I like three of the four stories in here. Enough so that I remembered them and like to re-read them. I could not, for the life of me, remember what happened in Roadwork, even while I was reading it. I kept slipping to the thought that it was his story about a guy who buries his wife's killer by digging a pit in the highway and tricking the car into driving into it. That story I liked. Roadwork, not so much. The interesting thing about these stories is how predictive they are. When these were written school shootings were unheard of and reality tv was embryonic.

Found these two 1st editions at my local thrift shop today-- $1 each. Cujo is a 4th printing; The Bachman Books is a 5th printing. Happy happy Cody. :) 

Rage is a slimy little book that comes to us from the bottom of some dank pond in fairyland. It's about a maladjusted high school kid who takes his Algebra class hostage in order to give his classmates a crash course in puerile psychology. Written by a future best-selling novelist, the kids all talk not like high school seniors but like future Stephen Kings. If this is an honest book, as King claims, it's a little scary how divorced from reality the man was even before he'd gone whole hog on drugs. Honest or not, the book is so light on truth that it practically floats. It belongs in the sewers with Pennywise.

Which, more or less, is evidently where it is these days. King and his publishers allowed it go out of print after several disturbed kids attempted to recreate the plot in real life. And why wouldn't they? It's little more than one of those daytime wet dreams that incessantly bedevil and bewitch teenagers, the ones in which the other kids (the ones you secretly like but who don't like you) rally behind your quest to make adults and jocks pay for being more powerful or successful than you are. Oh, yeah, King gets that part right. But that's about as impressive a feat as Deep Throat giving you a hard on.

After Charlie Decker takes over, his classmates become willing participants in his ridiculously unbelievable psychotherapy group. Charlie's father, you see, never loved him. That's about it. Once he knocked the wind out of Charlie and once Charlie overhead him telling his drunk buddies what he'd do if he ever caught Charlie's mom cheating, but mostly old Dad just doesn't care for Charlie. That's probably because Mom is a castrating bitch and Charlie is a constant reminder that Dad isn't getting any anymore, but that's neither here nor there. Charlie's dad is a Bad Guy and it's his fault Charlie becomes a murderer.

Having opened the floodgates of repressed feeling and emotion, the other students chip in with their own horror stories. Fat guy with overprotective mom, fat girl who gets no dates, and so on. (The reader must be careful not to implode under the pressure of such psychological depth.) It's all ostensibly leading to one guy, the jock who isn't the All-American he appears to be. However, since his story is no less superficial than all the others, King goes all Lord of the Flies on him to try to generate some excitement. He fails.

A truly miserable book, one that purports to reveal the humanity of its characters, but which instead celebrates only hate and violence.

Originally posted here."I'm sorry for you, Charlie."Today's title is something Susan Brooks says to our protagonist (?) Charlie Decker towards the end of Richard Bachman/Stephen King's Rage.That one little line of dialogue does an incredibly accurate job of summing up my feelings for this book.  I felt/feel sorry for Charlie.Charlie, whose father is just an asshole.  Charlie, whose mother is...not entirely there.  Charlie, who has a best friend I spend each re-read wondering if he's entirely real, or just a coping mechanism for Charlie.  That last sentence probably doesn't make much sense outside of my head, but trust me - if you were in here, you'd get it.Anyway, as most of you probably know - Rage isn't in print anymore (go read Heather's post about it where she talks about why), and while I can't say that I agree with the decision to pull this book, I can understand it.Violence in schools is a rather sticky subject, and if Unky Steve was concerned about the teen shooters using this as a sort of rallying cry, I don't blame him for having it pulled.My problem with this book not being available anymore is that this is really another example of King showing that he knows EXACTLY what it's like to be a teenager.  I know he started writing it when he was young, and it was still published when he was relatively young, but the voice he gives to his younger characters rings just as true now as it did then.Being a teenager sucks.  There's not really any way to argue that.  Being a misunderstood, unpopular teenager is even worse.  I think the hardest part for me when reading this was that I can totally understand what pushed Charlie to the point where he felt his only recourse was violence.  Don't get me wrong, I never would have taken a gun to school, or beat a teacher within an inch of his life, but that's probably because it wasn't the establishment that I had my issues with.This is all making me sound highly unstable, and that's not my point.  My point is that while this is not a choice I would have made for myself, I can kind of understand how one would get to the point of making such a decision.  This is why it's so imperative that we make sure our children know they have a safe place to vent, to get out their rage against this unjust teenage hell they're trapped in for what seems like an eternity....I don't know.  I've kind of already forgotten where I was going with this.I think this is one of those books that some people will love, some people will despise because they can't see past the violence, and that others will hate because it takes them back to being that outcast 16 year old they were years ago.  I fall into that final category, if you were wondering.  I love this book, but I hate it at the same time.  I don't like being 16 again.

I read Rage and The Long Walk. Very violent and depressing. I didn't care for them. They were well-written but as any who know me, I don't do depressing pleasure reading. I'm glad that King's style has changed.