation Army. King’s fictionalized SLA’s headquarters would have been in a house on Value Street. King attempted multiple drafts from various angles before deciding he could not finish the novel to his satisfaction. The 1974 refers to one of two things: either the year King started The House on Value Street or the year he gave up on it. I’m not sure which. Although unfinished, The House on Value Street was influential in the creation of what would eventually become The Stand. While free-associating on his SLA research, King typed the sentence "Donald DeFreeze is a dark man." This was the first evocation of his recurring villain, Randall Flagg.

I thought the title of this blog should be unique while still paying homage to Stephen King.

Besides, The King & I was already taken.