The Sun Dog (Four Past Midnight): 24th - 28th May

After giving the first three books in this collection such high praise, it's a bit of a shame that Four Past Midnight ends with a bit of a damp squib for me. While the closing section had me galloping through the pages to the, admittedly satisfying conclusion, I wasn't particularly captured by the build up. I wanted to be, of course. It just didn't really happen.

The ingredients were right. All the elements of a creepy tale were there and yet it didn't do its do on me. A bit like Thorntons and Lindt chocolate. Bear with me. They're no tinpot companies and have a reputation, perhaps self-constructed, of being master chocolatiers and yet, their chocolate is shitty.
How they manage to get it so wrong is beyond me. I'm not calling The Sun Dog shitty, by any means. But you get my point.

In other news, I finally got hold of The first volume of Joe Hill's Locke and Key comic book series from the library. It's very, very good. While I was there, I also picked up his second novel, Horns. Having had a look at the first couple of chapters, I'll be giving his dad a rest and hope to rattle through what is already looking like a very interesting book.

Listening:

Chris T-T - Disobedience & Love Is Not Rescue
Pure Love - Bury My Bones (free download)
Jim Lockey and The Solemn Sun - Death
A load of Skitsystem

The Library Policeman (Three Past Midnight) 19-24th May 2012

Lovely stuff. It's a bit of a relief to say The Library Policeman creeped me out. I even thought (hoped?) it might invade my dreams one night after reading the part that got to me most just before turning in for the night. It didn't, but the uneasy sleep would have been worth it to know I'm not completely overcome by imaginative ennui. I liked the classic ghost story feel of the early chapters (although the roaring success of the speech seemed to be a set up that was never really followed through) and am going to choose this point to self-designate myself a Constant Reader. I know the echoes of the Deadlights from IT and the mention of Paul Sheldon from Misery aren't the most arcane of references and neither are the interlinking Castle Rock or Dark Tower details found elsewhere, but it's satisfying to pick them out and place the story, and also your readership, in the grander patchwork of King's work. It's the little things...

Perhaps if more of Danse Macabre was staying in my head rather than almost literally going in one ear and out the other*, this and others of my reactions (I really can't call them reviews) to the books would show a deeper understanding, awareness and appreciation of the tenets, conventions and formulas of the horror genre. But, as things are going, that's not looking likely.

As I move onto The Sun Dog, I'm still sticking with my earlier thought that this collection would be the book I'd recommend to a King first-timer. It's not too gory to put off the unaccustomed reader but serves as a good introduction to King, the depths he plumbs and the heights to which he can propel us. The Library Policeman is right up there in bolstering that recommendation. If you haven't read it, do.
I've borrowed this book from the library, as it goes. Hope I a) don't lose it and b) don't get bummed when I try to return it.

*I started reading Danse Macabre ages ago. About 18 months ago actually, but didn't get too far before I decided to pick up the next novel, with the hope of reading both concurrently. It didn't happen and the book is left on my shelf giving me the odd, half-hearted dirty looks. It's not that it's not a good read (it does stray on the dry side) but the pull of fiction was too strong and any divergence from the fiction is a detour I can scarcely afford. Yes, I know my extra-King reading should fit that category also, but throw me a bone, man cannot live by bread alone. Anyway, I solved the problem by hunting out the audiobook for Danse Macabre. Audiobooks have their downsides, particularly those read by Alyssa Bresnahan (good god she's the worst...in the world...ever), but in this case, William Dufris is pretty good. He brings the conversational tone of King's non-fiction writing to life and is making it much easier to get through the thing. I should be back with some rambles on it before the leaves turn.

Secret Window (film) 21st May 2012

Writing the post on Secret Window, Secret Garden the other day, I had to stop myself from just writing about the film. Here, it's the other way around. I really don't want to go on about film adaptations of books and their inherent handicap for anyone who has already read it, but here's an example where the film is almost pointless if you know what's going to happen.

In terms of its plot, the film relies so heavily on the twist reveal that, knowing all the events and the outcome, it ends up being a thankless charade. Johnny Depp's performance, particularly the comic touch, saves it from being a total waste of time and the darker ending is a satisfying change but it's really not great.

I don't know what else to say. Part of me is lurching to come out and claim that if you've read a book you should never see the film because you know where the mystery tour is headed. The other part understands that you can know how a magician does a trick and still have your breath taken away by the grace and skill of its execution.


Here, it's just a case of "Oh, that's how it's done..."

Secret Window, Secret Garden (Two Past Midnight): 6th - 19th May 2012

My first reaction to my first encounter with the plot of Secret Window, Secret Garden was disappointment at the use of what felt like a cheap and unimaginative plot device. Admittedly, this was from seeing the film adaptation; where the strength of the whole piece can rest on the whether the big reveal elicits appreciative surprise or a groan.

Seeing the film, I groaned. From there, the book didn't have much of a chance. I'm definitely on team 'book before film' and this was a sucker punch from that corner. That said, when I saw the film, I saw it on the strength of it being a King adaptation (and there are worse actors than Depp and Turturro) and I wasn't expecting to be reading it all these years down the line, so it's just one I'll have to put down to experience. I'll be approaching The Green Mile and 1408 with some trepidation and hope that having seen the films doesn't spoil the read.

Anyway, enough about the film. I'll be watching it again soon enough so it will be getting a post all of its own in due course.

My second reaction to Secret Window, Secret Garden (this time from the reading) is surprise at its proximity to The Dark Half. I think one compounds the other but I'm talking both thematically and temporally. I know the founding ideas differ (pseudonym vs. plagiarism) but in both there is the physical manifestation of the mental concept. Their being published so close together makes it hard for me fully extricate them from comparison.

Saying that, I'm not going to examine this comparison. This is a blog post, not a thesis (and I'm a mental sloth with a flair for indolence.) Instead, I'll just talk a little more about the plagiarism personified, so to speak. I don't know enough about mental illness to judge the accuracy of someone being so plagued by the guilt of previously passing someone else's work off as their own to bring the need and search for retribution upon themselves but it had more plausibility and logic than The Dark Half. While I know the former isn't an essential ingredient in the fantasy genre, surely the latter is one of the fine threads suspending our disbelief. I preferred this story to The Dark Half. The 'ghostly' epilogue aside, Secret Window, Secret Guardian wasn't nearly so divorced from reality as The Dark Half, which drifted towards the absurd. This last point shouldn't be important, but I decided to let it be here.

I wonder whether its the conflict between the close realism of King's writing (in that he sucks you into the reality of his plots through the detail of his writing) and the fantastical elements. By that I mean that his worlds seem so real, I sometimes apply the same laws of possibility as I do to ours e.g. there's no such thing as the supernatural. Shit, that would be like a thousand nails in the coffin of my suspension of disbelief and stop this mission in its tracks. Not cool.
Or is it more a problem of age and application of imagination? I say application rather than ability as I don't suffer from the same problem when watching films or reading comics. Must. Try. Harder.

The Wikipedia page for the book describes Mort (and Thad) as a thinly veiled analogue of himself. The more I read of his books, the more I realise he puts of himself in them. Actually writing that makes it sound an incredibly facile observation. It stands to reason and is something you take for granted but unless you're told or take the time to read around a book, you wouldn't know the specifics. I certainly don't think it's necessary to see what lies behind the curtain and we've all read any number of books without knowing the first thing about the author, but I'm not averse to a bit of author/work trivia.

I'll finish with an apology for the length of this entry, heartfelt thanks for your reading it and this link on the subject of plagiarism, this time levelled at King himself -

The Langoliers (One Past Midnight): 28th April - 5th May 2012

I started writing something the day after I finished The Langoliers but things never really got going.

I liked this book a lot. The central concept of being out of time, the destruction of the past and birth of the future is nice and simple and it's nice to see King write with a tauter focus than usual.

I've left it a bit long to say anything meaningful about the book (if I ever do) and have ended up with a post that has me asking 'why did I even bother?'. Brilliant.

I just went off on one about how, as I'm halfway through the next short novel in the collection, Secret Window, Secret Garden, I'd add it to the short list of books I'd recommend for newcomers to Kings. I then explained why I had such a list and the considerations involved, but it bored me, so I deleted it. Shit. Sorry. I'll try harder for the next one.

Four Past Midnight: 28th April 2012

The only thing I knew about this collection before picking it up was that one of the stories had been adapted for a film starring Johnny Depp, John Turturro and Maria Bello. I saw it at the cinema and was steadfastly underwhelmed.

Since starting this reading project, I've also discovered that The Langoliers has also made its way to film. I'm not certain of its reception but, as Dean Stockwell's in it, it's pretty much nailed on that I'll hunt it out. For better or worse.

I've no doubt expressed my affection for short novels previously in this blog and, faced with the four here, it's fair to say I've got a bit of a book boner at the prospect of this collection.