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.