It | A Blog About 3 things....

day-29-stephen-king

I must’ve always known I’d never be particularly wealthy, because my career aspirations as a youngster never included anything that would improve net-worth substantially. Psychiatrist, ballerina, generic scientist-type, nuclear physicist… OK, so maybe actress and novelist were the exceptions, but the former was a pie-in-the-sky thing at best.

I was serious about wanting to be a writer though, and the man who most inspired me towards this goal was none other than the ‘Maine’ man: Mr. King (some bad Constant Reader pun right there for ya..).
My love affair with King dates back to my first reading of Carrie at the delicate age of 11. I would read that book so many times it literally fell apart. It was my introduction to ‘adult’ horror, but with the subject matter, entirely relate-able. I’ve always loved the ‘Tales from the crypt’ graphic mags, so it was inevitable I’d expand my morbid curiosity, and King was the perfect outlet for that. I only read a few more of his early work during that time (Christine and Pet Semetary, I think), and it wasn’t until the next big indelible book that I became a King fan for life. That book was ‘It’ (hah! another pun!). I was around 14 years old and I remember skipping class to finish it. It also solidified the creeping suspicion I had that clowns are to be feared and avoided at all costs…I think it was sometime around then that I wrote to Mr. King (not knowing his exact address, mind you) telling him how much he’d inspired me. Imagine my surprise when I got a response (standard issue, of course, but still!) with a lovely set of extra tips on writing! A letter from Stephen King to a teenager in Guyana in the pre-internet era was an amazing thing, in hindsight, and I wish I still had that letter, which got lost somewhere in the constant moving that was to come.

I would go on to consume all the King I could lay my hands on, with Gerald’s Game, The Stand, Dolores Clairbourne and the Shining especially prominent in memory. By the time I started University however, I’d come to regard King novels as a sort of guilty treat. The novels were way too mainstream and devoid of literary value (or so I believed). It was a time when I cultivated snobbery of a lot of things, what can I say…The fire smoldered for about five years then re-ignited when I moved to Barbados and craved the comfort of the ‘known’. I read all the more recent works then, including Cell, Everything’s Eventual, Lisey’s Story etc, but it was catching up on the missed books that were more enjoyable. ‘The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon’ was an especially vivid read of a book I will always remember.

Strangely, after all this time and having read roughly 60% of King’s ridiculously prodigious ouput, I had managed to avoid what some would call the linchpin of his work: The Dark Tower series. Back in the 90s I started ‘The Gunslinger’ and never got into it. That all changed in 2011 as I re-discovered this amazing series of books. To say it, as a whole, rivals the Lord of the Rings, would not be an overestimation for fans. It is indeed, epic, sweeping, fantastical, memorable and all-encompassing. King even tries out some nouveau linguistics in it – introducing words that will stick with you, such as ‘sai’, ‘kan-toi’, ‘kan-tet’ etc. The series is 8 books strong, written over almost 3 decades and there are some weak books in there, but the stronger ones make up for it. I’m sort of glad I waited until the last book was published before I got drawn into the world/s of the gunslinger, because I can’t imagine having to endure such a long break in the stories. Even waiting a day between books was too much for me! I think I took about 10 days to complete the whole thing. An all-absorbing, glorious 10 days!

Since then I’ve continued to read and re-read King’s books. My latest read – 22/11/63 – was what inspired this post. It’s one of his best works – easily top 10 – and I’m amazed at how critics have signaled his career end over and over, but the man manages to surprise us equally as often. By the way, if you’re not much of a horror lover, give 11/22/63 a whirl. It’s more historic fiction, with no gore or anything particularly scary, and a surprisingly well executed love story (if you like that sort of thing)

So is King thrash or treasure? No doubt he is an incredibly gifted story-teller. Some persist in decrying his literary merits, like this dude in the LA Book Review. Readers in the comments section were quick to point out the flaws in his argument however and the comments section got especially lively 🙂 I am convinced that King is the Dickens of our day – some of his works are undoubtedly classics already and time will prove the persistence of his legacy. If nothing else he is an inspiring example of someone who has earned much wealth from doing something he loves and still has the drive to continue to do it.