Very discontinuous from my post on Book One: The Gunslinger, sure, but review that one if you need to, because I wrote this one shortly thereafter and it follows a similar style and train of thought. Here we go:
Well now this is more like it. I recall saying something
along the lines of
“Besides, I don’t dislike all of his work, I just find him a
bit too bizarre and gory for me sometimes; really drawing out the scenes that
are intended to make one uncomfortable but don’t add much, if anything at all,
to the story.”
And guess what? It happens…but not in such a way that I
can’t enjoy the story overall. The truly horrible thing (he is a “horror”
novelist, right? Even if these aren’t particularly scary books) is that it
happened at a particularly odd time. Being a man who doesn’t believe in
coincidences, I have to say this may be an event that will stick with me for a
while. How it happened was that I was listening to an Audiobook of this story,
narrated by Frank Muller and using my Audiobook application on my smartphone as
I traveled to Phoenix from Safford to watch a Red Wings game.
Stephen King’s “Kinginess,” wherein he describes the
gruesome crime that leads to Odetta Holmes losing her legs above the knee after
being pushed in front of the A-train in NYC, was more gore with less
plot-relevancy than I felt I should be putting up with during a narrow canyon
pass through the most dangerous part of my drive. I promptly switched from
Audiobook to music on my smartphone, and as I did, there was an accident ahead
of me. The details of this accident relate more to another story, which can be
found at another blog for which I sometimes stop
by and write. And that story blossomed
to even more unexpected, stranger-than-mere-coincidence, deeper relationships.
Very strange, to say the least.
I think for that, this book will always be looked upon
strangely, and fondly. To get away from what happened in my life as I went
through this story, it was very much fun. Eddie Dean was a very enjoyable
character and his rite of passage from drug mule in his world to sidekick of
the Gunslinger was well done, and at times fun to cheer along with. Odetta
Holmes/Detta Walker, not so much. But the drawing of the third one made it all
better.
And of course, how can I recap this story without mentioning
the giant, bloodthirsty lobsters? Does Stephen King really hate lobsters? Being
a native Northeastern US celebrity and representative of that region, I can
imagine. But maybe the man had nightmares of them when he was a kid. In any
event, the narrators take on their psychotic
questioning (“Dum-a-chum?
Ded-a-chek?”) makes me laugh everytime I think about it. It was perfect.
I also really enjoyed the gunslinging in this book. Whether
it was his threats, a blasting of a human-hungry lobster, killing off people
from Eddie Dean’s world or doing his thing with ammo and drugs in Jack Mort’s
world, it was always entertaining. And Jack Mort represented a typical Stephen
King villain to me, and I’m glad he wasn’t in there long enough to ruin the
book for me. A sociopath who gets off causing serious injury to people…and yes,
I mean actual orgasms when he does. Very King-y, I should think.
But there’s a great plot development with him at the end,
and great character development too, pulling everything together and preparing
you for the long, difficult journey onwards as they leave the coast and head up
into the foothills on their quest for the Tower. Not much is said about the
Tower in this book, but with the Man in Black gone, it’s not as though any one
here knows that much.
Needless to say, I liked this book more than its predecessor
and if the third one is half this good, I’ll enjoy it as well.
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