Roadwork (SOME SPOILERS)

[ChaseTx]

I just finished it, and i think it's the worst book by King i've read so far. It's ok, but he admitted himself it's his least favorite of the Bachman books. He said he wrote it when he was upset about his mother's death.

I thought the whole thing was very negative, nothing good really happens even when it seems like it will. The dialogue, attitude, and events of the the book are just unnecessarily negative. It succeeds in depicting a man's self-destruction, but it really feels like SK just bombed the hell out of the story and all of its characters.

[wally wonder]

could be chaseTx, could be. but i still laughed when he plugged in that blender or whatever it was and ran it until it died. we all gotta do our part!

[JackTheRipper]

I just finished it, and i think it's the worst book by King i've read so far. It's ok, but he admitted himself it's his least favorite of the Bachman books. He said he wrote it when he was upset about his mother's death.

Lately, he's changed his mind about this. It's now his favorite BB

[Angel182308]

I can't even get through this one. This is the only king book that I truly do not like.

[bryantburnette]

Just finished rereading it for the first time in a couple of decades. It bored me silly back when I read it for the first time -- I'd've been all of about fifteen then.

It's a much, much better novel than I'd remembered it being. It's very dark stuff, of course ... but that seems awfully appropriate from the author of Pet Sematary and Apt Pupil and Duma Key.

A lot of the story's themes felt more than a little relevant to today's social climate, too. That Richard Bachman was an awfully prescient fellow, and I think it's high time somebody started taking a serious look at his early works.

You listening, Mr. Darabont?

[Christiane17]

I tried to read it for the second time lately, but I couldn't get into it. It's still in my SK bookcase though. Probably the worst Bachman story ever imo. But there is always a bad little seed in a whole bunch of good ones, right?

[DogMom]

Can anyone clue me in to the ending of Roadwork?

It's been awhile since I read it, and I'm having trouble remembering...

Bart blows up the house after having a gun fight with the police. He wants to be the one who takes the house down instead of the city.

I just finished it last night. Very, very sad.

I instantly thought of Father Callahan when reading about Drake, it just makes sense. I had actually planned on researching it on the net this morning to confirm it.

Does anyone know what city SK was envisioning when he wrote this? I know that barts address was M_______, W_______. The first thing that comes to mind is Maddison, WI? Any thoughts?

[Stillreading]

This is hardly an active thread, but for the sake of anyone who might happen by, here goes. This was one of those stories that I felt I was living with for the entire time I was reading it. Because of certain circumstances there were a couple days of reprieve between stints of furious reading, and yet, i found myself periodically returning to the story in day dreams. In the end I suppose it's hard to say that this book is a "favourite" just because it's so bloody bleak; however, I do believe it is an excellent artistic achievement, nonetheless. The depth and weight of both the story and the main character, Bart, will remain with me for some time to come -- unsettling and unnerving, but thought provoking and, in a strange way, enlightening. Lastly, what I think I appreciate most about early SK (RB or otherwise) is his sense of social consciousness. Many of the early stories -- definitely the Bachman books -- all deal in one way or another quite directly with concerns that continue to plague our civilization to this day.

[Pucker]

The Bachman Books are pretty bleak, comparatively . . . from a time when Mr. King himself admits he "still believed in unhappy endings." What I found most disturbing about Barton Dawes wasn't so much that he gave up, but that he couldn't really articulate what is was he actually wanted. Think of that in terms of Charlie, from Rage, who is all adolescent angst and doesn't really believe anything; and Ray Garraty, from The Long Walk, who correctly sees himself trapped in a society that offers him no choices -- and simply wants out; and even Ben Richards, from The Running Man, who is compelled by desperation to literally sacrifice himself to save his family (and here again, he fails). Of all these characters, Dawes seems to me to be the one most obviouly flailing at something he hasn't even really identified. Dawes' struggle is internal. He doesn't really want things the way they were . . . he wants something he never really had, and I think his pointless tilting at windmills suggests that he has already convinced himself he doesn't deserve it.

Just a thought.

[Stillreading]

"What I found most disturbing about Barton Dawes wasn't so much that he gave up, but that he couldn't really articulate what is was he actually wanted."

Your thought is well received. And I think it is precisely the perception of senselessness -- the raw pointlessness -- in everything that Bart and many of us -- though not quite to the same extreme, of course -- share that makes this story so poignant, relevant, and haunting. Alienation and hopelessness are two terrible feelings to harbor for any length of time, but when coupled with a helplessness that precludes the ability to articulate in words, sublimate through actions, or worse still, find meaning, it seems likely that severe and violent consequences are inevitable. What makes this story so tragic -- and I think you, Kid Charlemagne, have really hit upon this quite well; far better than I, I’m sure -- is not so much the misfortunes that befall Barton throughout the book, but the very fact that his misfortunes are a direct result of the desperate thrashing and flailing he’s doing in an attempt to find purpose or explanation for the way he feels. He’s trapped inside himself, with himself. And evidently, in the end, there is no longer any way in or out.