Saturday, November 15: Mississippi Mud
LONG LIVE THE KING
by John M. Floyd
My column this week is not specifically about crime/suspense stories or even about stories, but about a writer of stories. In fact it’s about the writer of some of the best stories I’ve ever read.
I first heard about Stephen King in 1979, when a fellow reader told me about a book called The Stand. He said — and I remember this after all these years — that when he’d finished that novel (a footstool of a book, at 800+ pages), he wished it would go on for another 500 pages or so. He said it was wonderful.
I sought it out and read it, and after that I located Salem’s Lot, then The Shining, then Carrie. By that time, of course, I was hooked. I still am. Stephen King remains one of the only two authors whose books I’ve always bought as soon as they come out. (The other’s Nelson DeMille.)
The sheer volume of King’s work is astounding, as is his popularity, but that’s not the reason I think he’s fascinating. I just find that I always enjoy what he writes. I will admit that I wasn’t overly enthused by a few of his tales, but even the worst ones weren’t bad: Christine, Rose Madder, The Regulators, From a Buick 8, and a couple more (his most recent, Duma Key, was great for a while but seemed to lose steam about two-thirds of the way through). But then I think of those stories that I absolutely loved: The Dead Zone, The Stand, Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption, “Mrs. Todd’s Shortcut,” The Talisman, The Shining, It, the Dark Tower series, Desperation, The Green Mile, “The Man in the Black Suit,” Misery, etc. In my opinion, the excellent stories far outnumber the mediocre ones. Hell, even The Babe couldn’t hit every pitch over the wall, but he sure earned his pay.
One of the reasons I like King’s fiction might be that he and I are the same age (I’m actually two months younger) and therefore grew up with some of the same outside influences from music, TV, radio, sports, movies, national events, and so forth. That seems a small thing, but when King writes about children and their experiences — and he does that a lot (It, Hearts in Atlantis,, “The Last Rung on the Ladder,” The Talisman, The Body, The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, Desperation, Cycle of the Werewolf, etc.) — he often describes the same kinds of things I remember doing or seeing or hearing as a kid, and I feel as if I’m actually there, coasting downhill on bikes and jumping from a hayloft and lost in the woods and humming the Have Gun Will Travel theme and exploring spooky drainpipes and hiking the railroad tracks.
Besides that, he is one of those rare writers whose characters are as good as his plots, and vice versa. He just seems to do everything right, and — although we know it’s not — makes it appear effortless. Who could ever forget Roland of Gilead, or John Coffey from The Green Mile, or Tom Cullen from The Stand, or the ordeal of the contestants in The Long Walk? For that matter, who can ever again see a rabid dog and not think of Cujo?
Another reason I like King so much is the variety of his tales. Those who think he writes only horror stories should read Dorothy Claiborne or “The Last Rung on the Ladder” or Blaze or The Body. And, as Yoda would say, tread the safe road King does not. Consider the different projects he’s tried (almost all of which were successful):
a serialized novel, in six parts: The Green Mile
an analysis of horror fiction: Danse Macabre
a seven-volume fantasy series: Roland’s quest for the Dark Tower
a two-book collaboration with another writer: The Talisman and Black House
a combination autobiography/writing manual: On Writing
a novel published in screenplay form: Storm of the Century
an almost traditional Western: Wizards and Glass
a re-release of a novel with more than 300 pages added: The Stand
a “calendar” novella: Cycle of the Werewolf
a novel and a novella posted free on the Internet: The Plant and Riding the Bullet
a fairy tale written for his daughter: The Eyes of the Dragon
two hardcover novels released on the same date: Desperation and The Regulators
He’s tried everything and he’s made it work, and he keeps on doing it. Simply stated, I think the man’s one of the most talented and versatile storytellers of our time. If you’ve read him, I bet you’ll agree, and if you haven’t, give him a try sometime. You might be pleasantly surprised.
NOTE: I can’t help recalling that shortly after my recent column praising M. Night Shyamalan as one of my favorite directors, the Nightster came out with a truly disappointing film, which makes (in most folks’ eyes) a string of three disappointing films and probably signals (in the critics’ eyes) a career that’s spiraling downward faster than the Dow Jones. I wish Mr. King continued success, but if he suffers any sudden reversals I hope he won’t blame me.
I, too am a major Stephen King fan. (None of us dare say we’re his #1 fan after Misery though) Salem’s Lot really, really scared me and yet I couldn’t stop reading. Now, that’s a master. Great column — as usual — thanks!
Hard to disagree with anything you wrote. It would be interesting to know how childhood experiences influence both a writer and reader. Is a bond created more than we realize? Mention of things such as that is the reason I enjoy criminalbrief. I am forced to think despite my best efforts to resist doing so.
I once heard a friend say that King’s scariest villain wasn’t any of his vampires or otherworldly characters. She said his scariest villain was Annie Wilkes, the “Number One Fan” that Deborah mentioned, from MISERY, and that the reason was that Annie wasn’t merely evil, she was insane. I agree: I think stories like MISERY and THE DEAD ZONE are so good because they’re believable, and because people like Annie Wilkes and Greg Stillson are very real and possible, in our world. And that IS scary.
I’m not a great fan of King. Don’t like horror or very long books, but I have enjoyed a lot of his short stories. “Quitters, Inc” is on my list of best crime stories, one Roald Dahl would have been proud of.
But I highly recommend his book On Writing. The passage when his agent calls about the paperback sale of Carrie is still embedded in my brain.
Another thing I like about King; has he ever written a negative review of a book? Maybe so, but I’ve never seen one. He doesn’t need the money so he only bothers when he has something nice to say…
Stephen King appears 37 times in the list of audiobooks I’ve heard, but not for the last few years. I was fascinated with him at first, but thought his demise as an author came after the car accident in 1999, where he was run down by a man who could have been a character in one of his novels, FROM A BUICK 8. I remember buying one of King’s later audiobooks, it might have been WIZARDS AND GLASS, and throwing it into the trash barrel after listening for about an hour.
And here comes my maxim about books: “Publishers will print anything if you’re famous.” How many examples of that need I supply? Does any one of us doubt that the “Witty Wordsmith of Wasilla” will soon publish? Has anyone ever tried to read Churchill’s volumes? Churchill himself told a story about sending one of his books to an aunt. When he saw her next, he asked her if she had received it. “Oh, yes,” she replied, “and I put it on the shelf with all the others.”
My amicable divorce from King came when I overdosed on King’s overdose of the F word. The word has no meaning, and is only used to insult someone, indicate a protest of literate society or shock an audience. I think a clever author can be more successful by relying on the other 599,999 words in the OED. Were I a teacher to young readers, heaven forbid, I doubt if I could recommend any of King’s novels to them, mainly for fear of losing my job. Kids will discover all the evil stuff on their own, if they can ever tear themselves away from their ADHD-producing screens.
I read “The Long Walk” in college 30 years ago, just when people were starting to talk about King. Blissfully unaware I said that I thought Bachman was better. What impressed me was the kids in the book spoke, thought and felt much as I did. And I love King’s short-stories! They will probably be the works read decades from now. (There’s even a Sherlock Holmes locked-room mystery, “The Doctor’s Case”)
I would have to agree that I probably liked some of King’s earlier fiction better than his most recent, but I still enjoy most of what he writes, period. And, Jeff, I too love his short stories.
Also, I agree with the maxim about publishers printing anything if you’re famous. I won’t mention some of the authors I really don’t like and never did, but I will say that some writers like Grisham and Clancy and Follett and Crichton and Turow seem to have done their best work early on. I imagine some of that has to do with the pressure to meet deadlines, etc. — one successful novelist told me that the only book that’s ever written entirely the way you want it to be is the first one you sell. I suspect that might be correct.
I “discovered” Stephen King on a cold night in Acadia Parish, LA, as I was working in a data-logging unit on an oilfield job. I had been into town to buy groceries for the unit earlier in the day, and was looking for reading material to help pass the long hours of slow drilling on the night shift. A solid black paperback with a single drop of crimson blood at the corner of an embossed child’s face caught my eye, and I wound up taking it to work that night. Before my shift was done, ‘SALEM’S LOT had me afraid to go out to take samples of the cuttings brought up by the drilling fluid. I figured a man who could scare me that much was worth reading again. And so it began …
I haven’t always liked everything he’s written, but I’ve always found his characters to be real. John, I remember many things he writes about from my childhood, too (even though I’m a good deal younger than you old codgers).
I personally think “On Writing” is required reading.