I think Mr King is writing more for himself these days. Boy, don't they screw up his covers though? It was a good read - but only for a limited audience. It's limited to the boomer close call with health group. It lacks King's usual goofy humor and so the character is not likeable, much.
The other failing (geez I wish on was on his list of first readers - somebody get me his email!) is that...
more I think Mr King is writing more for himself these days. Boy, don't they screw up his covers though? It was a good read - but only for a limited audience. It's limited to the boomer close call with health group. It lacks King's usual goofy humor and so the character is not likeable, much.
The other failing (geez I wish on was on his list of first readers - somebody get me his email!) is that the physical experience - and where it takes the rider, is not explored. Riding a stationary bike into oblivion is not a new idea - or a new experience. Anyone who's ever done it in solitude knows that.
I wish King had put more in the story about how endurance can affect you psychologically. I think he was touching it, but it was flavorless...almost as if he'd never done it, which , he may not have. Although - his rehab must have been utterly excrutiating and he may have drawn upon that.
It's a more mature piece - as lame as that sounds. I realized, part way through, that he was taking a "Turn of the screw" approach, so I guess that's what I mean. Subtlety? Is that what I'm trying to say? He loses that impact in the end because he basically outlines this guy picking apart his psychotic dream state visions. It's a little annoying because, even if we could figure out what each symbolic person or thing our minds churn up while dreaming, we can't place them all. It's never so tidy.
I also didn't get the sense that King had chatted with a cycling enthusiast. His character rides a bike - a lot. And goes into a trance while doing so. But, there are physical aspects of both fear and exurtion that go unexplored. Someone once asked Lance Armstrong what he thought about on the bike for 6-8 hour rides. Lance, a little puzzled, answered that he thought about the ride. All its aspects - he air, his cadence, the road, hands, legs, lungs, time - there are a million and one ways to ride and think while on a bike. How could the character have been riding in fear (as he was) and not experience the sensations - both mental and physical. I just felt like these should have been explored.
A good example is a well written survival peice by the person who went through it. They can name what they were feeling, smelling, thinking, doing. Those accounts add - perhaps make- the whole point of the story - whatever that may be - ring true. And that - whether the story is true or not - always sinks the ball.
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