Platt Discovery Cottage

Under the Dome

February 2nd, 2010

It has been a very long time since I’ve read a Stephen King book.  I started reading him when I was 11.  I remember once sitting on the kitchen floor at my grandparent’s house reading a King novel with my mother and uncle arguing over the suitableness of such reading material at such a young age.  My uncle (childless) was appalled and my mother was just glad I was reading.  It did no harm in retrospect, however I’m not sure how I would feel about Fuss reading Stephen King when he’s 11.  We’ll cross that bridge if we have to…

Anyway, every Christmas it seemed I would get a new first edition Stephen King and I just loved his books growing up.  So much so that my father went out of his way to meet up with him on various business trips and get my firsts signed.  These are very precious to me mostly for the effort my dad went through.

Once I got older and moved out of my parent’s house I found that I was too freaked out by King’s stories so I stopped reading.  For some reason, his newest intrigued me.  Then my friend bought it and brought it straight to my house from the store.  I felt obligated to read it as I consider it an honour to be loaned a book before the owner even reads it! 

It is over 1000 pages, so it took me about 6 weeks.  I had other reading obligations to attend to, so I would put it down for a couple of weeks, pick it up again, put it back down, etc.,  I wish I could have just dedicated the time initially as it’s a really fast read.

I would highly recommend this book.  There is nothing scary to it.  It’s more of a study of modern society.  I suppose looking at modern society through a magnifying glass is horrifying in itself.  No monsters needed.

I read a review comparing Stephen King to Charles Dickens.  My literary-snob side said “pshaw!”. 

She was right.  Charles Dickens wrote in such a way that we can look back through his writing and see society at that time.  That is what Stephen King has done with Under the Dome.  This book could be put in a time capsule and enough said.  Hundreds of years from now it would be unearthed and the historians would see us for what we were. 

The writing at times was a bit contrived, but that’s normal for a King novel.  Whole pages for conversation would be constructed just to highlight some cheesy line such as “leggo my eggo’.  ~roll eyes~

I do think that King has lost his edge.  Nothing kept me on the edge of my seat and I wouldn’t even call this a page turner.  But there is just enough King there to entice me to read his next book.  Which, if history repeats itself, will not been too far away!

Enjoying the journey,  Amanda

Entry Filed under: This N That