Several years ago, my husband had had enough of the fact that I had never read 1984. Apparently this omission made me the "worst English teacher ever". He decided to take matters in his own hands, and on a camping trip, we read each other the novel.
This experience led to another book. This time, he encouraged me to read Stephen King. I had been terrified to read King, as I only associated him with horror, and I'm a bit - okay, a lot - of a wuss. But I read Different Seasons, and loved it. So he thought he'd get me to read something a little more substantial.
He chose The Stand.
After reading most of it and then setting it down for a long time, I picked it up and finished it the other day.
I can't believe I ever put it down.
People have called this one of the greatest horror novels written. A lethal super-virus wipes out most of the Earth's population, but that is not as terrifying as the events following it for the 1% of the population who survived.
The story begins as the survivors find one another, each plagued by strange dreams. The dreams feature two mysterious figures, and pull the survivors together towards Boulder or Las Vegas. One force, Mother Abigail, seems to be for good, one, Randall Flagg, for evil. The characters deal with one another, with survival, with the showdown between good and evil.
Questions of humanity are addressed. Questions of morality. Questions of progress, of regression, of what is good, what is evil, what is the tenuous space between those two entities.
“Show me a man or a woman alone and I'll show you a saint. Give me two and they'll fall in love. Give me three and they'll invent the charming thing we call 'society'. Give me four and they'll build a pyramid. Give me five and they'll make one an outcast. Give me six and they'll reinvent prejudice. Give me seven and in seven years they'll reinvent warfare. Man may have been made in the image of God, but human society was made in the image of His opposite number, and is always trying to get back home.”
I've been on a bit of a Stephen King kick, in case you hadn't noticed. This is the book that started all that.
He is a masterful storyteller, particularly in taking everyday humans and throwing them into an incredible story. I love the way he addresses the differences between those who make their way to Boulder, and those who end up in Vegas. I love the fact that the horror is not only in the illness that wipes out most of humanity and society, but that we, as a species, are so short-sighted to begin the same steps again and again.
I love that there is redemption, change and no change in the rebuilding of society. Not all of the good guys are good. Not all of the bad guys are bad.
Kind of like reality.
I particularly enjoyed reading this after finishing On Writing, as he addresses some of the struggles he had in finishing The Stand in that combination of memoir and manual.
I am disappointed in only one thing: That I ever set it down. Though I still remembered all of the plot, shockingly enough, I had to back up and revisit some of the characters. That was my own fault.
Be wary: If you are scared of big books, this is not the one for you. It's dense. It weighs in your hands, in your bags, as it should. It weighs down like the way the words weigh in my heart, the subject matter in society. It's fast-paced and intense. It isn't happy, but it isn't hopeless. It left me blinking at my surroundings in awe, moved as a writer and a reader and a member of humanity.
A great horror novel? Perhaps. A great sweeping epic? Likely. A great apocalyptic tale? Sure.
A great novel, period? Definitely.
“The place where you made your stand never mattered. Only that you were there...and still on your feet.”
What's your favourite Stephen King book? Have you read this one? What's your favourite apocalyptic or post-apocalyptic book?