The Last Word

Stephen King:

Things That Go Bump, Eek, and Ook in the Night

Since officially beginning his career with a short story sold in 1967, the extraordinarily prolific author Stephen King has written more than 60 novels, not to mention multiple screenplays, five non-fiction books, and approximately 200 short stories. His first published book, Carrie, was released in 1973 when he was in his twenties, giving him enough money to write fulltime. Since then, he’s left a legacy inextricably intertwined with pop culture in books and movies. His writing comprises horror, science fiction, fantasy, and straight fiction genres, with those genres often overlapping. He has referred to himself as the writer’s equivalent of a Big Mac and Fries, which does not tell even part of the story of his enduring popularity, despite showing that he understands his common-man touch.

Even as an omnivorous reader, I put King aside for a long time. What I did read I found to be propulsive and very engaging, but I do not like horror as a genre, and perhaps unfairly stayed away. Also, I read The Shining when I was eleven, and stayed up all night long as a result. In my early teens Cujo had me closing my closet doors at night. Therefore, I moved on to other authors.

Yet even I dabbled my toes in the King paddling pool, if not the deep end, in my later teens. Written under his then-pseudonym, Richard Bachman, The Bachman Books, comprising four novellas, intrigued me in high school. They were not horror, albeit often horrific. Two tales stood out for me then. In Rage, a high-school student kills his teacher and holds the class hostage. As a high school student, I could understand and feel in my gut, as many teenagers might, the feelings of alienation in the main character. (After several school shooters were found to have referenced Rage or used it as inspiration, King let its copyright expire and wrote an essay on gun violence.) In The Long Walk, teenage boys submit their names in a lottery. A hundred names are drawn, and each contestant must keep walking to the death until only one is left, granted anything in life he desires from an authoritarian, rightwing government. I see echoes of it in The Hunger Games trilogy released by Suzanne Collins, although that is postapocalyptic action-adventure.

Another tale that struck me forcefully in high school was Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption, the story of Andy Dufresne, an unjustly convicted man sent to Shawshank Prison in Maine. The Shawshank Redemption, one of the most highly respected and beloved films ever made, has maintained the highest overall rating on the Internet Movie Database (IMDB.com) for many years, above even The Godfather and The Godfather II. It is a classic story of perseverance and redemption that anyone might find worthwhile.

I have had no way to even begin to review the stories, novellas, and novels that have shot from King’s imaginationfueled fingertips on to the typed page. In the past month, however, I did a deep dive into some of his recent and classic works, one that kept going as I grabbed a box of Chicken McNuggets here, a Big Mac there, or a Quarter-Pounder with Cheese, depending on my appetite. I read more of his books than ever before. I needed all that reading to escape during the month before the inauguration, taking a particular break from the outrageous events that took place on January 6 at the Capitol Building in Washington, DC. In the process, I took a drifting, scattershot approach.

One that often comes up on the “Ten Best Stephen King Books” lists is The Stand, a novel about a postapocalyptic America in which most people have died from a government-engineered super flu. It drew my eye because we are still in the throes of the coronavirus pandemic. At approximately 1300 pages, it was a commitment, but one I was willing to make. I zoomed through it as fast as I could. This cinematic story features violence and cringe-worthy moments aplenty.

A King characteristic I noticed in this book first released in 1978 was to display violence with cartoonish glee and sometimes have characters emit sounds like “RAT-ATAT!” or “POW!” to bring a slightly surreal edge to an already surreal story. His onomatopoeia is a touch gonzo, as his style of writing can often be. King released his own “Writer’s Cut” of the novel ten years later, since he had been asked to edit down the pages to keep the published book a reasonable price. By then it was a classic, but the longer 1988 version is now considered the standard.

In The Stand the few human survivors divide into camps of good and evil, separated by the Rocky Mountains, as they defend themselves on their long trek from other parts of the United States. The largerthan-life Satanic figure of Randall Flagg musters forces in the Western half of the former United States to attack forces east of the Rockies. If you’re looking for an absorbing, quick, escapist read, look no further. Is this the best Stephen King book written? Perhaps not for me, although I enjoyed it.

I read Dolores Claiborne some years ago. It is a gripping, straightforward fiction story about a woman, her deadbeat husband, and her trial for his murder. I would recommend it for its absorbing and satisfying examination of the relationship between mother and daughter, employer and employee, and abusive husband and wife. The film, starring Kathy Bates, Jennifer Jason Leigh, and David Strathairn, is also well worth watching.

In this swoop through King’s oeuvre, I went through some of his most recent fiction. I perused the Bill Hodges trilogy, comprising Mr. Mercedes, Finders Keepers, and End of Watch. He introduces a number of recurring characters, including Bill Hodges, a retired police detective brought back into action by a working-class serial killer, Brady Hartsfield; Holly Gibney, a neurotic, OCD, film-loving computer guru; and two middle-class African American teens, Jerome and Barbara