Occasionally I like to write a "review of reviews." I've been reading a lot of Stephen King lately, and I have a few short reviews I haven't posted yet... so, here is my Review of Reviews: Stephen King Edition! I'm reviewing works that span a lot of King's career: The Talisman (with Peter Straub, 1984), Elevation (2018), Everything’s Eventual (2002), and On Writing (2000).
I swear I didn't mean to become obsessed with Stephen King. It just kinda happened. Oh, well.
The Talisman (with Peter Straub, 1984)
I really enjoyed The Talisman, although it felt ... stretched out ... from time to time. But overall it's a unique and worthwhile fantasy novel.
The Talisman is a collaboration between Stephen King and Peter Straub. I've been reading a lot of King lately (I've especially loved the Dark Tower series), but I don't think I've ever read Straub before. I can say it still felt like a King novel, but it also makes me keen to read some Straub. There are shades of the Dark Tower (mostly in the idea of multiple dimensions), but it still feels like a separate work, although of course once you include multiple dimensions it makes less sense to say that anything could be in a "separate" universe.
It's hard to summarize a novel like The Talisman, although the basic plot structure is relatively simple. A 12-year-old boy, Jack Sawyer, in New Hampshire in 1981 is dealing with his mother's cancer when he discovers that his late father had been able to travel to another dimension and that the key to healing his mother is the eponymous Talisman, which can be found via a long journey in this and the other dimension. A lot of stuff happens along the way, and most of that stuff is hard to summarize and gives the world building in the novel a dense feel that fantasy fans will appreciate. I'm also not entirely sure what happened at every juncture (especially toward the end when it gets trippy), but as dense as it can be the novel has a way of carrying the reader along.
That said, though, I did feel like it lagged at several points. There are several long digressions where Jack is trapped (either literally or by circumstances), all of which threatens to derail the main quest plot. A 12-year-old boy hitchhiking across America was probably odd and dangerous in 1981, but it would seem unthinkable in 2019, although ironically it's probably safer today, statistically speaking. And Jack's journey is anything but safe. A lot of the horror aspects of the novel come from Jack's precariousness. King and Straub are both primarily known for horror, and they do not disappoint. Even though "child in danger" is a relatively easy way to generate horror, it's done pretty well here.
Another lagging portion was the end of the novel, which felt like it was almost done with something like 130 pages left. The good part of that, though, is that the ending really is nicely wrapped up in a way you don't always get with King's longer books. I never wanted to put the book aside, although I did on at least three or four occasions wish that King and Straub would get on with things a little faster.
Another criticism is that I was hoping more of the novel would take place in the Territories (the alternate dimension), but at least 60-70% of it takes place in our dimension.
I can forgive a lot of this, though, because for all these faults the novel is engrossing in the way that good fantasy often is: it sucks you into its world.
Philosophically speaking, you of course get all the fun of multiple worlds, complete with alternate versions of individual people. The question of economic exploitation comes up (one character from our dimension is making money via nefarious means in the Territories). The human confrontation with death, both mourning those deceased and facing the terminal illness of a loved one, is a big part of the emotional and philosophical core of the novel as well.
One thing I particularly enjoyed was the depiction of a close male friendships: Jack has two friends in the novel with whom he feels a special emotional bond. He expresses his love in physical (but not sexual) ways in a way that seems entirely healthy. He has a brief moment of toxic masculinity-fueled doubt, but then he decides to comfort his friend by holding his hand. He also loves his mom, despite all her many flaws, and he never apologizes for it. If the men of this dimension could have Jack Sawyer's emotional intelligence, we'd all be better for it. And that's a big part of what makes this such a beautiful novel.
See my Goodreads review.
Elevation (2018)
I've been reading a lot of King's older stuff lately, but I thought I'd read one of his newest books to see what he's been up to. This is a novella, which is a wisp of a book compared to King's typical door-stoppers. It's also not horror, but King writes lots of other stuff (see his collection Different Seasons for fine examples, including the novellas that inspired The Shawshank Redemption and Stand By Me). So already this is an atypical King creation, which is what I think explains a lot of the lackluster reviews. But don't believe them. I can't guarantee, of course, you'll like this, but, unlike the main character, it's a lot heavier than it appears.
This is really a fantasy story, or depending on one's level of literary pretension, magical realism. The main conceit of the plot (Scott loses weight but stays the same size) doesn't make any sense scientifically, but that's the point: life has plenty of mysteries, and this is one way to dramatize that. There's also a nice storyline about being good neighbors with some political dimensions, although some of that is a bit hasty and clunky, squeezed as it is into a novella.
Elevation is also, like a lot of great fiction, including a lot of King's, a deep meditation on human mortality. I particularly loved the last few pages. King has never shied away from discussions of mortality, of course. That's what Pet Sematary is all about, for example, or indeed, Thinner, which is an obvious comparison to Elevation yet a really different story. However, there's a new angle in Elevation -- maybe as King and the rest of us get older, a new perspective arises? The end for finite creatures such as we is a bit melancholy, sure, but it doesn't have to weigh us down.
See my Goodreads review.
Everything’s Eventual (2002)
I picked this up because there are two stories with Dark Tower connections: "Everything's Eventual" and "The Little Sisters of Eluria" (actually the second one just is a Dark Tower story of one of Roland's earlier adventures, a story that has all the delightful weirdness of the Tower stuff - I loved it). After reading those I put this book aside for a time, but figured I'd turn back to it because I love Stephen King's work, I'm trying to find particularly terrifying/philosophical stories of his to use in an upcoming horror and philosophy class I'm teaching, and I'm trying to branch out into writing more short stories myself so it's good inspiration.
On that second point, two of the stories actually mention philosophy "That Feeling, You Can Only Say What It Is in French" (existentialist hell!) and "Riding the Bullet" (a young hitchhiker contemplates his mother's and his own mortality) so I might add those to my class at least as optional readings. They were my favorites of the collection along with "Little Sisters" and "L.T.'s Theory of Pets" (it's funny and macabre, which I find a good combo).
I also particularly enjoyed "The Man in the Black Suit" (a simple, but effective story), "All That You Love Will Be Carried Away" (a heart-breaking story of a lonely salesman), and "The Road Virus Heads North" (classic King fare involving a creepy painting).
I liked, but didn't love, "1408" (fine, but I might try to catch the movie sometime), "Lunch at the Gotham Café" (scary, but just okay), "Autopsy Room Four" (starts off strong and terrifying, kind of unravels at the end), "Luckey Quarter" (reminded me of a middling Twilight Zone episode), and "The Death of Jack Hamilton" (fun story about 1930's gangsters, but nothing too special). The only story I didn't really care for at all was "In the Deathroom" (set in a Central American torture room, seemed to rely on/reinforce some stereotypes or maybe it just wasn't that interesting).
So I think I found a couple stories that might work for my class here. I'm also going to check out some of King's other collections soon!
See my Goodreads review.
On Writing (2000)
Reading Stephen King and writing fiction are two things I did a lot in my teens that I only recently started doing again, so it made sense to pick up this book. (Check out my short story, "Famous as the Moon" in Big Echo!)
I was going to skip the biographical parts, but (as often happens with King's writing) I couldn't resist the gravitational pull of his narrative. I enjoyed learning a bit about his life and what made him the writer he is. Somewhere he quipped that his lower middle class American roots are what led him to write mostly about lower middle class Americans, which is probably a lot of what I like about him. I appreciated his account of his accident in June 1999 as well, especially since I just finished the Dark Tower series. It was interesting to read the non-fictional account of the accident (although Dark Tower fans may want to complicate the assessment of what's fictional and non-fictional).
My favorite part of the book is King's account of writing fiction as a type of archeological dig rather than creation out of nothing. Other authors say they "hear" or "find" their stories and characters, but the way King describes it makes me feel like it's something I could try rather than some occult mystery. There is a similar exploration of the creative process in the later Dark Tower novels, but this is neither the time nor the place to spoil those.
I'm at best an amateur fiction writer, so I can't speak much to whether King's advice is good. He sure does hate adverbs! Much of King's advice echoes what I've heard elsewhere, which of course makes it no easier to follow but good to hear again nonetheless. I particularly like the advice to start with situations. I think of a lot of situations. It's the follow-through I have trouble with.
Some of his advice is aimed at people looking to make writing a career and some of that is probably outdated by now (this was published in 2000). I like my day job, so fiction is at most going to be a hobby or side hustle for me, but I'm glad I read On Writing. Whether all of King's advice will work for me or not, it's nice to get some inspiration from an author I admire.
See also my Goodreads review.
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