Bookend Books

I've just recently finished two Stephen King books that are sort of "bookends" in my mind of how diverse he can be.

The first was Bag of Bones. A long 732 page journey in the first person. It follows one of my favorite themes, where the main character is a writer, and in this case is stricken with writer's block after the death of his wife. I wonder if this was one of King's own fears...that one day he'd be out of stories to tell, or just sat down one day and couldn't write. I empathize somewhat. Writing is only a hobby for me, but it's really defined me the past several years. I don't know what it would do to my mind not to be able to create.

This story is so involved, but hard for me to find anything I want to say. I liked the way the relationshp between Mike and Jo was portrayed. So loving, that it made the "secrets" she was keeping from him all the harder to comprehend...but read the book! I also liked Kyra, and the dynamic between her, Mattie, and Mike. I've had a story idea of a single mom, and a guy coming into the relationship. This is the perfect example of what I wanted to write about! Of course, now my own efforts will feel overshadowed. Oh, well. If I worried about that, I wouldn't read, would I?

The next book was The Running Man, written in 1982 as a "Ricard Bachman" novel. Apparently before anyone suspected it was King's pen name. The style is dramatically different from King's usual work...though there are shades of it when Ben's background is revealed, but only briefly. The only other Bachman book I read was Thinner, which King himself said was not a "real" Bachman book, but his own, and gave him away.

Another thing...where did "Derry" first appear. I know it's a King creation, but having it show up in a Bachman story seems like a giveaway. Unless The Running Man was the first appearance. I must look into this...

I was a little prejudiced against this book because of the movie, as has been the case on mre than one other occasion. I kind of like the corniness of Arnold Schwarzenegger, but even to me, many of his '80s movies were pretty bad, and The Running Man was chock-full of the worst offenses, in particular the one-liners Arnold tosses out. Luckily for me, and any reader, beside the basic gameshow premise and the name "Ben Richards," the movie borrowed almost nothing from the book.

On the other hand, while the book isn't corny, it's not that original. It's a dystopia that very strongly resembles Orwell's 1984 (by the way, one of my pet peeves is overuse of the word "Orwellian" so I will not use it...but the influence is clear). Besides that, Richards is a flawed character you can't really like. He's an unabashed bigot, and for me there's no getting past the killing of innocent people. Sure his conscience might bother him, but he never pauses in his flight, and for that, I cannot fogive him. The ending was a little freaky in light of 9/11, but that's as close to a spoiler as you'll get from me.