the dark tower continues: book ii ~
these books are flying by so fast at the moment i feel like i had better catch up before i am done with the series and haven't said anything. it's kind of impossible to comment on the books and not have spoilers, though, so you are warned. the above signet editions, by the way, are the cheap copies i am currently reading (from halfprice books). my original hardbacks of the first three novels are back in texas, so this was more expedient. and they have nice covers. i bought the last three books of the series in used wrist-breaking hardbacks. they are like cinder blocks ~ honestly! why do series always get fatter and fatter as they go on? sheesh.
anyway, as noted in the previous post, book two, The Drawing of the Three, seems to be the fan favorite of many. the basic action is that Roland, having killed everything he could get his hands on, including his companion Jake, and having finally palavered with the Man in Black at the end of book one, must now pull three new companions out of three doors so that they can continue the quest for the Tower. it's all very standard quest-stuff, straight out of campbell, but King keeps it from being too much of a foregone conclusion with a few clever tricks.
first, he has Roland's fingers and one toe chopped off by the "lobstrosities" (which is hilarious, kinda). we know Roland can't die just yet because he has six more books to get through, but we now understand that he can not only be hurt, but maimed ~ and seriously. in fact, he spends a good deal of this book being seriously incapacitated as a result of wounds. so the tension is not about oh my gosh will he die (because he obviously won't), but oh my gosh when is he going to get the medicine he needs so he can go back to kicking ass like he did in the first book! seems simple, but it's actually kind of brilliant.
Roland draws his three with a lot of travails along the way. the drawing of junkie Eddie Dean (The Prisoner) is fun because it's the first, you get to see how it works when Roland crosses into 1987 (which, i think, was the year this was written), and there's all sorts of amusement with Roland's first glimpse into modern day New York. Eddie is a prototypical King character: flawed, even perhaps a little "bad", but you know he will do the right thing when the time comes. likable enough. the second drawing, from 1963, is the Lady of Shadows, Odetta Holmes and Detta Walker (a woman with a schizoid personality). she's pretty much the prototypical King woman: mother/whore/battleax all rolled into one. hate her. it doesn't help at all that she's written like a plantation caricature (King even says she talks like Butterfly McQueen), and that she's wheelchair bound (having lost her legs after being pushed in front of a train). not that i am ragging on people with disabilities, but she's such a foul character and her wheelchair causes Eddie and Roland so much trouble, i don't wonder why they don't just throw her over a ravine.
fortunately King tries to rectify all of this by taking what actually feels like a "corrective" turn in the story ~ Roland comes up with a plan to integrate Odetta/Detta, thereby bringing her into the fold. how he does this is not terribly interesting (and doesn't make a whole lot of sense, frankly), but he does it and Odetta/Detta suddenly out of the blue becomes Susannah. presumably so that we can try to forget she was ever the other two? beh. it's garbage.
what saves this book is the third drawing (The Pusher), when they open the third door and Roland realizes he's got control of Jack Mort in about 1975, i think. Jack originally killed charming little Jake from book one. Roland also realizes that he can alter the future and undo that death by preventing Jack from killing Jake (i'd make an argument that this goes against the precept of "ka" [destiny] that Roland lives by, but he's got issues with Jake, so we'll leave it).
but first, he needs ammunition for his guns and antibiotics because he's just about ready to expire. what follows is one of the more hilarious gun shop and drugstore robberies i've ever read (not that i've read too many). King is at the top of his form. i was almost laughing out loud as Roland/Jack led the police on a chase into the subway station and Roland strips all of Jack's clothes off (down to what Roland calls woman's panties). the scene alone made all the suffering through the Odetta/Detta stuff worthwhile. and that's saying something. a very satisfying climax.
the book ends with our party of three trekking off to the Tower, though it's clear something's still not right about Roland (despite all the antibiotics). by saving Jake, he's caused a serious rift in the continuum and split his own psyche. but he'll have to wait for book three to fix that.
yes, i enjoyed this one. it makes me all the more nervous for how the series is going to go ~ but i am still hopeful. may finish book three today, in which case, lucky you, you get to hear some more later!
: D