forrest_rice's Full Review: Stephen King - The Shining
WARNING: Spoilers!
There are some people out there that love Stephen King. They love his stories, his characters, his ideas, his romanticism, his horror - then there are some that think he's a lucky hack, a mediocre writer at best. However, there are some, such as myself, who falls somewhere between the two extremes. I recognize King is a lucky hack, however, something about his work always seems to have me flipping through his novels, entertaining me to no end, while at the same time I'm rolling my eyes the whole way through.
Reading King's work, I'm left completely indifferent by it after I am finished reading, and yet I enjoy reading through whatever he writes while I'm in the process of reading it. It might be because there is little content, emotionally and intellectually, in his work, despite his incredible imagination and talent and obvious devotion to whatever he's writing. His work seems to have me thoroughly entertained and yet left emty, a strange mixture.
This is true with The Shining. Having seen Kubrick's movie first, I wanted to check out the book to see if it was any good. Let me first get this straight - Kubrick's film is a total masterpiece. I noticed a lot of people here are writing write-offs of the movie, but the movie is purely a masterpiece of horror. Kubrick took King's plot and then made it his own, and what an incredible film it is. I soon found that, after hearing King fans moan about how Kubrick had not been too faithful to King's book and reading the book myself, that Kubrick had kept the basic story and characters, yet the tone, style, feel and themes are totally different (and Kubrick basically improved everything on it).
King's book is about a failed writer named Jack Torrance who takes his family to care for the off-season Overlook Hotel. A recovering alcoholic, Jack has a history of child abuse against his son Danny - also he had beaten a student at the school he worked at, among ofther things. Danny is gifted with the psychic power of "shining", and he is able to see the past and future as well as ghosts and his imaginary friend Tony. Jack transforms from a nice, but flawed, guy to a psychotic maniac as the ghosts at the Overlook Hotel posses him and feed him booze. He tries to kill his wife and kid, and a psychic black cook named Hallorann who comes to Danny's aid late in the story, but ends fighting his demons and sacrificing himself to destroy the hotel's evil.
That's the basic story. The strange thing is, though it has a good story, everything else about it is totally inept. King goes on and on and on with his "character development" - pages and pages of Jack's abusive childhood, drinking problems, religious problems, writing problems, etc... etc... Also the characters simply do not act realistically or practically - early on, it seems, Wendy, Jack's wife, is quickly aware of the supernatural evil of the Overlook Hotel, but stays for no apparent reason (Kubrick skillfully avoids this in his film by revealing the supernatural events to Wendy at the end of the film, when Jack has sabotaged their only transportation and communication). Everything about this book sucks. It's not scary, the writing is mediocre and redundant and King is unable to make you believe anything that's going on.
So, why do I like this book? I don't know. King's books let you turn off your brain completely. King has admitted that his books don't have any real intellectual hidden meanings, which is easily apparent. He seems only concerned with invention and plot design, and of course his, however misguided, awesome devotion to his characters. As incredibly bad as this book is, for some reason, you're hooked and entertained the entire time. There's really not much more to say (if I were reviewing the movie, I'd have a LOT more to say), but if you're looking for an entertaining read, and quite fast (though it's a long book, it flies by fast) then pick up a copy of The Shining.
The Overlook Hotel is more than just a home-away-from-home for the Torrance family. For Jack, Wendy, and their young son, Danny, it is a place where p...More at HotBookSale
Past horrors and evil lurk in Colorado s Overlook Hotel, threatening winter season caretakers Jack Torrance, his wife Wendy, and their young son, Dann...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.