So. The Stand. I have been listening to The Stand on audiobook since before Thanksgiving. It’s 48 hours long. I’m so glad that I was able to to hit my 5th Cannonball of the year on this particular book because I love it dearly, but have never had a chance to review it for Cannonball. So here we go!
“Show me a man or a woman alone and I’ll show you a saint. Give me two and they’ll fall in love. Give me three and they’ll invent the charming thing we call ‘society’. Give me four and they’ll build a pyramid. Give me five and they’ll make one an outcast. Give me six and they’ll reinvent prejudice. Give me seven and in seven years they’ll reinvent warfare. Man may have been made in the image of God, but human society was made in the image of His opposite number, and is always trying to get back home.”
In case you’re not familiar, The Stand is a very, very long book set in 1990 — after a super flu (Captain Tripps) has wiped out 99% of the country. We have a small band of survivors who find each other over time as they all try to reach Nebraska, and then Boulder. Each has been dreaming of the same elderly black woman every single night, and feel drawn to her (and each other) as a result. There’s also a small band of people who’ve been drawn to the dark man (Randall Flagg, who has appeared in other King novels in some form or another). This group of people, mostly made up of psychopaths, are trying to make their way to Las Vegas.
King lets us get to know each of the characters slowly over time, and get inside their minds. This is my favorite part of any one of his novels. Same reason I love It so much. He does a fantastic job with character-building and back story. There are definitely some problems with the novel. Even though it was written in the eighties, a lot of the racist and sexist undertones cannot be excused. We don’t have a lot of women in the novel, but of the main ones, we have a pregnant lady (who I love dearly) who spends a lot of time weeping and wailing. Another one who crosses over to the dark side basically acts as a sexual fantasy for 99% of the vook. And there’s our Magical Negro, Mother Abigail. As for racism…there’s this really awful scene towards the beginning, when everything is going bad because of the flu, in which a black man dressed in a loincloth begins executing white soldiers on TV. I listened to that scene driving in my car thinking, “Good Lord King, what on Earth did you think you were doing here??”
But if you can forgive some mis-steps, overall it’s a fantastic story. The Good vs Evil is done in classic King style. It’s hard not to read this book and not continually think of the Dark Tower. There are some truly horrifying moments, not only as people are dying of the flu (which does take up a good portion of the novel) but also as we see how people react in a post-apocalyptic scenario (spoiler: people suck, even when there; 99% less of them). And then there’s the scenes of goodness — people working together to recreate law and order, and to (literally) get the lights back on.
But like I said, the story really takes a back seat to the characters. Stu Redman (a.k.a East Texas). Deaf-mute Nick Andros (love you, Nick!). Glen Bateman (probably my favorite, tbh, even though he ditches Kojak). Larry Underwood (who I think plays a stand-in for King, and I love that we watch him grow over time). Frannie Goldsmith (who gets the giggles). And dear Tom Cullen (M-O-O-N!). Glen Bateman is the only one of them that we don’t get an interior view of, but he talks so much during the course of the novel that I don’t think we really need it. And then on the bad guy’s side we have the Trashcan Man (lunatic arsonist) and Lloyd Henreid (psycho murder) whose collective flashbacks give me nightmares still. And heading the two groups, we had Mother Abigail and the Dark Man.
t’s a fantastic story and clocking in at 1100 pages (or 48 hours) it deserves every minute. I know the book was originally released in a shorter format, and King rereleased it with all of the extras year later, at the demand of his fans. While I have never read the shorter version, I can’t imagine cutting any of it. It’s supposed to be a sprawling epic and it works.
Happy quadruple Cannonball for the second year running! You are unbelievable, and I admire your dedication.
Thank you!! Not sure I’m going to do it again next year. I thinking I’m going to aim at fewer, longer books for 2017. Finally tackle the sequel to Wolf Hall…
Since you’re on track to beating your own record from last year, I doubt anyone will come close to beating you even if you read only massive tomes all of 2017. I think the previous record holder read and reviewed something like 180 books in a year. You’re the undisputed queen of the CBR. :D
I do like to read, it’s true!
Hey, I did 208 last year!
But badkittyuno still whupped my butt.
So you did, I had completely forgotten that, I’m sorry. I blame the gallons of tears I cried earlier because of Carrie Fisher (and this sucky year in general, once I started, I couldn’t seem to stop). Badkittyuno whups all of our butts, but with such style.
CBR7:
badkittyuno – 260
janniethestrange – 230
bonnie – 222
narfna – 208
CBR6:
Travis_J_Smith – 157
Malin – 138
badkittyuno – 131
CBR5:
Travis_J_Smith – 161
Malin – 156
Jen K – 148
CBR4:
Malin – 104
meilufay – 101
CBR3:
Ashley – 156
CBR3, 4, and 5 aren’t nearly complete in the database, but these are the leaders from each year, near as I can tell.
Last year really was crazy for our group output. I’ll be interested to see if we beat it as a group this year or not.
I’m sure you’ve got numbers on that. :)
ingres77 has the numbers on everything! Also, Goodreads claims I only read 130 in 2014 which means I missed a review for that site, or accidentally deleted something, and I have no idea what. This will eventually make me crazy.
You know, I think in the future that Stephen King’s immense body of work will be a great way to track our shifting cultural mores. I was thinking about this yesterday as I was finishing The Drawing of the Three. And I really appreciate how as a writer he’s changed with the times. What a mind that man has.
I can’t believe you hit a quintuple Cannonball.
I 100% agree. I took this awesome class in college that focused on children’s fantasy — the Wizard of Oz, the Narnia books and Harry Potter — and how they represented different schools of thought over a century of writing. I was thinking while reading the Stand that one could easily devote a semester to this man’s works, and how they changed (and changed us) over the decades.
I would SO take that class.
I have a friend that teaches pop culture-ish classes at Middlebury — like how the Wire and Veronica Mars can be used to study the socioeconomics of a specific era. I think a class of teaching King through the years would be just up his alley. And I would be so jealous of all the students who would get to take it.
I would sign up for any class referencing VMars in a heartbeat!
Congrats, congrats, congrats!!! A quintuple Cannonball twice in a row is impressive. I bow to your reading skills!
Thank you!
Happy Cannonball, nerd.
Hey, at least I don’t sneak out of my room to read in the bathtub in the middle of the night with a flashlight anymore.
Mostly.
Of course, now my son does.
I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating: it’s absolutely amazing seeing your output, here. I mean, I can’t fathom reading the number of books you do, but to write reviews for them? By yourself, you’ve accounted for about 8% of our reviews this year. That’s incredible.
Great job! And congratulations!
Thank you! I tend to put the reviews off for a week or so, but this site definitely keeps me motivated to get to them asap.
Quintuple congratulations, they are certainly earned and I look forward to your reviews of epic reads in 2017!
!!!!!
Thank you!
You are so amazing. Congratulations to you!
I’m so intrigued by the number of us who re-read and reviewed The Stand this year…way more than any year I can remember. It is indeed epic and wonderful, even with the cringey 80s parts.
I was actually inspired to move the audiobook up on my TBR list because of your review. I’d been meaning to get it reread for a while, but your review made me feel all nostalgic!