The Colorado Kid Thoughts

[bopropadop]

Hi all!

I just finished listening to The Colorado Kid on audiotape today. It's one of the few SK novels that doesn't receive much attention. So, I figured I'd listen to the audio in case it was not to my liking...

I have to say that I didn't enjoy it that much. It was really slow and the dialogue was a bit tedious. Although the entire reading was done in about 4 hours. I don't want to steer any Constant Readers away from it, I'm only offering my personal opinion and seeking other's thoughts.

So, for those of who have read TCK, what did you think? Did I just not get it, or is it one of SK's lesser works?

[wally wonder]

i read the story and although it isn't a favorite, i liked what sk did with it. people telling tales to each other, and that's what tck is, stephanie getting an earful from the two old codgers. it works better in other sk stuff. is there an sk story w/o someone telling tales, a la, the chapters dedicated to telling tales in the dark tower books. isn't there a whole genre dedicated to this kind of story? seems like there was a page you could pull out of the book and acquire more in this vein, a whole passel of them, as i recall, maybe a good rainy tuesday read when nothing else is available and you know the sun will be out in four hours.

[EMARX]

He wrote that book for a specific genre publisher but I enjoyed the novel. It was a departure for him and some readers may have gone into it with pre-concieved ideas, so they may have been disappionted.

[karend3]

The novel was different but great. It definitely left something to the imagination as the case was never solved.

[Speedygi81]

I keep meaning to read this: but I just couldn't get past the first chapter...it was boring and not like a noir crime book at all.

[JohnDalglish]

So, for those of who have read TCK, what did you think? Did I just not get it, or is it one of SK's lesser works?

Hi,

Well, I like it very much but I'd certainly consider it one of his lesser works, more a novella than a novel.

I think of it rather like Sai King playing with literary form, it's one of the slowest paced of his stories IMO, but I think it would make a great movie (even a TV series?) in the right hands, along with his other contemporary 'writing exercises', like Blaze (the sparsest prose he's ever used, but what a film it could make!) and Gingerbread Girl (the fastest paced, and I hope they use his 'treatment' to film it).

A very enjoyable story but not to be compared with Lisey's Story or Duma Key IMO.

Long days and pleasant nights

[richardmiller]

Spoiler!

I got nothing against TCK but one downer for me (if memory serves) is that it has no solution (if the guy was murdered at all) the last person to release an incomplete who dunnit was Charles Dickens and that was for the very good reason he died half way through.

[arachnapheobia]

some readers may have gone into it with pre-concieved ideas, so they may have been disappionted.

a truer word has never been said. i really agree.
i personally really enjoyed the book. you just have to be in the right mood for it. again, i dont really enjoy audiobooks so have no idea how this would turn out, but am glad i read it. also, ending.... i like having a bit of a think and enjoyed the flow of the overall story and how it took me. but then again, thats just my view.

[ihavepromisestokeep]

John D kindly sent me TCK a while back, when I posted I had never read it. I remember I said at the time, that it filled a gap, but was no James Ellroy.

[Spideyman]

Hi all!

I just finished listening to The Colorado Kid on audiotape today. It's one of the few SK novels that doesn't receive much attention. So, I figured I'd listen to the audio in case it was not to my liking...

I have to say that I didn't enjoy it that much. It was really slow and the dialogue was a bit tedious. Although the entire reading was done in about 4 hours. I don't want to steer any Constant Readers away from it, I'm only offering my personal opinion and seeking other's thoughts.

So, for those of who have read TCK, what did you think? Did I just not get it, or is it one of SK's lesser works?

I loved this book. I think many have never read the old pulp fiction paperback novel of the 1940's- '50's and '60's. This is the style SK used. Just like that of Hammett and Greene. The pulp fiction paperbacks were the orginal crime novels- a lot of storytelling and very visual to the mind.
It was left up to the reader to decide the ending. Imagination was a big part of reading back them.

Even the size of the book- done in paperback, not hardcover and smaller in size was kept true to the pulp fiction novel.

I would never call it a lesser work of SK, just a demonstration of a different writing style. Maybe, if you ever have time, read the book and use "your voice" to visualize the storytelling.