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.