Stephen King - The Shining
I'm reading all of Stephen King's fiction in publication order.
I've read this before but long enough ago that I didn't remember much of it. I'm not really a fan of Kubrick's film version - I'm not much of a Kubrick fan at all,.truth be told - and I remember liking the book more than the film.
That's still true, but of King's first three novels this is my least favourite. There's something off with the pacing here, and I found it to be a bit of a slog in places. There are sections in the final act where it's very dull at the point when things should be ramping up, and I never really cared about what was happening all that much. Usually when King is getting lost in the weeds of his stories I enjoy the trip anyway, because I generally find his prose very readable and compelling, but this is a little slow and stilted, hampered by some jarring perspective shifts and clumsy language in places.
That's not to say I don't think this is a good book. It is, and it's still fun to see King exploring similar themes in his early work. There are hints of an interest in the psychogeography of buildings and ideas about 'stone tapes' in 'Salem's Lot that are never fully explored, and The Shining mines that seam thoroughly. It's just a little clumsy in places, and it also feels like King isn't letting himself lean into the area where he shines the most (if you'll excuse the phrasing there) - namely, the psychology of small towns and the mundane horrors beneath insulat communities. And, of course, he's very clearly grappling with his own alcoholism here, and King working out his personal problems on the page is something that will feature heavily in his later work.
I'm glad I revisited this but there's a reason I haven't re-read it again before now. I'm a long way away from getting to Doctor Sleep, but I'll be interested to see if I still think it's better than The Shining when I finally get to it.