Commentary on NEEDFUL THINGS, by Stephen King

[Dan'l DanehyOakes]

NEEDFUL THINGS, by Stephen King
Review Copyright (c) 1991 Dan'l Danehy-Oakes

Reviewing a new Stephen King book is something of an exercise in
pointlessness; most people know long before it comes out whether they're
going to snatch it off the rack, borrow it from the library, wait for the
paperback, or make snide comments about those who read such trash.

On the other hand, this frees me from the responsibility to recommend or
disrecommend the book. I can just sit back and talk to you about it a
little. This, then, is not a review, but an informal essay, intended for
the consumption of die-hard King fans. In fact, it should probably not be
read until after you've read the book yourself.

As you may guess, I fall into the first category above, though in my saner
moments I wonder why. King's collected works have cost me something like
five hundred smackers over the years, and given that he's still pretty
young, still incredibly prolific, and books (especially books by brand-name
authors) get more expensive every time you turn around, I think it's safe to
suspect that that number will someday reach the middle four figures.

Which is probably scarier than anything in his new book, NEEDFUL THINGS.

That's not a put-down; NEEDFUL THINGS isn't so much a horror novel as a
perfect example you can point to when somebody asks "what's dark fantasy:" a
contemporary fantasy novel that isn't quite what most folks think of as
horror, but has some pretty bad shit happening.

In this case, the bad shit is the destruction of King's well-explored little
community of Castle Rock. He's been setting stories and parts of stories in
"The Rock" since THE DEAD ZONE in the late '70s, and it's probably the best
example of one of King's strengths: the creation of a complex and pretty
real-feeling small-town environment, complete with its people, history,
geography, etc. Characters familiar from several of his past stories
(notably "The Body" and THE DARK HALF) make appearances ranging from cameos
on up. Most of them are dead by the time the story's over.

For this is, as the subtitle says, "The Last Castle Rock Story." King
revels in destruction. He's destroyed towns several times before, going
right back to his first novel, CARRIE, right through the more recent IT and
THE TOMMYKNOCKERS. He's even destroyed the world, or most of it, in stories
like "The Mist" and THE STAND.

But never, I think, has he focussed directly on the destruction itself.
Always the focus was on something else -- Carrie's psychology, the monster
in IT, the numinous weirdness in THE TOMMYKNOCKERS and "The Mist," the clash
of good and evil in THE STAND. NEEDFUL THINGS has a monster, numinous
weirdness, clashes of good and evil, and even a little psychology (though
mostly of the mob variety), but they're part of the backdrop, just as the
destruction of Derry was backdrop for the monster in IT.

Castle Rock is invaded by... a shopkeeper. Not just any shopkeeper; he's
the devil himself, selling wonderful things, things you _must_ have...
things you need. Thus the store's name, "Needful Things." And Mr Gaunt (as
he calls himself) sells them incredibly cheaply: a small amount of cash, and
a deed. A harmless practical joke.

The correct person is never blamed for the jokes, for they're designed to
suggest third parties. Old feuds, hatreds, resentments are touched off.
Jokes lead to violence; the good citizens of Castle Rock go right off the
deep end.

If this plot sounds familiar, it should. It's Twain's Mysterious Stranger
writ large -- writ, indeed, with a positive elephantiasis. Twain's work,
further, is undoubtedly the greater; it's the last true masterpiece of one
of America's few true great writers. Twain's exposure of the dark side of
an American town simply makes everything King has ever written on the
subject look tawdry by comparison.

If NEEDFUL THINGS were no more than a retelling of "The Mysterious
Stranger," then, it would be more than a piece of trash. It would be an
atrocity.

Fortunately, King does add a few features of his own -- besides, I mean, the
obligatory gore and the explicitly supernatural nature of Mr. Gaunt. Most
important, I think, is his focus on the individual characters of Castle Rock.
The town the Mysterious Stranger devastates is somewhat abstract; he deals
with its citizens almost statistically.

King describes the collapse of Castle Rock from the points of view of
individual citizens rather than that of a historian. We know what makes
many of them fall for Gaunt's blandishments; we see many of the individual
practical jokes played, see why the perpetrators perform them, see how they
affect the victims. While none of the characterization is tremendously
deep, it's all at least believable. Even Ace Merrill, while we never like
him, comes at last to be someone we understand, and even pity a little.

Genre horror novels in general, and King's in particular, are often attacked
for a simplistic morality. I'd like to suggest that this simply is not the
case. While these novels often feature an external and objective Bad Thing,
that is neither the extent nor the measure of evil, and is certainly not the
source of evil on which everything else can be blamed. Not in a well-done
horror novel, at any rate.

Similarly, the "heroes" of such novels are not, generally, white-hats with
no moral flaws. They're subject to temptation, to moral choice. King's
novels in particular generally turn on some point of moral choice. This
theme has been present from the beginning; it first appears in explicit form
as the priest in SALEM'S LOT, who faces down the chief vampire by force of
faith, and loses his soul by breaking his word given to the vampire.

NEEDFUL THINGS is full of such choices. As Mr. Gaunt says, he doesn't make
anyone do anything. "I show people what I have to sell. . . and let them
make up their own minds." The true horror of NEEDFUL THINGS is that so many
of them choose to deal with the devil, and for such pittances.

Ironically, that leads me to think: when King's next book comes out, maybe
I'll think harder before deciding that I need to have it right away.

%A Stephen King
%C New York, NY
%D October 1991
%G 0-670-83953-1
%I Viking Books
%T Needful Things