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treeduck
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Ok I've finally finished Hearts in Atlantis and it kind of dragged a little over the last four stories mainly because of the disappointing title story which seemed to add up to a lot of nothing but rambling about the 60s college days. it kind of reminded me of King's early Bachman stories in a way. The best story is obviously Low Men in Yellow Coats and that's the problem with this book, after that one's done the rest of the book is a bit of an anticlimax. The other story that I enjoyed a lot though was the fourth one set in 1999 where two guys think back vividly to their vietnam days, this one really engaged me and made me laugh too.

 

Favourite characters: Ted and Bobby Garfield from Low Men

 

Wild card: Ronnie Malenfant - "that card playing bastard" - this character cracked me up, (I imagined him as that guy out of The Warriors, yeah the one who looks like Geddy Lee, even though King described him differently). There's always one crazy asshole in King's books somewhere, usually many more than one, in this book Malenfant's the guy. He's only a peripheral character really, he's the man obsessed with playing hearts among hearts obsessives in the title story and he reappears in the 3rd and 4th stories as a memory where he's still obsessed with "chasing the Bitch!"

 

The most important character though seemed to me to be another supporting player, kind of the lynch pin of the whole five part story, Carol Gerber. Each main character in each of the first four stories; Bobby Garfield (Low Men), Pete Riley (Hearts), Bill Shearman (Blind Willie) and John Sullivan (Why we're in Vietnam), their lives seemed to revolve around Carol even though she's either a supporting character, a memory or an imagined figure who exists only in newspaper cuttings.

 

Overall this book isn't bad but as I said the first story is so much better than the others that you feel like you've finished the book even though you've got 4 stories and half of it to go. Which is why I kind of made my way through these a little listlessly.

 

How does it compare to the previous 2 books? Well, it's way above Bag of Bones without a doubt but it's also waaaay below Wizard and Glass, nearer to the bag than the wizard...

 

Well now that Atlantis has sunk again, what's next??

 

Don't worry, all will be revealed in good order...

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The next Stephen King on my list is not even by King...

 

Well it is ahh you know what I mean I think...

 

http://img159.imageshack.us/img159/9248/regulatorsqs5.jpg

 

This is how my 1996 HB version looks (although mine is in better condition than this one I found on ebay, jeez it was hard getting a pic of the thing).

 

This novel was published simultaneously with Desperation in 96 and was supposed to be lost "Bachman" work, but of course he's merely King's alter ego. A lot of people claimed that it was just the same book written twice. It certainly features some of the same characters as Desperation or the same names anyway but they are completely different in each book, or some of them are at least. I don't remember much more than that, after all it's been 10 years ago since I read it... I think these two books are designed to be read one after the other (great marketing ploy), so yes I'll be reading Desperation after this one too as that's around here somewhere too...

 

I suppose the double release did make extra cash but I think they did it at least partly for fun, check out the catalogue listing inside the book where it lists the author as Bachman, Richard 1947-85 - yeah, diseased in 1985 after he was discovered as King's pseudonym by one Steve Brown. King got a novel out of that escapade too (the Dark Half), he's nothing if not resourceful when it comes to story ideas...

 

Anyway, The Regulators is a pretty slim volume especially by King standards, it's much slimmer than Desperation, but then King was always more concise as Bachman...

 

A lot of people it seems didn't like this one I seem to recall, myself I remember it being quite a good read, but I not sure, and there's only one way to find out, I need to meet The Regulators all over again and fnd out one way or the other...

 

 

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I'm well on with The Regulators now and it's pretty good. One thing that strikes me about these four books I've read so far is that they're all completely different. SK has gone from dark fantasy with western overtones to slow burning ghost story to suspense-tinged melodrama to violent supernatural thriller.

 

One downside to re-reads has reared it's ugly head though, I've remembered where the source of all the mayhem in this story is coming from and King drops clues in between chapters in the form of TV guide programme descriptions, children's toy ads and newspaper cuttings, otherwise I'd not know what the hell was going on. Still it's only a vague recollection, the book itself still reads like it's all brand new to me...

 

Oh yeah if anyone was fooled into thinking that Bachman was actually a real person, one thing gives it away as Stephen King right away: one of the characters is a writer... eyesre4.gif King should not be allowed to make anymore of his characters into writers. In King's world there must be millions of them, how can they all make a living that's what I want to know??? laugh.gif

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QUOTE (treeduck @ Nov 6 2006, 08:28 PM)
King should not be allowed to make anymore of his characters into writers. In King's world there must be millions of them, how can they all make a living that's what I want to know??? laugh.gif

I've been reading the blurb of the new book Lisey's Story , and I'm glad to report the heroine is not a writer.

 

She's a writer's wife!!!!!!!!!.

 

It's progress though wink.gif biggrin.gif

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QUOTE (madra sneachta @ Nov 6 2006, 03:00 PM)
QUOTE (treeduck @ Nov 6 2006, 08:28 PM)
King should not be allowed to make anymore of his characters into writers. In King's world there must be millions of them, how can they all make a living that's what I want to know???  laugh.gif

I've been reading the blurb of the new book Lisey's Story , and I'm glad to report the heroine is not a writer.

 

She's a writer's wife!!!!!!!!!.

 

It's progress though wink.gif biggrin.gif

Yeah, I've got a copy of that and I'll be reading it eventually. King reckons it's his best ever novel but then he always rates his latest work... His previous favourite was Misery which of course is about another writer though that really is an excellent one...

 

 

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QUOTE (treeduck @ Nov 4 2006, 02:16 PM)
The next Stephen King on my list is not even by King...

Well it is ahh you know what I mean I think...

http://img159.imageshack.us/img159/9248/regulatorsqs5.jpg

This is how my 1996 HB version looks (although mine is in better condition than this one I found on ebay, jeez it was hard getting a pic of the thing).

This novel was published simultaneously with Desperation in 96 and was supposed to be lost "Bachman" work, but of course he's merely King's alter ego. A lot of people claimed that it was just the same book written twice. It certainly features some of the same characters as Desperation or the same names anyway but they are completely different in each book, or some of them are at least. I don't remember much more than that, after all it's been 10 years ago since I read it... I think these two books are designed to be read one after the other (great marketing ploy), so yes I'll be reading Desperation after this one too as that's around here somewhere too...

I suppose the double release did make extra cash but I think they did it at least partly for fun, check out the catalogue listing inside the book where it lists the author as Bachman, Richard 1947-85 - yeah, diseased in 1985 after he was discovered as King's pseudonym by one Steve Brown. King got a novel out of that escapade too (the Dark Half), he's nothing if not resourceful when it comes to story ideas...

Anyway, The Regulators is a pretty slim volume especially by King standards, it's much slimmer than Desperation, but then King was always more concise as Bachman...

A lot of people it seems didn't like this one I seem to recall, myself I remember it being quite a good read, but I not sure, and there's only one way to find out, I need to meet The Regulators all over again and fnd out one way or the other...

Ok, Yes the Regulators, hmmmm The Regulators was a very good and exciting read with some blackly funny moments; such as the scene where the woman's arm is hanging on by a few fibres and she's freaking out and these two guys are trying to staunch the blood flow with a belt and the arm comes off, not something I'd normally find funny but in King's hands this kind of thing can end up being comicly drawn...

 

It's a very good novel of supernatural goings on that reminds me a little of a few of the late-80s Dean Koontz chillers, maybe Midnight or The Bad Place, but it's not up with the King classics or even the near-classics. Here's the main reason why: the story hits the ground running from page 1 with no messing around but King slips ever expanding background material in the form of journals written by the autistic child's aunt and the copper mine geologist from Desperation, Nevada, between chapters. This is fine at the beginning as things are building up slightly and the sections are short or it's a one page newspaper clipping. Early on this adds to the flavour of the of the story but he continues to do this right throughout the book with increasingly long entries. So after chapter 10 when the tale is reaching fever pitch, he slots in 22 pages of journal entries totally derailing the story momentum and causing me to grudgingly plow through the section finding myself needing a recap when I finally get done with it. Now The info in these sections does fill in the blanks for the reader but the way it's done totally slows down and breaks apart the narrative.

 

I did enjoy the book overall though and unlike other books I'm now gonna get the chance to meet all these names and faces again in the The Regulator's twin brother Desperation. Yes Johnny Marinville and co will be back for another crack at Tak the terrible, this time thoough, they go to Nevada instead of Nevada going to Ohio via psychic vampire Tak. Yep Johnny marinville the writer will turn up again all new and unmolested, but a different Johnny Marinville, with a whole different back catalogue and back history I imagine. It's gonna be a bit like leaping across to a parallel universe to see how another version of this story turns out...

 

More in the next post...

 

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Before I move on to Desperation a little info on Richard Bachman...

 

 

 

 

SK has just been over here in the Uk on a book tour, here's some pics...

 

http://www.liljas-library.com/img/other/king_batterse.jpg

http://www.liljas-library.com/img/other/king_battersea_.jpg

http://www.liljas-library.com/img/other/king_border.jpg

http://www.liljas-library.com/img/other/king_lilja_bord.jpg

http://www.liljas-library.com/img/other/king_press.jpg

 

 

What's this got to do with Senor Bachman I hear you screech???

 

Well...

 

At the press conference in Battersea someone asked him if there'd be anymore books by Bachman and king surprised everyone by saying yes there would be. He found one in his basement that he wrote in 1973 called Blaze and it'll be published soon. Fans and aficionados have known about this book for quite a while so it's cool that he decided to publish it. King says it's going to be updated and probably revised as well...

 

If you want to check this out yourself here's the link:

 

http://www.liljas-library.com/

 

 

So that's Bachman and that's King's UK tour meanwhile here is...

 

 

http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/3460/stephenkingdesperationpl6.jpg

 

...yes that's right The british 1996 hardback version of the next book in my ducky King fest...

 

And without further ado it's off to meet the Carver family once again, a different Carver family yet the same. And the Jacksons and Johnny Marinville, the obligatory writer, and their battle with Tak take 2... Come with me gentle reader as I- wait a sec I'm starting to sound like King!! Forgive me you Rush looneys and finally adieu...

 

 

 

 

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http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/3460/stephenkingdesperationpl6.jpg

 

So far (page 186) this one isn't quite matching it's twin The Regulators. It still feels like it's warming up though as yet...

 

Two excellently creepy sections stand out for me so far. Both feature Steve Ames (Johnny Marinville's "roadie") and his hitchhiker Cynthia Smith, who also teamed up in that other Desperation-King reality The Regulators. The sections in question are when they investigate Marinville's disappearance alone in the desert and get an awfully terrible feeling of being watched and when they check out the town's Marie Celeste-like mining offices, feeling a dread growing ever stronger minute by minute. A dread that was very well conveyed to this reader...

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Now that Desperation is over it's time for a few comments. It starts out like a short story about a maniac cop who picks off unlucky motorists that happen to cross his path, but by part two it expands into an apocalyptic tale of good versus evil along the lines of the Stand but smaller in scope. Like in The Stand, the survivors of the early horrific events band together and become greater than the sum of their parts. Tak is this story's Randall Flagg and the power he has over scorpions, spiders, coyotes, snakes, rats, cougars, bats and buzzards seems Flagg-like behaviour though it's been a long while since I read that novel so details are foggy. Like Flagg he appears overwhelmingly powerful but as in The Stand it's almost as if the mere fact that they don't give in to him is enough to save them. Tak comes over in the end like a supernatural bully who doesn't like being hit back. What's interesting is that in both Desperation (David Carver) and The Regulators (Seth Garin) a special child is responsible for ultimately defeating it.

 

There's a lot of exciting and spooky moments throughout but there are some parts that drag, particularly David Carver's religious conversion. Generally though it beats it's sister novel The Regulators (which I mention yet again because a couple of scenes actually appear in both books, like the cougar attack on Steve Ames, and are virtually identical, the location and exact circumstance set them apart) by a head, and finishes up as an excellent horror novel, not quite King's best but only a step or two down from that....

 

Ok so far the 5 books I've re-read have all been from the 90s and I've yet to read any "new" King work from this decade and nothing post-accident...

 

So it'll be 21st century King next...

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And the first "new" 21st century King for me will be...

 

http://img71.imageshack.us/img71/2605/stephenkingfromabuick8yc1.jpg

 

 

Yes, From a Buick 8. I've heard people say that this is just King repeating himself, that it's watered-down Christine but we'll see. It is about a spooky car like Christine and set in Pennsylvania like Christine so there's obvious similarities for sure - I wonder, does King associate Pennsylvania with haunted automobiles? Anyway I'm not expecting it to be a classic maybe something on the same level as Hearts in Atlantis, not bad, but nearer the bottom of the King pile than the top.

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"Misery" was supposed to be a Bachman book, before King's cover was blown. "The Dark Half" (What crap I thought that was!) should've been a Bachman book as well, I think. Interesting that now he's once again releasing books under Bachman, even though everyone knows they're by King.
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QUOTE (GeddyRulz @ Nov 20 2006, 03:39 PM)
"Misery" was supposed to be a Bachman book, before King's cover was blown.  "The Dark Half" (What crap I thought that was!) should've been a Bachman book as well, I think.  Interesting that now he's once again releasing books under Bachman, even though everyone knows they're by King.

One thing about Misery, King has just stated that he thinks it's his best novel (after his new one - of course eyesre4.gif ) so if he thought it was that good, why make it a Bachman book?

 

I actually enjoyed the Dark Half, the idea was a silly one but king managed to to turn it into a great read, I particularly enjoyed "that high-toned son of a bitch" George Stark.

 

Both these are on my king fest list so i'll talk about them again later on no doubt...

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QUOTE (treeduck @ Nov 20 2006, 04:19 PM)
I actually enjoyed the Dark Half, the idea was a silly one but king managed to to turn it into a great read,

I can almost get beyond its "silly idea" and suspend disbelief, but the novel builded to a lame and cliche ending.

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QUOTE (GeddyRulz @ Nov 20 2006, 04:53 PM)
QUOTE (treeduck @ Nov 20 2006, 04:19 PM)
I actually enjoyed the Dark Half, the idea was a silly one but king managed to to turn it into a great read,

I can almost get beyond its "silly idea" and suspend disbelief, but the novel builded to a lame and cliche ending.

I've forgotten the very end of it, don't tell me though with these king re-reads I'm really seeing the value of forgetting stuff...

 

yes.gif

 

 

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Ok I'm in the middle of From a Buick 8 and the unthinkable has happened!! I'm reading a Stephen King book that's more boring than Bag of Bones. How can this be, especially when the subject matter (a spooky car) interests me so much more?

 

Well the problem here is there's not enough story in this for a novel length book. It's a short story that's been extended and therefore padded out with lots and lots of blah blah blah. King goes off on annoying tangents all over the place when you just wish he'd get on with it. King also goes to great lengths to show just how much research he's done and it feels like homework to read these parts. The whole thing feels like an exercise in fact with it's clever Now and Then chapter headings and flashback style, it's almost like a demonstration follow-up fictional example to his On-Writing instructional book. At least bag of Bones felt like a real novel.

 

The good news is the best chapter I've read so far (the dessection of an alien monstrosity that the car brought) was the latest one so maybe it'll improve from here, so far though NOT so good...

 

 

Edited by treeduck
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http://img71.imageshack.us/img71/2605/stephenkingfromabuick8yc1.jpg

 

Well it's finally done and what a chore it was, right the way through to the end. It was like reading a text book about the history of plywood or something. Ok ok there were some interesting sections here and there, but they couldn't have made up more than 70 out of the 467 pages and even they weren't as exciting as I'm sure they were meant to be.

 

King seemed almost reluctant to write about the weird alien things the car spewed out like he was procrastinating, delaying as he babbled about trooper lore The alien things only appeared briefly and didn't do anything much except die.

 

Instead of writing this book about troopers and a car that has occasional "births" he should have written one where say four troopers sitting in the car get dragged to wherever the alien things come from and then recount the adventures they have there instead and call it "Through a Buick 8" that would have been more interesting. I think King wanted to write a novel that had no supernatural elements at all actually, one about troopers and their families with no suspense and not much happening. A story that starts in the middle and ends in the middle, a slice of life, but he can't resist slipping in the supernatural and sc fi stuff. He has a foot in both camps in this novel and it causes him to end up producing a dud that satisfies as neither...

 

I understand that George Romero is directing the film version of this which seems strange. Based on what I've heard (though I haven't read it yet) a better choice for him would be Cell. To me this seems to be a book that will turn into something along the lines of Cronenberg's version of Naked Lunch, interesting but dull, maybe Cronenberg shhould direct it...

 

Anyway I still say if he'd taken the 70 interesting pages and made them into a short story it could have been good...but unfortunately it's the "Rock Bottom Remainder" of the King fest so far. I only recommend this book to people who are particularly interested in Pennsylvania State Police procedure or extensive descriptions of 50s era Buicks.

 

 

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One more thing about From a Buick 8, I did like the author's note at the end, where SK talks about the coincidence of this story, written in spring 1999 before his accident, also featuring someone having their own road accident...anyway...

 

From a novel that should have been a short story to a collection of actual short stories...

 

http://img83.imageshack.us/img83/9061/seventualas5.jpg

 

This is the only collection of short fiction of his I haven't read before...

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QUOTE (treeduck @ Nov 20 2006, 04:19 PM)
QUOTE (GeddyRulz @ Nov 20 2006, 03:39 PM)
"Misery" was supposed to be a Bachman book, before King's cover was blown.  "The Dark Half" (What crap I thought that was!) should've been a Bachman book as well, I think.  Interesting that now he's once again releasing books under Bachman, even though everyone knows they're by King.

One thing about Misery, King has just stated that he thinks it's his best novel (after his new one - of course eyesre4.gif ) so if he thought it was that good, why make it a Bachman book?

 

I actually enjoyed the Dark Half, the idea was a silly one but king managed to to turn it into a great read, I particularly enjoyed "that high-toned son of a bitch" George Stark.

 

Both these are on my king fest list so i'll talk about them again later on no doubt...

i'll have to say that out of all the stephen king novel that I have read..... misery is my favorite....

 

 

the first time i read it was back in '88 or '89... i lived in california for a short time and picked up....it's one of those books that whose story line stayed with me forver.......

 

 

 

 

can you paulie?

can you?

Edited by ladirushfan80
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QUOTE (ladirushfan80 @ Nov 27 2006, 06:04 AM)
QUOTE (treeduck @ Nov 20 2006, 04:19 PM)
QUOTE (GeddyRulz @ Nov 20 2006, 03:39 PM)
"Misery" was supposed to be a Bachman book, before King's cover was blown.  "The Dark Half" (What crap I thought that was!) should've been a Bachman book as well, I think.  Interesting that now he's once again releasing books under Bachman, even though everyone knows they're by King.

One thing about Misery, King has just stated that he thinks it's his best novel (after his new one - of course eyesre4.gif ) so if he thought it was that good, why make it a Bachman book?

 

I actually enjoyed the Dark Half, the idea was a silly one but king managed to to turn it into a great read, I particularly enjoyed "that high-toned son of a bitch" George Stark.

 

Both these are on my king fest list so i'll talk about them again later on no doubt...

i'll have to say that out of all the stephen king novel that I have read..... misery is my favorite....

 

 

the first time i read it was back in '88 or '89... i lived in california for a short time and picked up....it's one of those books that whose story line stayed with me forver.......

 

 

 

 

can you paulie?

can you?

 

I read that back around 88 too and the other day I found my hardback copy in the attic the other day, here's a crappy webcam pic i just took of it...

 

http://img281.imageshack.us/img281/746/picture012sv1.jpg

 

I haven't read it since then, though of course I've seen the kathy Bates/James caan film version a few times (though not for a long time either). It'll crop pretty soon in this thread...

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http://img83.imageshack.us/img83/9061/seventualas5.jpg

 

Ok so far I've read four stories and the good news is they're all pretty decent, almost classic King to some degree, though I can't tell yet how this volume measures up to his other three, I'll leave that assessment till later. King's always scored with short fiction in the past though so it's gonna be interesting.

 

One thing about short stories and SK is that without time and space for waffling and preamble within the short story medium, everything has to be very concise and no waste can be tolerated, which is definitely a good thing.

 

My favourite so far is "The Man in the Black Suit" and it's a particularly disturbing little tale, genuinely creepy. "Autopsy Room 4" also stands out for me with it's tongue in cheek ending, but they're all good up to now, so no complaints from me as yet...

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Wow I'm really getting impressed by this short story collection. Along with The Man in the Black Suit, I really liked the title story, Everything's Eventual and The Little Sisters of Eluria which is a stand-alone Dark Tower tale which takes place before the first Dark Tower volume but well after the Susan delgado story. It's kind of a cross between Wizard and Glass and Salem's Lot.

 

After 9 stories I'd have to say this collection is very good indeed...

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Ok Everything's Eventual is done and dusted and a very enjoyable read it was too. It's not King's best short story collection that would be Night Shift, but I think it's slightly better than Skeleton Crew which I remember being rather patchy. Ok there's nothing as good as The Mist in EE but there are 5 gems that run it very close including the ones I mentioned above plus the spooky "Road Virus Heads North" and the genuinely unsettling "1408" and everything else is at least pretty good, so there's no duds. Skeleton Crew however has plenty of fillers and dross in amongst the Monkeys and The Rafts.

 

 

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So far everything I've read has been from the 90s or the noughties so now it's time to go back to the 80s. In the spirit of this let's see Mr King himself as he was in the 80s shall we? Just to get things started...

 

 

 

Ahhh the 80s and which King book shall I ride back to 80s in? How about the one about the Haunted car? A 50s car, in Pennsylvania? Wait a sec i just read that one didn't I? Ahh not a Buick though this time, but a Plymouth Fury... I'm sure you know which one I mean, here's how my copy looks, I only just dug it out the attic last week...

 

http://img86.imageshack.us/img86/8373/stephenkingchristinewz4.jpg

http://img86.imageshack.us/img86/5629/stephenkingchristine2oi7.jpg

 

(These are are pics off the net though not my actual copy - which is in better nick I would reckon)

 

 

This novel is kind of a cross between Herbie Rides Again and the 1974 film Killdozer with a teen angst story running right through the middle of it, but of course it's a helluva lot better than that description sounds. It's actually kind of an expansion of a theme King explored in his short tale "Trucks" but it works much better than that story did. I wonder if it'll work as well for me now after a couple of decades? Well there's only one way to find out isn't there...?

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Well I'm 50 pages in and it defintely feels like classic-era King. Good 80s King anyway. Yep it's very cool...

 

One thing I noticed, the car songs he quotes at the beginning of each chapter are listed at the front and one of them stood out to me: Bob Dylan's "From a Buick 6" I think we know where he got his inspiration for the corresponding novel. I wonder if he was thinking about From a Buick 8 way back in 1978 when he wrote Christine?

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QUOTE (treeduck @ Dec 3 2006, 10:56 PM)
So far everything I've read has been from the 90s or the noughties so now it's time to go back to the 80s. In the spirit of this let's see Mr King himself as he was in the 80s shall we? Just to get things started...

Do you know me?


Ahhh the 80s and which King book shall I ride back to 80s in? How about the one about the Haunted car? A 50s car, in Pennsylvania? Wait a sec i just read that one didn't I? Ahh not a Buick though this time, but a Plymouth Fury... I'm sure you know which one I mean, here's how my copy looks, I only just dug it out the attic last week...

http://img86.imageshack.us/img86/8373/stephenkingchristinewz4.jpg
http://img86.imageshack.us/img86/5629/stephenkingchristine2oi7.jpg

(These are are pics off the net though not my actual copy - which is in better nick I would reckon)


This novel is kind of a cross between Herbie Rides Again and the 1974 film Killdozer with a teen angst story running right through the middle of it, but of course it's a helluva lot better than that description sounds. It's actually kind of an expansion of a theme King explored in his short tale "Trucks" but it works much better than that story did. I wonder if it'll work as well for me now after a couple of decades? Well there's only one way to find out isn't there...?

Yeah very good novel from King, not his best but not his worst. What's he done about 60 books? Well Christine isn't in the top 20 or the bottom 20 it's somewhere in the middle of the middle 20 or thereabouts. It was a solid read right from the start, but it didn't really get into top gear (car puns are mandatory of course) till about halfway through. Before that Christine is merely just an old wreck of a car that's a little creepy.

 

I think one weakness of the book was the first person style chosen by SK in parts one and three - he switched to third person for part two, after he had Dennis (our first person storyteller) conveniently injured right at the end of part one. The first person telling of the tale worked fine up to that point and during the build up, but King's so good at viewing and relaying many people's perspectives and gelling it all together in a seamless narrative, that once he opened up the story beyond the viewpoint of Dennis, it didn't really work as well to my mind after he reverted to the narrower view of Dennis in first person for the final part once again. The way he dealt with Arnie right at the end like it was just an afterthought was disappointing as well considering he was such a huge part of the story. We never got to see Arnie battling with his demons in the final act, he was just listed as a statistic...

 

Still overall it was a good read, Roland D Lebay was decent villain, even though he was dead, or maybe because he was dead... The book is definitely the story of how Lebay haunts the car and lives in it like a disease, cursing it with his presence. Without Lebay the car would just be like any car. Contrastingly John Carpenter's film depicted Christine as a car with it's own mind, like the personality of a homicidal girl actually lived inside the car instead of a human body and right from the start of the film, beginning with her Detroit construction.

 

Anyway...

 

So we've done the haunted cars, what else did King use to haunt us in the 80s? Animals? Dogs? Cats maybe...? Hmmmmm...

Edited by treeduck
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