Not What I Remember

[Stillreading]

Just finished The Bachman books last week. It's the first time I've read any of the stories other than The Long Walk, but it's been almost ten years now, so I read it too. For the past ten years I have been convinced that it is one of SK's best stories, and, in fact, I have made this assertion on many occasions. Conversely, I had avoided the others because I had it in my mind that they were lesser works. Now that I have read them all I have to say that Roadwork is probably my favorite from this collection (possibly a top five SK novel, in general!), and that The Long Walk, although still a great story, was not as amazing as I remembered it. And it isn't because I knew what was going to happen; frankly, other than remembering the ending troubled me (in a good way) I'd pretty much forgotten everything other than the basic premise of the story.

Anyone else have this experience/thinks I'm crazy because I like Roadwork so much?

[GNTLGNT]

Not at all...and your change of opinion simply reflects your growth and maturation-much like the Inkslingers stories mirror his own...

[Pucker]

I would concur with Giant's assessment and also add that we often make things more than they were in our memories as a way of fixing them in time and place. While The Long Walk has always been one of my personal favorites for its premise and tone, I recognize that it makes no particularly groundbreaking thematic statement and offers no clear resolution -- which you get used to if you read enough of this stuff. To me, the appeal of The Long Walk is in watching each of the characters come to terms with what they've chosen, and watching them bond -- however briefly -- in the face of their common fate.

[Stillreading]

I hear ya, and I appreciate the comment, GNTLGNT. I should really probably be writing this over on a Roadwork thread, but that was one hell of a heavy book, which doesn't necessarily make it better; however, I did find I was really living with the story for a while, both during and afterwards. Of course, the argument could be made that The Long Walk fits the bill for "heavy", and I'd have to agree. But for anyone who has read Roadwork and liked it, I think they'd agree that it's got a level of darkness and nearly relentless tragedy that is hard to come by. The fascination is obviously morbid, but once you get far enough in, Barton Dawes is an accident you can't look away from while simultaneously being one of the more sympathetic characters I have read, in recent memory. By comparison, although The Long Walk was compelling, and there were a few characters worth investing in, it was a very sparse story. We never really learn anything about anything beyond vague bits and pieces. I actually don't mean that as a criticism, either, I think that that vagueness is incredibly effective at creating the eeriness that pervades the story. But in the end it also made the impact of the overall result -- for me -- less enduring. Frankly, I wonder now if what sustained my extremely high opinion of the book for so many years was the ambiguity of the ending. Perhaps that's why I couldn't remember anything else.