I'm reading Stephen King Again
After seven years of snubbing him, I’ve started reading Stephen King again. I know lit high brow types look down on him. When he the National Book Foundation gave him the Distinguished Writer Award for his contributions in American letters in 2003, there was a lot of furor and dismay, although if you think about it, King has been getting attention from the mainstream literary “vanguards” in the past few years. His works have won the O. Henry prize and his shorts and essays have been published in The New Yorker. (Other recipients of the DW award: Eudora Welty and the ultimate critics’ darlings, John Updike and Philip Roth. I must say I really really like Roth.) But I like some of King's works, especially the short stories. I’m egalitarian and he kept me preoccupied in high-school, so there you go. We read for plenty of reasons. And he didn’t confine himself in the horror genre (nothing wrong with that, though), which shows that he’s got ambition. (Favorite SK short: The Breathing Method. Favorite SK novel: 1. The Stand, 2. Carrie, 3. Salem's Lot.) On Sunday night, I picked up The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger and finished it on Tuesday evening. There are brilliant moments, especially when The Gunslinger looks back on his childhood, but the book also has duds. I thought the book has too much metaphors; every other paragraph sounds heavy handed. I suppose the narration will improve, considering that The Gunslinger is one of King’s earliest drafts. So yes, I am looking forward to the others. My brother said we have the next two books somewhere in the house - he has read them - so I must excavate the boxes again.
x-posted to the bookclubs