I don’t recall exactly how I discovered the works of Stephen King. Oh, I know when it was, 1977 to be exact. I was attending the University of Texas at the time. What I don’t recall is if someone recommended THE SHINING to me or if I saw it on the stands, thought it looked good and took a chance on it.
THE SHINING was King’s third published novel following CARRIE and SALEM’S LOT. I had seen both the film version of CARRIE in the theaters and recall watching the two-night made-for-TV mini-series of SALEM’S LOT. They were both solid works, but I still had not read any pure King.
That all changed with THE SHINING. It was, literally, a book I could not put down. I recall taking my copy along on a Spring Break trip to Port Aransas. The weather was cold and windy one day and we spent the day inside playing cards and drinking beer. When I wasn’t doing one of those activities I had my nose in my paperback copy of THE SHINING.
I thought at the time that it was one of the greatest haunted house (even though it’s a hotel) story I’d ever read and one of the scariest books I’d ever encountered.
I recently re-read THE SHINING after a gap of almost fifty-years. It had been such a long time since that initial reading that many of the plot points and story beats were new to me. Oh, I remembered the basic structure of the story, but a lot of the smaller details were fresh. I finished reading the book last night and I think by initial assessment stands firm.
THE SHINING is an outstanding horror novel with the horror located in two vessels. The first is the malevolent Outlook Hotel itself and all of the horrors that dwell within (and in some cases) without its walls. Truly creep show stuff.
But for me the true terror of the book is found in the slow break down of Jack Torrance and the destruction of his small family, wife Wendy and son Danny (who has the power to “shine”).
The menace is slow to build as each incident seems to be stronger and more dangerous than the one before. It comes down to a third act in which the pages seemed to turn themselves. It’s a race against time between Jack and his murderous attempts on his family and the rescue mission from Dick Halloran, the Overlook chef who shares a “shine” with Danny. Halloran has to travel from Florida into a deadly winter storm in Colorado in a desperate effort to reach the doomed hotel.
No spoilers here but the ending is entirely acceptable to this reader. After my initial reading of THE SHINING, I went back and read CARRIE and SALEMS’ LOT and read every new Stephen King book as they were published. I was a huge fan until I ran into the doorstop also known as IT. Didn’t care for that one at all and stopped reading King for many, many years.
King wrote some books for the Hard Case Crime publishing company in the early 2000s. Being a fan of the label, I gave King’s books a try. The first book, THE COLORADO KID was absolutely wretched. But King redeemed himself with JOYLAND, the ending of which made me shed a tear. HIs next Hard Case title was LATER. It was solid, not as good as JOYLAND but far better than COLORADO.
I decided that it was time to give King another read and I’ve been doing so for almost a year. I’ve read the following: THE LONG WALK, EVERYTHING’S EVENTUAL, TOMMYKNOCKERS, BAG OF BONES, SKELETON CREW, THE DARK TOWER: THE GUNSLINGER, PET SEMATARY, CARRIE, and THE TALISMAN.
I have twenty King books in my “to-be-read” pile. They should keep me busy for a while.
What’s that I hear? What about the movie? What about the movie indeed. Stay tuned.
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