Stephen King is pretty much the Steven Spielberg of
the literary landscape. Arguably, there’s never been any other writer who’s
been as successful as he is. His constant output of work, which has culminated
in more than sixty published books during his career, is filled with many, many
classics. The Shining, The Stand, Misery, Under the Dome,
the list goes on. His books have sold over 400 million copies, which is even
more impressive considering that he’s worked predominantly in the horror genre,
a genre often ridiculed. And yet, things weren’t always like that.
Before
becoming a published author, King had a pretty rough lifestyle. When he
graduated college, he got a job as a teacher. However, in order to sustain his
wife and children, he got a second job at a laundry. Despite his two jobs and
the fact that his wife was also a college graduate, he was pretty much
penniless. Until one day, he published his very first book, Carrie.
Carrie is the cornerstone of the Stephen King legend. The
book was a bestseller and was shortly adapted into a feature film. Seeing great
potential in the literary business, King went on to write other books, like ‘Salem’s Lot and The Shining, which also became bestsellers. However, after all
these years, does Carrie still hold
up?
To
begin, Carrie is about a teenage girl
who leads a miserable, depressing life. All her classmates constantly bully her
at school; she doesn’t have a single friend in the world. Things aren’t any
better at home. Her mother is a religious fanatic who sees evil in pretty much everything.
She regularly looks her daughter in the closet to punish her for even thinking
about boys or a social lifestyle. One day, Carrie has her first period, an
event that causes enough stress to become fully aware of a terrifying fact:
she’s telekinetic.
First
off, considering that Carrie is a
horror novel, it needs to be said that, well, it’s just not that scary. Sure,
maybe back in the 70’s when it was first published it was scary, but someone
reading it today will be surprised to see that there aren’t many horror set
pieces in the novel. However, it is disturbing, perhaps even creepy. This is a
depressing, depressing story. Carrie is pretty much the most miserable teenage
girl one could possibly think of. And while things seem a little brighter when
nearing the end, there really is no happy ending. There are only three
characters throughout the novel who show any care and love towards her, but any
small act of compassion they exhibit comes biting them back.
The
novel’s greatest strength is, perhaps, its structure. The novel is told through
a third-person perspective, but intercutting all the real-time scenes are
little excerpts from books, newspapers, and eyewitness accounts detailing the
life of Carrie White and the horrible events that happen at the book’s climax. It’s
a really creative way to tell this otherwise simple story. It really gives
what’s pretty much a high school drama/horror novel a much grander scope. Some
of the accounts are downright creepy and the book and newspaper excerpts make
an otherwise otherworldly story of telekinesis a little more palpable.
However,
there were a few times where these second-hand excerpts weren’t used to their
full advantage. The first example is how King decides to reveal Carrie’s
telekinetic powers. In the very first page of the book, during one of the real-time
scenes, King tells us that Carrie is telekinetic. No questions asked. During
the following couple of pages, we’re shown, during the real-time scenes,
strange things happening around Carrie, as well as book excerpts that detail
some of the intricacies of telekinesis. It would have been a much more clever
way to reveal to us Carrie’s powers through intuition by using these scenes and
book excerpts. But no, King instead flat out told us she’s telekinetic in the
very beginning of the book. Show, don’t tell.
The
second example would be the climax of the book. Initially, we’re told about the
horrible events that befell Carrie White through eyewitness accounts. That is
just brilliant. It makes it all the more creepy for us to imagine the events
that happened through the eyes of terrified, confused individuals. However,
King later on narrates some of these same exact occurrences by writing
real-time scenes written in third-person perspective, showing us Carrie’s point
of view. First of all, we already pictured these scenes in our heads through
the eyewitness accounts, and second of all, it’s just much more effective when
we picture these images through the victims’ point of view. These scenes are
just ineffective and completely pointless.
In
conclusion, despite some faults, Carrie
is still a very solid novel. It still feels unique, and that’s a huge
achievement considering that this was King’s first book.
Rating: 3.5
out of 5 Stars
