Stephen King

Stephen King is a horror novelist. That's what most people know about him, that's what he's famous for. And though I've read most of his horror novels (I once won an ebay lot of some 40 books of his for like $50 so I've got a lot of Stephen King), my favorite books of his, what keeps me reading him, are his non-horror stories.

What? You ask. Stephen King writes things other than horror?

Why, yes. Yes, he does.

Ever see The Shawshank Redemption, that great movie starring Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman?

Based on a Stephen King novella. Which happens to be one of my favorite pieces of writing that he's ever done. The movie actually stayed remarkably true to the novella, with Morgan Freeman's voice as the voice of the narrating character, Red (who was named that b/c he was a redhead in the novella), preserving the tone and sense of character and underlying heart of the story.

My absolute favorite Stephen King book is The Dead Zone, without a doubt. In this case, forget the movie, forget the TV show. The movie was faithful to the book, the TV show is decidedly not, but neither, IMO, captured the character of Johnny Smith. The regular, likable guy blessed..or cursed..by precognitive powers, who tries to just live his life and leave others alone but finds himself drawn by circumstance, or destiny, or something into unavoidable tragedy. I really like the character of Johnny Smith, and I find myself really feeling for him, and really hit poignantly by the last chapter of the book. The reason I dismiss the movie is Christopher Walken, no matter how hard he tries, is as far from my image of a normal, regular guy as can be, so I just can't believe him in the role. Anthony Michael Hall does the regular guy with the sense of humor better, but the show is completely divergent from the book and I watch it as a completely different story an set of characters.

In both stories, it's the simple language, the richly drawn characters, the *heart* that really draws me in. I care about these people. And it's Stephen King's writing that makes me care.

The thing is, the use of language, the characterization, the descriptions, the writing..it's all there in his other novels. I think it's why he's so popular over all those other horror writers out there. But I like it best when it's unadorned by the horror trappings, when he's just writing about ordinary life and people living their lives.

Though, Stephen King has also written a number of novels I'd label as more fantasy than horror, which I've also enjoyed (though he's more graphic and gross than any fantasy writer at times). Eyes of the Dragon, the whole Dark Tower series...The Talisman and its sequel Black House...