Roadwork

This is the third of the first four Bachman books.  This book has to do with a man who is horrified at the thought of the city building a road not only through his business, but through his house as well. Bart Dawes is a man that most people would probably not pay much attention to at first glance, ordinary looking, in his 40's, worked the same job for almost 20 years, middle class, etc. But, deep down Bart is anything but ordinary.  He is a man possessed with one single thought, destroying those who are seeking to destroy his life, regardless of the cast.

So over the course of this book Bart starts doing some strange things on the path to his destruction.  Which really started with the death of his son, this roadwork is just the proverbial straw. He buys several guys without realizing why. He fails to buy a new location for the laundromat to move to. He fails to move on a new house for he and his wife. He drinks to excess. Eventually the truth comes crashing down, he is fired, his wife leaves him, he hooks up with a couple of unsavory characters that get him in all sorts of trouble, and he commits acts of vandalism against the road construction company. In the end, he comes up with a brilliant plan to draw attention to this issue of eminent domain and to destroy all that he loved in the process before those bastards do it for him.

This is a beautifully crafted story that really sucks you in to the torture that he is going through and in the end you end up rooting for old George after all.

Firestarter

Most people identify with this through the movie as it was when Drew Barrymore was still a cute little kid and not very long after ET it seems to me.  I don't remember the movie, not sure that I saw it.  The book is about a couple who meet in college when both sign up for Lot Six tests as they need the $200 that is being offered for participating in the test. This drug, Lot Six, is a government experiment to see if you can cause a mutation in people that will make them effective weapons against our enemies. The man and woman involved in these tests both gain some telekinetic ability, but their daughter, Charlie, is the real prize as she is a pure mutation from the two of them. She is a pyrokinetic and has the ability to light objects on fire with her mind. Her dad has what he calls "the push", which means that he can push people into thinking specific things or doing things that he needs them to. Unfortunately, using his talent causes him physical pain in the form of debilitating headaches.  His wife had the ability to move objects using her mind.  One day the government decides to move on them and take Charlie as they are worried that the parents are on to them and will run with her.  They torture and kill the mom to find Charlie and then take her on the run. The did gets the feeling that something is wrong and he manages to chase them down and get Charlie back.  From that moment on the two of them are constantly on the run.  Along the way they hurt some people and destroy a home of people who helped them.

Eventually Charlie and her dad are caught and taking to the "Shop" for testing.  While there they are separated and forced to undergo testing to determine the extent of their abilities. Charlie refuses to cooperate as she is scared of her abilities. This is where the bad guy, Rainbird, comes in to befriend her and trick her into using her abilities. Of course he is going to betray her as once she has performed for the government he is going to kill her. Andy pushes several of his captors and comes up with an escape plan, that then goes horribly wrong.  At this time it is up to Charlie to figure out a way to be free of the shop and be accepted for her abilities.

This is a pretty good story, I love the affection between Charlie and her dad, the tension builds up nicely and leaves you eagerly anticipating the next chapter. I actually would love to see this story revisited, what Charlie is like now as a grown up, is the Shop still after her, that kind of thing.

The Dead Zone

I am going to confess right up front that I have seen both the movie based on this book with Christopher Walken and the TV series with Anthony Michael Hall.  And I loved them both.  (Well to be fair, I loved the TV series until it started getting too absorbed in the Armageddon stuff, which was close to the end of the series anyway)

This book is about a man who has a car accident on the way home from a date with his girlfriend and ends up in a coma for 4+ years.  During that time his girlfriend moved on, his mom has become a religious zealot, and Johnny has withered away. When he awakens he has this new "gift", the ability to see in to people's past or their future.  Sometimes this works out for the best when he is able to save lives or prevent harm to people, in other cases it causes nothing but heartache and misery. After recovering Johnny tries to get back to his normal life, he wants to go back as a teacher, but the board will not allow it because of these visions. He helps a sheriff solve a serial killing, and eventually ends up as a tutor to the son of a wealthy man. 

Along the way he develops an interest in a politician, named Stillson. When he attends one of his rallies, Johnny touches him and learns that this man will one day become President and that if he does, it will lead us into a nuclear war with devastating consequences. Johnny then grapples with the question that many have pondered, if you could go back in the past and stop Hitler, would you? For Johnny he feels he is facing that same situation as he knows without a doubt that Stillson is a bad man and that his visions always are true. 

This is a book that I enjoy as it does make you think about what a burden or curse a gift like that would be. You  would be constantly hounding by people seeking help or answers, just as Johnny was in the book. And then when you had something really important, there will be those who will not believe you. Not to mention, how difficult it must be to wake up feeling like you just went to sleep yesterday and realizing that for everyone else it has been years. 

The Long Walk

Picture yourself going on a journey - a long journey with nothing but what you can carry and you have to walk for as long as you can. If you fall behind the required speed, if you stop for any reason, or if you are injured and cannot walk anymore, you will be killed. The person at the end who stays walking the longest wins the prize, essentially money or whatever they wish and their life.  This is the basis for The Long Walk, the 2nd Bachman Book.

This has always been one of my favorites because the idea of forcing children to participate in a walk like this, with armed guards at the ready with their warnings and meriting out punishments, and with spectators cheering on their favorites is so disturbing and fascinating.  Why would people watch, why would they participate, what they hell happened that we would allow such an event?  I picture these boys walking side by side, eating their homemade sandwiches, trying to have jovial conversations, while knowing that their are marching to their death and imagined the terror that each must feel. That drive to just outlast those next to them. That disregard for someone else who has been shot down, because you are thankful it is not you. That agonizing boredom of one foot after another. The horror of it all is unbearable, almost.

Bachman masterfully moves the story onward across Maine as we witness these 100 boys basically walk through their shoes down to their socks.  We feel them going crazy slowly and cringe as they meet their fate. And we root for the one who we know is going to win in the end. Ah, but does he? That is the question you are left with at the end of this book.

The Stand

So I savored reading this book a little bit because it is my favorite.  I love this book for the basic idea of good versus evil and the innate nature it seems of man to destroy himself. I think it is also held a fascination because where the book mainly takes place, the mountain West, is an area that I am very familiar with, which makes it hit closer to home I guess. There was also a TV movie made about this book that aired in the 90's I think.  I vaguely remember it and have thought now that I finish the book that I should watch it to see how closely it matches the book.

The Stand is about a super flu virus that the government has created for biological warfare that infects people at the laboratory and then gets out in the general public.  Captain Trips, as it came to be known, rapidly infects the entire nation and I would gather the world, and within weeks only about 1% of the population is left. Why this people did not get infected is always a mystery, but these survivors have a vastly different world to live in. When you really start thinking of what that would be like to have bodies laying all over, cars jamming up the roads, power out, food going rotten, the sense of loneliness and isolation, I just cannot begin to imagine how that would feel.  Very soon after the outbreak the survivors start having dreams.  Some of them dream of an old woman in Nebraska named Mother Abigail.  Others dream of the Dark Man/Walking Dude/Randall Flagg who is on his way to Las Vegas. Most dream of both and it really depends on who you are in your heart and soul as to where you end up.

For most people they decide that staying where they are is not an option, so most start traveling by whatever means they can to either Nebraska or Las Vegas. The main characters in this book are Stu Redman, who was in the town in Texas where the first signs of the outbreak started and was taken to a government disease facility to be put under observation. Fran Goldman who is pregnant and from a small coastal town in Maine. With her for a good part of the book is Harold Lauder, he is the geeky, overweight kid who loves Fran and has a massive chip on his shoulder.  Fran and Harold leave from Maine and meet up with Stu along the way. Stu had met a man who was a college sociology professor named Glen Bateman and he comes along with them. Also heading to Nebraska from the East is Larry Underwood, a musician who had a hit record weeks before Captain Trips.  He meets a mysterious woman named Nadine Cross and with her is a young wild boy they call Joe.  (Later they discover his name is really Leo) There is also a deaf and mute man named Nick Andros who meets up with a mentally challenged man named Tom Cullen.  There are others on this side too like Ralph, Lucy, and Sue, but they are not as important as these main characters.

As for Las Vegas, all that is really important there is that Randall Flagg is there and he has two henchmen that he recruits, Lloyd Henreid and the Trashcan Man who plays with fire.  Other than that most everyone is a bit player in a horrible plan. The group heading to Nebraska meets up with Mother Abigail and from there they all head to Boulder. This woman becomes their prophet in the new world so to speak, as she was a part of their dreams, knows things about them, and is able in some ways to predict the future. Both communities start creating new communities in there respective locations, but Flagg's group seems to be a little faster at is as he motivates by fear and the punishment of death. The group in Boulder goes about things with a sense of returning to the old ways and re-establishing what was lost. (Uh, what you had is what lead to your destruction in the first place, but I digress)

Along this journey Fran and Stu become lovers, Harold discovers this and what Fran really thinks of him and starts plotting his revenge upon them and his journey to the Dark Man. He will eventually be joined by Nadine Cross who is the promised virginal bride to the Dark Man.  They plot over several weeks to destroy the committee in Boulder and they almost succeed, if not for Mother Abigail.  From this point on in the book the good and evil is very obvious and the tension builds as both sides fight for total dominance in the new world.  I don't want to give more away than that for anyone who may not have read it.  But, I will say that I love this book for the message of hope and light when all seems lost and for the love story and the bonds between friends. If you don't read any other works by Stephen King, read this one.  I promise you will not regret it.