The Stand
I’m skipping over the many books I want to write about because I have a good reason to write about an older one. Nemira, one of the biggest publishing houses in Romania and the people who fed my teenage love of SF&F (black is still the color I associate with spec fic because of their SF collection) is having a contest. Write a review of one of their books and win another book. Free books!
I was thinking of reading a new book but the only available ones were too big. I have Lisey’s Story but I already read it and I’m not so eager to re-read just now, and I could borrow one of the Dozois anthologies from my boyfriend but damn, it’s big! So I’ll resort to talking about a favorite of mine: Stephen King’s The Stand.
Let’s start with the bad. The translated title is Apocalipsa (obviously, The Apocalypse), which sounds worse than the original. However, I see the point: there’s no direct equivalent of “making a stand” in Romanian. Then: hooow did you manage to make a normal(ish) sized book into two volumes of large paperback?! My English version was a normal paperback, just thicker…
But if you ignore that… oh boy. This must be one of the first post-apocalyptic books I read, so one of the books that made me love the genre. Back then I was trying to read all the books connected to The Dark Tower prior to reading the series, and my friend/Stephen King advisor had told me that: a) the book rocks; b) the characters in Dark Tower pass through the world. What I wasn’t expecting was to be hooked so fast.
In short, for those who haven’t read it: lethal flu virus escapes (the superflu or Captain Trips, as it’s nicknamed); 99% of the population of the States dies. Survivors start having visions and they gather in Colorado Springs (the good) and Vegas (the bad). And then there’s King’s supervilain, Mr. R.F., Randall Flagg in this incarnation. Mr. Smiley Face.
I read the book 2 times (once in English, once in Romanian) and my favorite part is still the first, the bit where civilization collapses piece by piece. Man runs from facility, infects some dudes at a gas station, they get taken in for tests, nurse get sick, infects a couple more people on her way home… all spreading exponentially.
And people dying. Slow or fast. Some knowing what’s happening, most not. Some go crazy in the process. Public executions. A radio DJ doing his last show.
The survivors maybe have it even worse: they have to witness it all. Bury their families.
One of my favorite lines is the book pretty much sums it up:
Graffito written on the front of the First Baptist Church of Atlanta in red spray paint:
“Dear Jesus. I will see you soon. Your friend, America. PS. I hope you will still have some vacancies by the end of the week.”
It’s all over in two weeks or so. An empty America is fascinating, in a sick way.
King knows how to do his characters. You get scared of their madness, or loathe their evil nature. You get attached to them, you root for them, you cry if they die and you’re happy when they get out of a tight spot. The bastard managed to trick me into thinking a favorite character would die! I don’t usually fall for this.
You’ve got Fran, teenage and pregnant.
Harold, even younger, with (former) low esteem and a bit of a mental problem.
Stu is just a good-old country guy - at least that’s what he looks like.
And Nick, the deaf-mute boy.
Or Lloyd, a petty thief and occasional murderer.
Trashcan Man, the pyro.
One-hit-wonder rock star Larry.
A sociologist and his dog.
The weird Nadine
And Mother Abigail and Randall Flagg, of course.
After you get to love or hate the characters, you start waiting for that moment they will meet. Mentally yelling at them to hurry or to notice the clues. Then you want them to reach their destination. Then to beat their foe. Then for life to restart…
And while you’re doing all this, you’re too busy to do anything else. I took the book with me on the bus (even though it was larger than my usual bus-books). I kept it under my desk at work and read. I gave up hiding and read in plain view. I read instead of studying. And it’s got ~1600 pages in the American paperback edition… I ignored the world for quite a while, but I couldn’t pull myself from it.
Not to get all fangirly, there’s parts I didn’t like, too, the most important being the end: come on, we’ve come all this way and *poof!*, problem solved?!
(Of course, Mr. R.F. will come back to haunt us in other stories and worlds…)
But why is it so gripping? Well, I think it’s because (except for the supernatural parts), all this is perfectly possible. I’m sure biological weapons are in the possesion of more than one government, and nothing is fail-proof. There’s no way we could stop a disease like this spreading. Exploring the possibility is scary, but at least less scary than actually living it… I get my thrills from dead trees :)
Not much of a review, I admit. It’s difficult to write something objective about something I love, and I’m not good at reviews anyway. But, bottom line, if you like post-apocalyptic stuff, this is a must.
Oh yeah, and the miniseries is quite good as SK movies go.
And now I’m supposed to decide on a book (well, in a month, but still) and I’m tempted to ask for… The Stand. It doesn’t make much sense to not own one of my favorite books ever, but I read borrowed copies both times.
Written for www.nemira.ro
“Scrie ca sa primesti…o carte”
