Friday, 10 January 2014

"Doctor Sleep" by Stephen King


I haven’t posted any reviews on my blog for quite a while as I have been working hard on my debut novel, “Ilona”. I’ve still been constantly reading throughout this time, but I thought it was high time that I started up the blog post again [New Year resolutions etc.].
I re-read “The Shining” late last year and found that it was even better than I remembered. It was one of the books that first made me want to write, along with Alan Garner’s The Owl Service and Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird”. I initially read “The Shining” back in 1978 when it was first released in paperback. I had pre-ordered it from Webster’s Bookshop in Dorking, having already devoured both “Carrie” and “Salem’s Lot”, and I was so excited to get my hands on a copy on its release. I read it the weekend I got it, finishing it breathless and exhausted in the middle of the night.
To me it was just the perfect novel and I was so disappointed when I saw the Kubrick movie which seemed to lose the essence of King’s intent that Jack Torrance was essentially a good man tormented by inner demons. Jack Nicholson was great in the film but seemed too dark and unhinged from the outset. However I felt that King’s story-telling had reached its peak with Danny, particularly his ability to make you feel the fear through a child’s eyes.  His minor characters were well-written too, particularly Wendy Torrance, Dick Halloran and even Lloyd the bartender.
So I had mixed feelings when I initially picked up “Doctor Sleep”, the first being why revisit something that was about as close to perfect as you could get? When I first started reading the novel it took me a while to re-adjust to Danny as an adult, and initially I found the scenes with the True  Knot a bit gratuitously violent, if I’m honest. However, I think I was wrong. I should learn to trust him.
As usual by about half-way through King had me gripped by the throat, and the pages flew by as I became absorbed in the story. I was transported back to how I felt when I first read “The Stand” and “It”…immersed in his imagination. In “Doctor Sleep” King has fleshed out an utterly convincing cast of characters, from the main protagonists to the minor supporting roles. If I’m being particularly critical I personally would have welcomed more page space being devoted to a few of the supporting characters, particularly Snakebite Andi and The Crow. However, tonally King creates a balanced blend between the warmth of the protagonists and the death-rattling chill of the enemy, the True Knot.
Many reviewers seem to want to compare the novel back to “The Shining” which I suppose is an obvious but ultimately lazy comparison. They are totally different books, written as King himself acknowledges in his Afterword at totally different points in the arc of his career. To my mind “Doctor Sleep” is a far more thoughtful book which worms its way into your psyche rather than going for the proverbial jugular.
In King’s universe things have a way of unravelling, often spectacularly and nearly always with raw and savage consequences. Without revealing any spoilers the final unravelling of the True Knot involves delicious twists and snarls and King delivers a fierce and final sense of closure.
So is it a story worth revisiting? You bet. As Roger Waters once said:- “Shine on….”

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