I'm not saying this book is a tremendous read, but it's certainly one I couldn't put down. Which is true of most of King's books, at least the ones I've read. I thought I had read NT before, but I hadn't. One pleasing thing about it is that, aside from the characters' dialogue, I only noticed one misspelled word, and none of the irritating typos that infest a lot of new books. Of course, this one wasn't new; I've got the first paperback printing, in 1991 or '92, I forget which. But of those published from the late '90s until now, it's rare to find a book that looks as if an editor had even looked at it.
One displeasing thing about Needful Things is King's repeated reference to literary characters' or movie stars' looks or personalities to make you "see" some of his characters. That's pure laziness, as anyone with his talent could certainly do so without dragging in Barney Fife or Howdy Doody. In the case of one female person in the book, he hardly described her at all and didn't compare her to anybody else, and to me she looked exactly like Kathy Bates in "Misery."
I think this is probably what I would classify as one of his better books, although the ending was a little far-fetched and crazier than the rest of it. As his best books (of the ones I've read), I would list:
The Dead Zone
The Shining
Firestarter
The Stand - I can't remember many details of this book, but I read the whole thing, so it must have been a grabber.
'Salem's Lot
Different Seasons (short stories)
The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon
On Writing (nonfiction)
Needful Things
Pretty Good:
The Eyes of the Dragon
The Talisman
The worst ones I've read:
The Langoliers
The Gunslinger
The Tommyknockers
Movies I liked very much but haven't read the books:
Misery
It
Dolores Claiborne
Movies I didn't like:
Cujo
Carrie
Pet Sematery
I know I've read other books by him, including Insomnia, but don't remember anything about them.
Friday, January 22, 2010
Needful Things
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3 comments:
King hasn't written a book that I would want to read twice in many years. This isn't one of them. Not bad, but nothing really remarkable about it. First rank King books: Dead Zone (best), Shining, Stand, 'Salem's Lot, Night Shift. Second rank (still good): Firestarter, Christine, The Running Man, Misery. Reason I basically stopped reading Stephen King novels: Black House.
King must be on the edge of advanced maturity by now. There have been other good writers who, if they had lived that long, might have written as many bad books as he has.
The only other American novelists I can think of, who were as good writers as Stephen King, are Hemingway and Steinbeck.
For that matter, Hemingway never struck me as a really natural-born writer. He was too good-looking, too busy, and too self-centered to be a real craftsman. And when he lost his looks and got sick, he shot himself. And he did write a lot of pretty lukewarm fiction.
I feel the same way about Cliff Simak -- two or three really good books out of a long career. But I never really DISLIKED any of Simak's books, the way I do with some of King's.
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