On the King…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.

I had a similar brown typewriter I used as a teen…wonder if it would help focus me to get one again…

On fantastical things…Mr. Neil Gaiman!

On the topic of books and writing, I recently discovered the brilliance that is Neil Gaiman and thought I’d share him with you. I knew of some of his famous ‘pieces’ like the movie Coraline which is based on a book of his and I’d heard of the Sandman graphic series but that was about it. I started following him on twitter and he has the most interesting blog posts so I finally sank teeth into some of his material.

The Sandman graphic novel series deserves all the hype I read – it is a superb piece of fantasy/horror storytelling and art. I ‘ve only read the first collected volume – Preludes and Nocturnes – but apparently it gets even better. I can’t wait! The next Gaiman book I read was ‘American gods’. It basically asks the question of what if the gods of different mythologies and times were real people still alive today? Transported to different places in the memories and hearts of people who worship them. And what if there are new gods in the various guises of modern technology and convenience? And there is a war brewing between these old and new gods? The book reads a little like a thriller and a little like a fantasy. It has its slow moments but the language and story are thoroughly engaging with these slightly off tangent vignettes that are scrumptious to the read.

I intend to eventually read his entire body of work. And I highly recommend you give him a whirl too. To get a taste of the man 🙂 listen to this story below:

 

 

Toodles!

Nasx

On the Sly Company of People who Care…A book review

I hesitated long enough to write this review. Mostly because I don’t think I’ve ever written a book review (high school obligatory string of words doesn’t really qualify) and I really want to do this book justice and partially because I am by nature a lazy goon 🙂

By way of preface, let me say I took unusually long to finish this book. Not because I read the kindle edition but because I really wanted to savor it. And then about half way I broke down crying and had to give the wounds a few days to heal.

But to the meat: this is a review of Rahul Bhattarcharya’s ‘The sly company of people who care’. I first heard about it on Facebook last year but the comments weren’t exactly complimentary so I shelved it onto ‘will browse one day’. Then recently a friend did an article on the role on gender in the novel which I found fascinating and so I was determined to read the book.

It chronicles the fictional account of an Indian sportswriter’s year in Guyana, and is divided into three sections with themes I would label  ‘Adventure’,  ‘Introspection’ and ‘Sexy things’, in order. The first section is bursting with wit and entertaining characterizations. It mostly deals with the protagonist settling into his environs and a trek into the Guyana jungle. The second ‘act’ chronicles some more travels, this time on the coast of the country, and offers some exposition on the history of Guyana and the monster that haunts its shores – Racism. I plodded through this part with a mounting sense of anger/shame/dread/sadness until the last emotion overcame me when I read the line “In the years of its rule, Guyana remained the poorest nation on the continent and the second poorest in the hemisphere…in a situation of such hopelessness the basest instincts burn; in Guyana it is race”. Tears came because everything he was saying did not reflect my reality, but was in fact the reality. I think he gave a very concise and insightful little history lesson in a few pages – one which every Guyanese should read. In the last section he meets a girl and they go a-travelling, something about the whole affair remnded me of something Gabriel Garcia Marquez would write, or maybe I’m just imagining things because they travelled to a Latin American country…

Throughout the entire book Bhattacharya’s grasp and relation of the Guyanese creolese language inspires both pride and envy. As a new comer to this language form he does a fantastic job of setting down both its town and country forms; it’s the liberal and unapologetic use of creolese that I find lends the book a lot of it’s joie de vivre. Creolese is not impenetrable to the uninitiated reader, it just requires a bit of deduction and dedication but the book could have benefited from a small glossary. Think I should email the author and volunteer to write one? XD

To sum up, I think Rahul deserved the prizes he has won thus far for this book, it’s an excellent little nugget of a read that I would unreservingly recommend…now go read it!

Nasx