I've been reading a lot of Stephen King lately, but Insomnia was never very high on my King To-Read List until I was finishing the Dark Tower series and read about connections in Insomnia. Of course, I also recently read King's On Writing, where he says Insomnia is one of his least favorite creations (mainly because he had it elaborately plotted out ahead of time - more on that later).
So, what did I think? While Insomnia isn't one of my favorite Stephen King books, it has its highlights and, if I'm being honest, the Dark Tower connections probably make me like it a little more than I otherwise would.
First, the bad: Like many of King's door-stopper books, this one is a lot longer than it has to be. I had a few other things I had to read on a timeline, so I had to put this down several times for a week or two at a time. And for most of the middle of the book, I didn't mind at all. While the characters are interesting, there's a loooooooot of set up for what they end up doing.
And when the really weird stuff actually does start to happen after a couple hundred pages, sometimes King's phantasmagoric explanations are, while pretty cool, often hard to decipher. I'm honestly still a bit unclear on a couple elements of the plot (not that this ever stopped me from enjoying King's other books!).
A big chunk of the book deals with people on various sides of the abortion issue, and while it's pretty easy to see what King is thinking, a lot of that felt a bit underdeveloped or just used as an excuse to explain the heightened tempers. Also, this all happens in Derry, Maine, a town which, as IT shows, has series issues about all issues.
And now the good stuff: One of the coolest things about this book is that the protagonist, Ralph Roberts, is a 70-year-old man. You don't see that enough in fiction and it gave him an interesting perspective on things (I figured out that King was around the age I am now when he wrote this in the early 90's and now - 2019- he's around Ralph's age). For example, Ralph has to deal with his wife's death and life after that in a heartbreaking, yet entirely typical way (I say "typical" up to a point, of course; this is Stephen King!). He encounters the inevitable physical limitations of age, but luckily has some good friends to help him (like the always-amusing Bill and of course, "Our Lois"). Ralph honestly makes old age not seem so bad, although of course it also gives King more chances to meditate on the fact of death and how we can learn to accept it (although in a more melancholy and less brutal way than say, Pet Sematary).
When the weird stuff really kicks into gear, it's delightfully weird. I can't say I always understood what was going on, but it was fun to read about the auras, the "Little Bald Doctors", and even stranger things.
And now the good stuff: One of the coolest things about this book is that the protagonist, Ralph Roberts, is a 70-year-old man. You don't see that enough in fiction and it gave him an interesting perspective on things (I figured out that King was around the age I am now when he wrote this in the early 90's and now - 2019- he's around Ralph's age). For example, Ralph has to deal with his wife's death and life after that in a heartbreaking, yet entirely typical way (I say "typical" up to a point, of course; this is Stephen King!). He encounters the inevitable physical limitations of age, but luckily has some good friends to help him (like the always-amusing Bill and of course, "Our Lois"). Ralph honestly makes old age not seem so bad, although of course it also gives King more chances to meditate on the fact of death and how we can learn to accept it (although in a more melancholy and less brutal way than say, Pet Sematary).
When the weird stuff really kicks into gear, it's delightfully weird. I can't say I always understood what was going on, but it was fun to read about the auras, the "Little Bald Doctors", and even stranger things.
More in tune with this dimension of reality, it was also interesting to read about a character with insomnia. I only occasionally deal with this particular condition myself, and it hardly happened to me at all until I hit my late 30's, but I do like to stay up late and love the stillness of the world around 2-3am, that sweet spot of existence after most night owls have gone home and before those obnoxious early risers are about. Eldritch things do happen at this hour, and it was fun to see King's take on it. Since the novel takes place in Derry, the librarian Mike Hanlon makes a couple cameo appearances, a few years after his dealings with that inter-dimensional clown.
Speaking of King's shared universe, I really don't want to spoil the Dark Tower connections, but I will say they are simultaneously substantial enough to be of interest to serious Dark Tower fans but not so onerous that they would impede enjoyment of the novel for people who haven't read or don't care for the Dark Tower series. As a Dark Tower fan, I thought it gave some interesting backstory for one of the more mysterious characters.
I promised to say more about the ending. One of King's biggest problems is endings, especially with his longer novels: his endings are often too abrupt, nonsensical, insufficiently explained, or otherwise unsatisfying (IT, Under the Dome, and The Tommyknockers are examples that immediately come to my mind - for the record, I loved the ending of The Dark Tower). While King himself complains about Insomnia, one nice effect of having plotted this one out ahead of time in a way he rarely does is that the ending is satisfying and thoroughly explained. The ending is so well done it prompted me to forgive many of the book's faults.
Is it a happy ending? Well, that depends. Are any of our ends happy? Or is the best we can hope for a satisfying ending to our own personal stories that makes narrative sense, however elusive such endings may be? Perhaps this is in fact one of the deepest existential functions of fiction: it gives us ideas for crafting the narratives of our own lives, all with a dash of melancholy in realizing that life rarely imitates fiction. But then again, would you really want to live a Stephen King novel?
Speaking of King's shared universe, I really don't want to spoil the Dark Tower connections, but I will say they are simultaneously substantial enough to be of interest to serious Dark Tower fans but not so onerous that they would impede enjoyment of the novel for people who haven't read or don't care for the Dark Tower series. As a Dark Tower fan, I thought it gave some interesting backstory for one of the more mysterious characters.
I promised to say more about the ending. One of King's biggest problems is endings, especially with his longer novels: his endings are often too abrupt, nonsensical, insufficiently explained, or otherwise unsatisfying (IT, Under the Dome, and The Tommyknockers are examples that immediately come to my mind - for the record, I loved the ending of The Dark Tower). While King himself complains about Insomnia, one nice effect of having plotted this one out ahead of time in a way he rarely does is that the ending is satisfying and thoroughly explained. The ending is so well done it prompted me to forgive many of the book's faults.
Is it a happy ending? Well, that depends. Are any of our ends happy? Or is the best we can hope for a satisfying ending to our own personal stories that makes narrative sense, however elusive such endings may be? Perhaps this is in fact one of the deepest existential functions of fiction: it gives us ideas for crafting the narratives of our own lives, all with a dash of melancholy in realizing that life rarely imitates fiction. But then again, would you really want to live a Stephen King novel?
See also my Goodreads review.
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