The Shining

This story seems to most people to be intricately linked with the movie done by Stanley Kubrick and starring Jack Nicholson. For most people, when they think of the Shining, that is what they relate it to (or maybe the TV movie, I don't know).  Personally, I don't really like to watch movies that are based on King's work as rarely does it do it justice.  (Shawshank Redemption, Green Mile, Misery, Stand, and Dolores Claiborne are the exceptions and honestly most people don't even realize those are Stephen King books when I mention them). There is no "All work and no play" or "Here's Johnny!" in the book.

Anyway, for me the Shining is completely different from the movie.  There is no "All work and no play" or "Here's Johnny!" in the book for example. And sure there are similarities, but there is so much more to this book than just a man going crazy and wanting to kill his family.  This is the story of our demons and how we are never free from them, how easy it is to keep returning to the things we know that are bad for us. Jack Torrance is a man who cannot control his temper very well and who is an alcoholic, not surprising his father was an alcoholic as well. Jack is a writer who had a few successful stories published and had a teaching job, until he lost his temper and beat up a kid. He is now forced to take his wife Wendy and their son Danny (Doc) to Colorado where one of his fellow teachers got him a job as the winter caretaker of the Overlook Hotel.

The problem is the Overlook Hotel is possessed and Danny has the "Shine" or the ability to see an feel things normal people cannot. Because of this ability the hotel wants Danny and it will use his father to get him.  I love this book because King does such a great job of making you feel cold, isolated, and terrified all at the same time. The idea of being alone in a massive hotel all winter, snowed in without any way out or real ability to communicate is terrifying.  Then on top of it you add the fact that the hotel is doing things to your loved ones and making them lose their sanity.

What this book has made me think about the past 4 days since I finished it, and yes it has stayed with me that long, is that each of us could be Jack Torrance.  We all have inner demons that we struggle with all the time. And while I believe that nothing would make me harm my children or husband, I also believe that there is a lot more that goes on in this world than I could ever hope to understand.