“Hello, Wendy. I’m home.”
And so it felt to this Stephen King fan—coming home. So perhaps that was to a creepy, sinister home, but one, at the same time that was as familiar and comfortable as some old sheepskin slippers.
It had been perhaps twenty (at *least* fifteen) years since I read some King. Having read King’s son’s novel this summer, and having experienced a friend’s journey as he recently delighted in his first read of a King novel, but being not quite ready or in the mindset to tackle 11/22/63, I picked up Doctor Sleep. And I couldn’t put it down.
Doctor Sleep is the name given to our adult Daniel, aka Dan—and as we all met him, Danny—Torrence. Although I was tempted to read the original story again first, I moved right into this most recent work. (It would not have been surprising for me to read that one again, though. King, after all, holds as one of the very few authors who has put forth a work I’ve read more than once. (Not that I haven’t thoroughly enjoyed other books, but there are so many more I want to read. It’s like travel to me: there are so many places I want to see, that it’s hard to return to previously-visited destinations too much. (But for the right people, of course I will!) Bring on the next, new, unexplored adventure!)) My call to forge ahead was not an error: King gives the reader just enough background of the original fright-fest delight, The Shining, to remind us of the terror little Danny felt so many yeas ago in the Overlook. The reader is caught right back up on her care for Danny, the sadness of mother Wendy, and the fear created by dear-ol’-papa Jack. We even get to remember Mrs. Massey from the tub in Room 217. (Not that I originally recalled her name, but Oh. My. Stars. I do so shiver when I recall her story.)
As we fill in the years for Dan since that boiler incident in the mountains, at the same time, King crafts a new story, one you know will soon intersect with Dan’s, that sets up the perfect amount of dread, fear, and eerie anticipation. These new characters feel as if you’ve known them forever. They quickly attach to your heart, like Danny and the cherished Dick Hallorann, or they make you squirm in your seat (like those twin little girls), using that depth of wicked creativity that comes from King’s mind. From one extreme to the other, these characters and their stories hold your attention.
I’m quite accustomed to and pleased with King’s writing style. It’s easy to read and fabulously descriptive (sometimes too much so), and the aside analogies and observations almost made me feel like I was having a wonderfully casual conversation with myself. 😉 (That’d be me, dubbed once by a friend as the “Queen of Parentheticals.” lol (And no, that friend wasn’t even in the legal field; she spoke merely of what it was like to have a conversation with me. 😉 ))
Of course, King isn’t for everyone. The supernatural isn’t easy. The evoked fear and dread are not entertaining to all. But to me, it was like a welcome home. Okay, as I said from the onset, that’d be to a creepy home, but that home is a grand place of fantasy that stimulates all manners of thought and imagination such that one can let go of the everyday, truly let go, and escape to the other-worldly darkness that lurks somewhere behind the shadows.
PS: please, please, oh please, Mr. King, get someone to turn this into a movie. The book is so descriptive, it’s as if the adaptation has been done. Come on….I know I’m not the only one who would go see this one. 🙂 I know you didn’t like what Kubrick did, but you’ve learned to keep more control. I’m sure you can find someone to dig into this with you to bring this art to the big screen as it should be done. Pretty please? 🙂