Krishna
We have reviewed several books by this gifted author earlier. Please refer to Christine, Carrie or Desperation.
To be fair this was not written in his name, and was originally published under the pseudonym he had adopted for some early works and so the author of this book is Richard Bachman. But when Stephen King’s name became very big, commercial instincts prompted the publishers to republish all those books again in the name of Stephen King to drive up sales.
Also, the three examples given are among the best from the author, and so it is not a huge surprise that this lesser known work does not measure quite up to those standards.
Dave Albert, a reporter, meets a cynical man at a political meeting where a governor was to speak. He meets him again seventeen years later. (They do not recognize each other at the later event). The second meeting proves to be pivotal.
Now Bart goes and buys a small gun and a big rifle “as a present for his brother Fred” from a gun shop and pays with his Amex card. His wife is Mary. He is very upset about having been forced to vacate his house for a ‘public goods’ seizure by the government for building a new road.
Bart owns a laundry and goes about his task, watching the highway taking shape in front of his shop. When his boss asks him why he is not closing the deal to move to an alternate building, he gives a series of reasons that shocks the man. His mind creates two personalities, George and Fred who counsel him constantly.
He is pigheaded enough to lie about the deal he should have made to move his workplace and knows he will lose his job if he does not correct it. His wife thinks he is actively scouting for an alternate accommodation when he is doing nothing of the sort. You feel a growing foreboding on how he blithely carries on believing that, since he does not want to move, the crisis will somehow be averted.
When a delivery driver is killed in an accident, Bart knows his time is up, especially since he let the deal to move his office lapse deliberately and would be found out. He decides to resign. He is also deceiving his loving wife who believes he is actively looking for an alternate place to live.
She finds out about his job loss and leaves him. He goes to seed, drinking and pleading often for her to come back – but in vain.
One day he picks up a hitchhiker and offers her his house to stay – no sex needed, when he discovers that she is stuck for a place for the night. She makes him think about the suicidal course he is taking with his life and then leaves in the morning to go to Los Vegas, as was her plan anyways.
He meets Vince at a fair close to Christmas and has a fight with him – gets punched in the face for his efforts to make Vince see how they are using him.
He also watches the laundry being torn down and manages to shout at Mary at a ‘reconciliation lunch’. His life seems to be rapidly heading downhill.
He blows up the machinery one snowy night and is shocked to hear that the highway would be delayed by a month in spite of all the losses.
This story is about a man railing against the government and it keeps moving in a bleak direction. It is not taut, and even though you sympathize with a man who self destructs almost wilfully, you cannot bring yourself to like him or sympathize with him.
He keeps doing stupid things. His wife persuades him to go to a party but just before entering the hall he takes a potent hallucinatory drug and makes an idiot of himself. He is totally livid when he finds out that the highway will resume even faster with other equipment being moved in!
Just goes on and on in this vein. He totally insults the lawyer who has come to remind him that the deadline for him to vacate is nearing.
He finally seems to snap. He collects money by giving away the house and clearing his bank account. He buys an explosive that is far more potent than dynamite and he tries to give much of his cash to a good natured priest who is helping the poor. Sensing that he is about to do something drastic, the priest advises him to stop.
But Bart thinks it is now too late to repent and he wants to do out in a blaze of glory.
The last, say, twenty pages are very tight and gripping.
All in all a moderate read, not without its interesting moments, but does not have the artistry of the author’s later works, in my opinion.
5/10
= = Krishna