This is an interesting reread for me because I have distinct memories of getting this audiobook as a kid and listening to it on a car trip. It was on audio cassette and I was horrified by it, because like some percentage of Stephen King novels, this one more or less is not supernatural, but still awful. I also distinctly thinking (and this would have been maybe 1993-94) that this book represented a much much older time period than it actually does. It takes place […]
A short little homage to Richard Matheson
Elevation has been reviewed here at least once already, but I’ll give you a brief summary. Which will be easy, as it’s a rather brief book. “Hands on a clock, numbers on a bathroom scale, weren’t they only ways of trying to measure invisible forces that had visible effects?” Scott Carey lives in King’s well known little town of Castle Rock. He’s recently divorced, living alone with his cat, and has noticed something strange. He’s losing weight. Pretty steadily, in fact, and for no reason […]
Perhaps nothing is certain in this world, but at least we can believe in something.
Killing Commendatore (4 stars) There were parts of this book that brought me back to my favorite parts of 1Q84, but this book doesn’t equal that one in terms of quality, spirit, or impact. Which doesn’t make this a bad book – by any measure – but I don’t think it’s amongst Murakami’s greatest works. The protagonist of this book is unnamed. He’s an artist who’s fallen into portrait painting to make a living. His wife abruptly tells him that she wants a divorce, and […]
“Not a wind, not even a high, exactly, but an elevation. A sense that you had gone beyond yourself and could go farther still.”
The latest “book” from Uncle Stevie leaves me a little confused, but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Elevation is a short book, shorter than many of the “short stories” that King has famously published over the years — definitely shorter than The Mist, or Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption, or The Running Man. I’m not quite sure why this was released as a stand-alone novel. I think it would be better suited as the featured story in a new collection. But I’m not […]