Author/Editor: Stephen King
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday
Rating: WORTHY!
It’s time for a pair of creepies for Halloween! Stephen King's third published novel is the only one of his that I really like. I've read several and never found another one which matches this one. My problem with King is that he reached a point shortly after this novel where he couldn't tell a story without telling the entire history of every character in the story, and it’s quite simply b-o-r-i-n-g! This novel wasn't. It was a bit long, but it had enough weirdness and action in it to keep it cooking beautifully. The way the hotel slowly absorbs King like a paper towel sucking up spilled tomato juice is delicious.
The first time I ever read this was when I was working night shift at a place where I wasn't required to do a whole heck of a lot besides keep an eye on things, so it was a great time and place to read it, too.
The novel begins with Jack Torrance, who has anger management issues and who is living on the edge, glad to finally get a job where he can get paid and also write. Which of us doesn’t dream of that?! The problem is that the job is caretaking the Overlook Hotel, which is a great place to stay in the summer, but which is totally cut off in the Colorado Rockies in winter, with no hope for outside help if anything goes wrong. Yeah - this is Stephen King, so you know everything is going to go wrong.
So while it begins with Jack (yeah, I know, yet another novel with a character named Jack. Just grin and bear it. Sooner or later writers are going to tire of that name, and then we'll get some respite.), it’s really about his young son Danny. Danny is the one who shines - meaning, in King's bizarre and obscure lexicon, that he has telepathic and clairvoyant powers and sees spirits which, frankly, terrify him. The third character is Jack's wife, Wendy.
Finally there's Dick Hallorann, the chef at the Overlook, who's headed for warmer climes for the winter. He discovers that Danny shines, and connects with him - telling him that if there's any trouble, Danny should just mentally call him, and he would come and help. Dick warns Danny not to go into a certain room, and to just ignore any spirits he might see here.
Oh, there is one other character: Delbert Grady, a former caretaker who went beyond "lost it" one winter and killed his entire family, including himself. He never actually left the hotel, however, and now Danny is here, he's working inadvertently as a sort of amplifier for the evil that lurks within it’s very fabric and structure.
The hotel wants to absorb Danny, but it can’t get him, so it turns attention upon the weakest link: Jack. Jack slowly starts losing it, especially when he has a fight with his wife and subsequently discovers that the hotel bar is fully stocked where it had previously been empty. Or it just his imagination?
The more he's sucked in by the oppressive and all-pervasive evil atmosphere of the hotel, the more he feels pressure to do to his own family what Grady did to his. It’s not long before all-out hostilities break-out, with Jack getting locked in a pantry because he's downright dangerous, and Wendy locking herself in a room into which Jack tries to break before she cuts him with a knife.
It’s at this point, where the whole hotel is coming alive and the creepiness factor is rapidly being dialed to eleven, that Danny lets out a massive mental shout for Dick, who gets it so hard that he almost collapses. He immediately sets off for the Overlook, not knowing how he will ever get there, but determined to do so.
One thing Jack neglects in his single-minded pursuit of Danny - so that he can turn him over to the hotel, is the hotel boiler, which 'creeps', and which will explode if not frequently attended to. This is what eventually takes out Jack, as Wendy and Danny escape with Dick.
This novel is nothing short of brilliant and I highly recommend it if by chance you haven't read it yet.
