Doctor Sleep: Final Verdict
I finally finished Doctor Sleep. I have not, actually, been reading it the whole time since I last posted. I reached not quite the halfway point and realized that I really couldn't read it in the fits and starts that I have during the last third of the semester, so I (reluctantly) put it aside until the end of the semester. I started it over at Christmas, and finished last night, ironically (given its title) in a fit of insomnia.
Note: I should preface my remarks by saying that there is no chance of me being remotely objective about this book. I read The Shining every year, teach it in the summer, and have lived with its characters since I was 18 and borrowed the book from a favorite professor. In some ways, you could say I grew older with Dan Torrance.
That said,
This was the Dan Torrance I knew, age aside. Sometimes the AA stuff got a little heavy-handed, but in the end, I think it made the point of how integral alcohol and alcoholism has been to the Torrance family story.
The True Knot is one of King's better recent inventions. They were genuinely menacing and fascinating at the same time. I simultaneously wanted to know much, much more about the mythology (it's implied that there are other Knots, I think) and wanting to look under my bed to make certain that there were no random top hats. As upsetting as I found their actions, King doesn't shy away from the absolute brutality and evil of what they do. At the same time, he imbues them with real feelings and real dimension, so that when, for example, they grieve their lovers, you actually feel it.
Abra joins the ranks of King's awesome children, and Conchetta was also awesome. I am not sure how I feel about the revelation that Lucy is Dan's half-sister. Constant-Reader-me, the adopted child who always made up stories of long-lost siblings (much more so than parents, actually) loved it, loved that Dan found a new family. Storyteller me wishes it had been set up a bit more, that an AA exposition had been sacrificed for some seeds about Lucy's mother somewhere. Shining fan me is dubious about making Jack Torrance a womanizer. Of all his flaws, cheating on Wendy did not seem to be among them, and I'm not sure how to reconcile it to the view of the character I've had for so many years. To me, the absolute key to his character is that he thought of himself as "Jack Torrance in the passive mode," acted upon rather than acting. I think perhaps if Sandy made moves on him, he would not have the will to resist, but I'm hard pressed to see him as a seducer.
But that's kind of a minor quibble, really, in a book I otherwise enjoyed tremendously. Despite its length, it's tighter than a lot of King's recent work. I believe him when he says it was edited quite thoroughly, and that he received feedback that shaped it.
I will definitely be reading it again.
I debated including the squee tag, here, but I actually am interested in real thoughts on the book, critical or otherwise. That said, if you flat-out hated it, this might not be the best place to expound on that.
This entry was originally posted at http://cereta.dreamwidth.org/1032030.html. If you can, please speak there.
have spoken there.
Note: I should preface my remarks by saying that there is no chance of me being remotely objective about this book. I read The Shining every year, teach it in the summer, and have lived with its characters since I was 18 and borrowed the book from a favorite professor. In some ways, you could say I grew older with Dan Torrance.
That said,
This was the Dan Torrance I knew, age aside. Sometimes the AA stuff got a little heavy-handed, but in the end, I think it made the point of how integral alcohol and alcoholism has been to the Torrance family story.
The True Knot is one of King's better recent inventions. They were genuinely menacing and fascinating at the same time. I simultaneously wanted to know much, much more about the mythology (it's implied that there are other Knots, I think) and wanting to look under my bed to make certain that there were no random top hats. As upsetting as I found their actions, King doesn't shy away from the absolute brutality and evil of what they do. At the same time, he imbues them with real feelings and real dimension, so that when, for example, they grieve their lovers, you actually feel it.
Abra joins the ranks of King's awesome children, and Conchetta was also awesome. I am not sure how I feel about the revelation that Lucy is Dan's half-sister. Constant-Reader-me, the adopted child who always made up stories of long-lost siblings (much more so than parents, actually) loved it, loved that Dan found a new family. Storyteller me wishes it had been set up a bit more, that an AA exposition had been sacrificed for some seeds about Lucy's mother somewhere. Shining fan me is dubious about making Jack Torrance a womanizer. Of all his flaws, cheating on Wendy did not seem to be among them, and I'm not sure how to reconcile it to the view of the character I've had for so many years. To me, the absolute key to his character is that he thought of himself as "Jack Torrance in the passive mode," acted upon rather than acting. I think perhaps if Sandy made moves on him, he would not have the will to resist, but I'm hard pressed to see him as a seducer.
But that's kind of a minor quibble, really, in a book I otherwise enjoyed tremendously. Despite its length, it's tighter than a lot of King's recent work. I believe him when he says it was edited quite thoroughly, and that he received feedback that shaped it.
I will definitely be reading it again.
I debated including the squee tag, here, but I actually am interested in real thoughts on the book, critical or otherwise. That said, if you flat-out hated it, this might not be the best place to expound on that.
This entry was originally posted at http://cereta.dreamwidth.org/1032030.html. If you can, please speak there.
have spoken there.