deadpunk
September 21st, 2010, 12:18 PM
Over the last few years, I've found myself less infatuated with King's writings. Sure, he was always there, creeping two shelves on my bookcase and ready to scare me half to death on a rainy night when I was in a mood to read. But, I had found myself less and less inclined to pick up his newer works when I found myself in a bookstore.
I had started to feel... let down by Mr. King. Books like Insomnia, Bag of Bones and Dreamcatcher had developed a rather 'churned out' feel to me. The gimmick books like Desperation and The Regulators were sorta fun, but not really the quality I had come to expect.
Still, I had always loved King for the exact reasons the critics hated him. I found his excessive use of details to be the thing that caused me to keep my face buried in his novels. And I loved when he strayed from horror. His mastery of nearly every genre is just phenomenal. Wizard and Glass may be one of the greatest westerns ever written. Who can find a better fantasy novel than Eyes of the Dragon?
As I strayed away from King, I began to develop a huge interest in pulp fiction. I found myself buying everything by Carroll John Daly that I could lay my hands on. Dashiell Hammett and Graham Green began to fill my book shelves. So, when I saw The Colorado Kid hanging out on the book rack of my local Dollar General, I gave a shrug, picked it up and moved on. I think the thing sat unread for most of a year before I bothered to crack the spine.
Wow. Just...wow. He nailed it.
I had expected either a good (not great) crime novel that really didn't echo the King I was used to, or a Stephen King regular that tried really hard to be a crime novel. Instead, what I got was the perfect blend of pulp fiction and Stephen King.
Vince and Dave had just enough echoes of the old timers from Castle Rock to make me feel at home again. And only King could bring a character like Stephanie from wide eyed innocence to gritty realism simply by having a conversation with two old men. And only King could make a crime novel where no crime took place. HA!
The story (that isn't a story) moves along at such a fast pace...yet it's relaxed. Like Stephanie, I found myself oddly satisfied that the tale of The Kid had no real ending. And like Dave and Vince, I found the story of the unexplained dead man to be MINE. It was something I wanted to guard jealously, to be able to create my own explanations for his death, without subscribing to any of them... Was it Russian espionage? Or, did The Kid run into Randall Flagg on that little stretch of beach? We'll never know, because in King's world, either one is a possibility. But, the truth is; I don't want to know for sure. That's what makes this book so fun.
Since I've finished The Colorado Kid, I've had one small problem. I've been staring at the two shelves on my bookcase occupied by Mr. King and been left wondering... Which old favorite am I going to dust off first?!
I had started to feel... let down by Mr. King. Books like Insomnia, Bag of Bones and Dreamcatcher had developed a rather 'churned out' feel to me. The gimmick books like Desperation and The Regulators were sorta fun, but not really the quality I had come to expect.
Still, I had always loved King for the exact reasons the critics hated him. I found his excessive use of details to be the thing that caused me to keep my face buried in his novels. And I loved when he strayed from horror. His mastery of nearly every genre is just phenomenal. Wizard and Glass may be one of the greatest westerns ever written. Who can find a better fantasy novel than Eyes of the Dragon?
As I strayed away from King, I began to develop a huge interest in pulp fiction. I found myself buying everything by Carroll John Daly that I could lay my hands on. Dashiell Hammett and Graham Green began to fill my book shelves. So, when I saw The Colorado Kid hanging out on the book rack of my local Dollar General, I gave a shrug, picked it up and moved on. I think the thing sat unread for most of a year before I bothered to crack the spine.
Wow. Just...wow. He nailed it.
I had expected either a good (not great) crime novel that really didn't echo the King I was used to, or a Stephen King regular that tried really hard to be a crime novel. Instead, what I got was the perfect blend of pulp fiction and Stephen King.
Vince and Dave had just enough echoes of the old timers from Castle Rock to make me feel at home again. And only King could bring a character like Stephanie from wide eyed innocence to gritty realism simply by having a conversation with two old men. And only King could make a crime novel where no crime took place. HA!
The story (that isn't a story) moves along at such a fast pace...yet it's relaxed. Like Stephanie, I found myself oddly satisfied that the tale of The Kid had no real ending. And like Dave and Vince, I found the story of the unexplained dead man to be MINE. It was something I wanted to guard jealously, to be able to create my own explanations for his death, without subscribing to any of them... Was it Russian espionage? Or, did The Kid run into Randall Flagg on that little stretch of beach? We'll never know, because in King's world, either one is a possibility. But, the truth is; I don't want to know for sure. That's what makes this book so fun.
Since I've finished The Colorado Kid, I've had one small problem. I've been staring at the two shelves on my bookcase occupied by Mr. King and been left wondering... Which old favorite am I going to dust off first?!