Saturday, January 24, 2015

Sometimes we are far too eager to "believe!"

RevivalRevival by Stephen King

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I thoroughly enjoyed this new novel by Stephen King. Like several others of his works, I would give this one 5 stars instead of 4, if his endings could be as good as his beginnings and middles. Let me hasten to add that I don’t know how that could be done – or I would do so myself! (And maybe Stephen King would read me!)

The "official goodreads blurb" calls it "A dark and electrifying novel." There's a pun in there, probably intended. You might even call the story of the ANTagonist (I don't think this is a spoiler) an "Electric Slide." (My pun is definitely intended.)

Early in the book I found myself thinking his PROtagonist might be the only cynic or skeptic in a world of willing believers-of-hype. I didn't know if that’s where the story was going, but I felt myself identifying with that attitude. Sometimes we are far too eager to "believe!" Thought-provoking issues of faith, fanaticism and addiction never detract from King's special talent for creating characters we care about, whether cursing them or rooting for them.

An extra dimension of enjoyment for me was his description of playing in a rock band in high school. He made me nostalgic for The Butlers, HuSH and Hard Core Willie. I remembered how wonderful it was to sing and play in those bands, and decided I want to play again, and regularly! I wonder if he really did that himself, way back in high school. I know he played later with the Rock Bottom Remainders, with my boyhood chum (and later famous writer) Dave Barry, but I don’t know if he played as a teen, or only wishes he had.

In spite of what I said about "endings," I'm really glad I read Revival.



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