Stephen King's Carrie

"A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." ~ Lao-tzu

Here we are. The first in a long line of Stephen King book reviews to come! I have to say, Carrie was a good start to this whole experiment. It read really quickly and I can see a lot of King tropes right from the outset of his work. The first being the trope of the mentally powered main character. I know that we have many more of those in store for us as we move through these books, and it's interesting that Carrie seems to have pretty much all the mental powers. She's mostly thought of as a telekinetic, but in the book, she also seems to display some telepathy, pyrokinesis, and psychometry. Another common King-trope that I love starts here in this book as well: king interrupting the flow of thoughts with parentheses that interject some other perspective. This convention is so effective for demonstrating those fleeting thoughts that jump into our heads. It's a trait of his writing that I've always found very impactful and that just screams of King. Lastly, though not revered so much in this reviewers eyes, are the concept of the greaser villains. This same cliche comes up time and again, but I just can't think of the idea of a greaser as being all that threatening. Blame it on Westside Story and Grease. Fun thought: John Travolta, who set my expectations for what a greaser was also played the first of Stephen King's greaser villains, Billy Nolan in the Bryan Depalma film based on this book. 

Interestingly, Carrie is not exactly a horror book per se, though it has its moments. Carrie reads more like a teen drama, almost a romance for the most part. It is interesting to see though how King used an epistolary structure with this book. That's a style I most associate with Bram Stoker's Dracula. Especially considering that King's next work, 'Salem's Lot, was Stephen King's attempt to tell the story if Dracula coming to America in, what was then, modern times. Even so, the horrific elements really only seem to come once Carrie has her breakdown at the prom. The rest of the book tends to focus on the development of the various relationships through the text and the development of Carrie's powers. There is one other element that really sticks out to me here. There is a lot of detail that is paid to describe Billy Nolan's car throughout the book, and during her rampage, Carrie wrecks the car with Christine Hargensen in it. I'm wondering if this might be the origin for Christine when I get there. Or at least, if this isn't where that idea started for King. 

Overall, the book was a great read and an awesome starting point for getting into Stephen King.  Now on to 'Salem's Lot.

Introduction

Welcome to Cap'n Coleman's Book Report! 

What is this strange and wondrous world you've stumbled across you ask? Well, it's a place where I'll be sharing my love of literature with the world and taking some time to flex my own writing muscle in the process. 

How did manifest itself into being? That's a much more complex question. It's mostly because I've come to a decision that I may regret. I've decided to challenge myself to read every Stephen King book in order of publication. I've got a long road ahead. I've read a good majority of his "classics": Pet Semetary, The Shining, The Green Mile, It (one of my all-time favorite books), etc. And yes, I've seen many of the movies based on his works (which run from "cinema classics" to "why oh why did I watch this"). Personally, up to this point, I've not read a King book that I didn't find at least worth the read, even if some were just ok. What I think I might regret is the sheer bulk of what lies before me, and slogging through some of the short story collections (please, give me strength when I get to The Langoliers). I decided to take this on because I want to read The Dark Tower series, and it pulls in so much from all of his other works, some very heavily and which I have not read (The Stand). I think it will be a fun challenge, daunting yes, but fun. 

But where does this blog come in, you may ask. Well, in addition to wanting to read more, I've been wanting to get more into writing, so I'm also creating this blog space where I'll be posting my reviews. The best way to become a writer is to actually write, so here's where I'll be stretching my legs in that regard. What can you expect in this blog space? I'll be posting my overall thoughts on King's works and more specifically what I see from King through his growth as a writer. But this blog won't just be a Stephen King review. I'm sure that in order to prevent burn-out, I'll be taking many breaks from King's books to read other tales. I'll be posting my thoughts on them here in Cap'n Coleman's Book Report as well. Now, I have cheated a little bit, and I've already read several books in the King oeuvre, but that does mean that I'll be able to post here with some consistency even if I'm not cruising through the books, thanks to also working on finishing up my dissertation over the next several months. 

So if you've found me here, I hope you enjoy yourself! If you don't... well quite frankly I don't care. I'm doing this for me, not you knucklehead. So, without further adieu, I'll get on with posting my first review with Stephen King's first book, Carrie!