I didn't read Carrie when it was first published in 1974; at the time, I had never head of Stephen King, and I was too busy reading the novels of people I did know, like Bradbury, Bliss, Matheson, and Saberhagen. However, after I started reading Stephen King's work, I got around to reading Carrie, long after even it was released as a movie. My perspective is influenced by all the novels and stories of King's that I read beforehand.
Carrie has as its most unique feature (for one of Stephen King's novels) its brevity; my paperback version is only 245 pages long, and the print is in larger font than most of his novels. That puts Carrie in novelette territory. Despite that, you won't mind the pace or the content; there is nothing rushed about the speed at which the story is developed, and the story has sufficient substance to avoid being skeletal. Also unlike King's later novels, there are relatively few characters; just Carrie, her brief love interest Tommy, Carrie's mother Margaret, Sue Snell (a sort of friend), and Billy, the focus of most of the evil actions directed against Carrie.
Since Carrie is such a brief novel, I'll offer the briefest of summaries here. Carrie is a young, high school teen, who begins to discover her telekinetic powers, and their awesome depth, after being cruelly taunted by her classmates, and the townspeople. Her mother Margaret is a figure of repression and torment for Carrie, seeking to keep her ignorant about her "change", as she matures from a girl to a woman, and to keep Carrie in denial about her own sexuality, just as she has been since Carrie's conception.
However, despite Carrie's attempts to obey her mother, and to keep her unique abilities in check, she unleashes them one night at the school prom, after the cruelest attack of all. There, she and Tommy are targeted as the butt of a joke played by almost the entire school, except for Sue Snell. In retaliation, the town and its people are devastated, never to recover. Carrie's exit from this world afterwards is witnessed by the deathwatch Sue Snell keeps.
An interesting feature of Carrie, so unlike most of King's other novels, is the positive resolution. Despite the massive body count and property destruction, people are finally forced to admit the existence of the paranormal (telekinesis), and to try to deal with it rationally, as scientists look for the tk (telekinesis) gene to try to screen newborns for it, and to channel their talent into something less destructive. As such, there's a little less ignorance in the world, and a little more deliberate, rational thought. There's also just the barest hint that humanity may be growing up; the shock of the violence that Carrie dispensed forced people to admit there are better ways of dealing with those who are different, than to torment them.
I'd recommend Carrie as another addition to your Stephen King collection; it's a good novel to have, especially to see how he has changed as a writer in almost 30 years. It's also interesting to compare the movie to the book (though I'd rate the book as the better of the two). However, if you're used to Stephen King's massive, later novels, just be ready to finish this book before you realize it's over.
In an exclusive introduction written specifically for this edition, King looks back at the creation of his first masterpiece 25 years ago. Carrie Whit...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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