Actually, I finished The Dead Zone a couple of weeks ago, but haven't had time to sit and write about it since then. Maybe a week ago. Time is passing at a bizarre rate.
Anyway: The Dead Zone. Man with psychic abilities falls into a coma and develops far more refined psychic abilities. Even more amazing is the fact that Stephen King psychically predicts the coming of the Tea Party, except that he calls them the America Now Party--which could very well be the name of the Tea Party. Check this out:
"The America Now party wanted bad trouble for big-time dopers, they wanted the cities to have to sink or swim on their own...they wanted a crackdown on welfare benefits to whores, pimps, bums, and people with a felony busy on their records, they wanted sweeping tax reforms to be paid for by sweeping social services cutbacks." (352 of the 1980 paperback edition).
*shudder*
This novel is an overtly political one, posing the question of what one man can do to stop what he sees as evil. The answer is that he should do something, although the actual result of his actions are not clear. The main character, Johnny Smith, wants to assassinate Greg Stillson, a politician whom he foresees as capable of launching nuclear war. He is unsuccessful in his attempt, but a picture is taken of Stillson trying to protect himself with a baby from the crowd. This photo, it is assumed, tanks his political career. This I found implausible. After all, politicians have shown themselves to be remarkable adept at reviving purportedly dead careers. Stephen King knows this. One word: Nixon (not that Nixon ever used a baby for protection, but his career was thought to be over on more than one occasion).
However, I found this aspect of the novel to be less engaging than the depiction of a man who loses years in a coma. The start of this book talks about the intersection between various characters and the relationships that develop. It made me think about the fact that relationships can actually be understood as narratives: shared narratives created between people and the narratives that they share from earlier in their lives to better understand each other. As Johnny is in the coma, the lives of those around him continue, of course, although they begin to take different trajectories. His girlfriend at the time marries another man. His mother becomes more obsessed with irrational religious movements. His father observes all of this, unable to know what to do. He wants his son to die so that they can go on with their lives, almost as though he recognizes that a part of their lives is stuck and unable to proceed. However, he is grateful when Johnny wakes up from the coma. I found the first part of this book to be far more touching than many Stephen King novels, with much thought to how we understand those around us.
SPOILER ALERT: It turns out that Johnny has a brain tumor, which reminded of The Dark Half for some reason. Considering that I have not read The Dark Half since the late 1980s, that is saying something for the staying power of the visual images I got from that book. I can't quite figure out the exact similarity, but I'm sure that it will be clearer once I reread it!
Firestarter is requested from the library and the next one up.
