leeper@ahutb.UUCP (m.r.leeper) (04/05/85)
THE STAND by Stephen King
New American Library.
A book review by Mark R. Leeper
I have often claimed that Stephen King overwrites his books. Most of
his stories are good stories but are padded out by giving long histories to
introduce his characters. An idea that Richard Matheson or Charles Beaumont
or even Robert Bloch would write as a 20-page story, King will write and
sell as a novel. A recent example is PET SEMETARY, which is little more
than a novel-length version of Jacobs's "The Monkey's Well, I finally have
read a Stephen King horror story with enough idea for a 180-page novel. And
his mean, nasty publisher made him trim it down to about 820 pages. But
fear not, the complete untrimmed version is on its way.
For those who don't already know what THE STAND is about--and I seem to
be one of the few people who have not read it till now--a highly virulent
version of the flu is accidentally released from a government biological
research facility. The resulting plague kills off all but a very small part
of the U.S. population. The survivors start having dreams of one or both of
two people who are starting communities. The good people are drawn to
Mother Abigail, a black woman over 100 years old. The baddies, including us
technologists, are drawn to some guy known variously as "the walking dude,"
"the dark man," and Flagg. In Las Vegas, Nevada, sin capital of the world,
Flagg builds his society of psychopaths and engineers. Of course, the good
and bad people plan to war on each other, and thereby hangs the tale.
THE STAND for too much of the book does just that. It stands. It
doesn't fall on its face, but it doesn't move ahead either. There are about
350 pages in which not much happens really. The good people just set up
their government and occasionally disagree with each other. Horror fans who
enjoy this sort of story-telling will also enjoy reading THE FEDERALIST
PAPERS. In the last 200 pages the story returns to the book and it is good
to have it back.
My recommendation: read THE STAND if you have some spare time coming
up. Better yet, if READERS' DIGEST ever condenses it, go for it. That will
probably be the best version of the story.
Mark R. Leeper
...ihnp4!ahuta!ahutb!leeper