I work in a corporate office, Mon-Fri, 7-5, all year long where business lunches and office designations are among the most discussed topics. We have the same kind of corporate towers, same corporate largely oversized windows, same corporate cubicles designed to make you feel claustrophobic, same corporate backstabbing and backtalking, same corporate dress code that the overweight women don't have to adhere to and the same politicking that happens in every corporate office around the world. I am of a different breed though; I need an escape while I'm here or I'll eventually (and probably sooner than I think) lose my freaking mind so on my breaks, instead of rubbing elbows with another guy in a pressed shirt and spiky hair that's looking for a promotion, or going out to another $23 lunch hour with a gaggle of people that have nothing better to do with it, I save my money for my family and opt to make my own escape: by reading. Now, I've always read, but here in this environment, it gives me more unabashed time to fully get into any novel or book I"m reading and it's a great time. I don't have to convince you that reading is quickly becoming a lost art in the way of entertainment, with video game consoles, computers, DVD's, MP3's and Iphones available for everyone but I wish it would make a comeback. The written word has no boundries unlike the images and pictures that appear on every other multimedia source you use to pass the time; it has no graphical glitches or load times, you simply need to open your mind and let it absorb you in and follow the ride.
So, let's review some books because they are a huge part of our world and that's the name of the site!
1. Carrie by Stephen
King (1976)
Introduction: This was King's first novel published. It's been made into a feature film, a made for TV film and a Broadway musical.
Plot Synopsis: a young girl, an outcast at her high school, develops telekinetic powers (the ability to perform actions with her mind such as moving things) during her senior year. Her mother is a deranged psychotic religious fanatic who has tortured her mind since she was a child and is the source of her actions that have caused her to be tormented by her peers in school. She is asked to the prom by the most popular boy in school, as a penace from a regretful classmate for all the years of abuse, but not everyone is trying to make amends for their treatment of Carrie. Then all hell breaks loose.
Impressions: The story itself is a pretty daring plot for such a man to underakte, to get into the minds of many different high school girls and use that as your main points of views. The story is pretty dated now, so it's hard for me to see if he succeeds in that but I would think so. The plot is pretty linear and is interspersed with snippets from texts, memoirs, testimonials, newspaper clippings and other bits of information dealing with the "Carrie White Situation" which are all posthumous from the events in the book. It's a very innovative way to shed some light and perspective on what's going on in the story and to give some weight and gravity to the event, making it feel very big and important. There is also some internal dialogue that happens with almost every character, like quick lines that may have popped into their heads but it doesn't really work for me and doens't seem to lend anything to the book.
The subject material in the story is well written and pretty disturbing at times, especially when dealing with Carrie and her mother's relationship and the inner workings of her mother's mind. Christine Hargenson, Carrie's antagonist and her mentally off boyfriend in the story are a nice juxtaposition from Carrie as they are pegged as normal high school students when deep down they are even more violent and corrupt than she is and weren't driven to the edge as she has been; it was a way of showing that it's not just your background that determines your personality and that even normal kids could have this kind of hate instilled in them. King uses a lot of beautiful imagery in the story too, as a description for many settings or the way someone could look but with all the evil and horrible descriptions he gives most of the way through, I don't agree with his usage of that language because this isn't a pretty or nice or really even hopeful book and I'm sure that was his underlying intention but it doesn't give you that feeling at all. The story itself is very interesting, especially the TK (or telekinetic) powers subject which is most of the discussion of some of the articles in the aftermath and how it works and he did a good job of explaining how it could be applied in real life and society's reaction to it.
Final Thoughts: Overall, the subject matter isn't of a great appeal to me (high school girl backfighting and religious fanaticsm) but King does present it in a way that is more appealing to the mass audience with this threat of TK and how it's used and what it's potential dangers could be. There is some psychic powers that go along with that in the book which are never really explained either so I won't really touch on that. Most of the book is written really well and there's a great lot of detail put into describing each and every piece of the puzzle almost as if the book is a big case study of the situation so he was really prepared. I'd give this a fair rating, a C+. He went onto write much better works later on in his career.
- Jessie