Palaver's Stephen King blog

“After all, there are beasts everywhere.”

A wonderful book that takes a wise, loving look at horror and its neighbouring genres, mostly from the 50’s to the 80’s. King sits down and has a fascinating conversation with the reader, adding interesting facts about himself and his life along with his insight in horror fiction and film. Often very funny, often very enlightening. And, best of all, he makes you want to read and watch the books and films he’s talking about – the good as well as the bad ones.

“Free will was not a factor.”

Horror in the ‘real world’, whatever that may be. Here the monster is a rabid dog, a kind dog that didn’t want to harm anyone but made the mistake of chasing a rabbit into a bat cave. Naturalistic, pessimistic and not entertaining in the ordinary sense of the word, it’s a good example of one of the things that make King great; he doesn’t write what the reader wants him to, but what the story demands.

“It was a pleasure to burn” (Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451)

Oh, another story about a young girl with awesome powers, some might smirk. Yes, but aside from the simplest of summaries, Firestarter is vastly different from Carrie. More mobile, more complex and more of a normal thriller. One of his most mainstream books, you might say. Whereas Carrie is perhaps distancing itself from the reader somewhat in its experimental form, Firestarter takes you along on an adventure, an involving story, vividly told, with a moral dilemma as a bonus. King the storyteller.

“What a talent God has given you, Johnny.”

As with Firestarter, some might dismiss it as “another King story about ordinary people, blessed or cursed with unusual powers”. As before, this is an entirely different story, with some recurrent motifs. Another of his pet subjects, religious mania that serves as an instrument of truth, is also present here, if discreetly. One of King’s own favorites, from what I’ve read. The town of Castle Rock is introduced here.

“It was a face guaranteed to make barrooms arguments over batting averages turn bloody.”

This face belongs to Randall Flagg, one of King’s most famous incarnations of evil and corruption. He makes his first appearance in The Stand. This 1200 page novel is the favourite of many fans, and although I would personally rank at least IT and Misery higher, it sure is powerful. A true epic, turning america into a post-apocalyptic battleground for a very biblical Good and Evil. Both mystical, almost Tolkienish, and ruggedly realistic, it is still unique in the way it blends different levels of reality so seamlessly (lousy metaphor, please suggest a better one).

NOTE: The first edition was a measly 800 pages, but it was restored to its intended length in 1990.

“In the Overlook all things had a sort of life.”

The ultimate haunted house novel, right up there with the masterpieces by Shirley Jackson and Henry James, and as psychologically complex. As much a story about a haunted man as a building, it portrays the gradual going-insane of Jack Torrance – one King’s most memorable characters – in a hotel that’s not as empty as it supposed to be.