This Has To Be Said About This Book...

Bobby Grey said:

The greatest and most powerful aspect of this great book to me is the way Jack struggles with his inner demons even long before they even arrive at the Overlook.

Spoiler

(With inner demons I don't mean the ghosts at the hotel but rather his alcohol-addiction along with his short fuse and bad temper).

This is the part I can truly relate to: The way Jack is constantly worried about being a disappointment as a father, to be a let-down in the eyes of his son. Stephen King f'ing nails it with that part! I think alot of fathers (and mothers too of course) feels this way. Jack is not a perfect dad (who is?) but his heart is in the right place, he loves his fam and he's trying to be a good dad.
Then the Overlook gets hold of him and the rest is history. And this is what the Kubrick movie completely missed out on. In the movie Jack is an evil prick from the start(ish)

To me, I LOVE the first part of the book, the rest is just delicious gravy!

Im sorry If im spamming the board btw, it's just my 2nd. day here and i've already started 3 different threads, my bad.

Peace!

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Great post!

Bobby Grey said:

The greatest and most powerful aspect of this great book to me is the way Jack struggles with his inner demons even long before they even arrive at the Overlook.

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Welcome!

I watched part 1 of the TV movie again last night, then started watching the commentary, and Steven Weber said something very similar to that--how he loved the character because he is such a normal guy, trying so hard to battle his addiction demons right from the start. He said that even if alcohol isn't one's particular poison, most people have dealt with some sort of addiction and thus can relate to Jack at some level. I've had the DVD forever and never watched the commentary before--now I can't wait to finish it!

I loved this movie. Hope one day there will be a movie to Dr. Sleep as well.

...ummm, gravy.....

This is one of his very best books. Welcome to the board!

Bobby Grey said:

The greatest and most powerful aspect of this great book to me is the way Jack struggles with his inner demons even long before they even arrive at the Overlook.

Spoiler

(With inner demons I don't mean the ghosts at the hotel but rather his alcohol-addiction along with his short fuse and bad temper).

This is the part I can truly relate to: The way Jack is constantly worried about being a disappointment as a father, to be a let-down in the eyes of his son. Stephen King f'ing nails it with that part! I think alot of fathers (and mothers too of course) feels this way. Jack is not a perfect dad (who is?) but his heart is in the right place, he loves his fam and he's trying to be a good dad.
Then the Overlook gets hold of him and the rest is history. And this is what the Kubrick movie completely missed out on. In the movie Jack is an evil prick from the start(ish)

To me, I LOVE the first part of the book, the rest is just delicious gravy!

Im sorry If im spamming the board btw, it's just my 2nd. day here and i've already started 3 different threads, my bad.

Peace!

Click to expand...

Welcome to the board Bobby, and I like the screen name! I totally agree . . . that is the very thing the movie was missing.

Welcome to the board - great post! I agree totally, that's a big reason I don't like the movie!

A late welcome to the board.
I also love this book, it was my first SK experience, and I have been hooked ever since.

After reading the stories from Everything's Eventual I picked this book up as my first King novel. I absolutely loved it! By far the best book I have ever read. Just wondering, since I liked this book so much, what would you guys recommend as the next book in my King readings? Any input is greatly appreciated!

Macky said:

After reading the stories from Everything's Eventual I picked this book up as my first King novel. I absolutely loved it! By far the best book I have ever read. Just wondering, since I liked this book so much, what would you guys recommend as the next book in my King readings? Any input is greatly appreciated!

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The logical choice after "The Shining" would be "Dr. Sleep" since that is the sequel, but I didn't think Dr. S added much to the story or lived up to the Shining. I would recommend "Salem's Lot" or "The Dead Zone." Both great books. The Dead Zone is a greatly underrated book in my opinion.

Bobby Grey said:

The greatest and most powerful aspect of this great book to me is the way Jack struggles with his inner demons even long before they even arrive at the Overlook.

Spoiler

(With inner demons I don't mean the ghosts at the hotel but rather his alcohol-addiction along with his short fuse and bad temper).

This is the part I can truly relate to: The way Jack is constantly worried about being a disappointment as a father, to be a let-down in the eyes of his son. Stephen King f'ing nails it with that part! I think alot of fathers (and mothers too of course) feels this way. Jack is not a perfect dad (who is?) but his heart is in the right place, he loves his fam and he's trying to be a good dad.
Then the Overlook gets hold of him and the rest is history. And this is what the Kubrick movie completely missed out on. In the movie Jack is an evil prick from the start(ish)

To me, I LOVE the first part of the book, the rest is just delicious gravy!

Im sorry If im spamming the board btw, it's just my 2nd. day here and i've already started 3 different threads, my bad.

Peace!

Click to expand...

I agree Bobby, and I think that Jack's struggle with alcoholism was essential because in that way it was easier for him to become 'nourishment' for all the other energies at the Overlook. I don't want to say that he was weak and therefore a target but rather that all his troubles broke him down and in that way he was easier to manipulate. The entire family unit had their individual struggles.... Jack's alcoholism and his inabilities to truly manifest his writing, Wendy's submissiveness and fear of Jack, Danny's childhood being over-shadowed by his parents drama and then in turn depending on Tony to support him. It's all a brilliant blend and yet a painful truth of the family on a whole and how they became the Overlooks victims.

Macky said:

After reading the stories from Everything's Eventual I picked this book up as my first King novel. I absolutely loved it! By far the best book I have ever read. Just wondering, since I liked this book so much, what would you guys recommend as the next book in my King readings? Any input is greatly appreciated!

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Welcome @Macky I would say pretty much any of his books. I liked Hearts in Atlantis quite a bit, 11/22/63, From a Buick 8 just to name a few

Thanks so much for the feedback guys! I was kind of thinking Salem's Lot or Pet Semetary next. I will look into them all though! Thanks again!

I agree with the basic premise. Jack's got a problem from the start. It's not an uncommon one. It's, in fact, the most common one people have. The inability to face the truth about themselves. We all have it in varying degrees and it's extremely difficult to overcome. "Know thyself" is as old as Plato (or older for all we know), so man has been trying to face his inner demons, or "dark half" if you prefer, since recorded history. Cain had the same problem Jack has. It was Abel's fault that Cain's sacrifice was rejected. Not Cain's. Cain gave of his best. Somehow Abel had cheated him out of his due. So Abel had to die. Jack, similarly, is just a passive guy that things happen to. He's not responsible for his anger or controlling it or his struggle with alcohol. They're just things that happen to him. He's actually a nice guy. "The heart is deceitful, and desperately wicked, who can know it?" Jack's is clearly both: it deceives him by deflecting responsibility and it is desperate for things he knows full well are wicked.

It was Jack's great misfortune to have this weakness so well-developed in a place where external forces of overwhelming evil could latch on to it and use it to carry out its own desire for wickedness. His flaw is the open door the Overlook's other tenants can walk through to play their games.

I wonder if we have any idea of the personal courage it takes to write a book like this. Every book displays the author for all to see, no matter how hard they try to hide it (as manifested in this book by the play Jack is writing). I don't know King's history well, but I'll say this: he clearly is one who has looked in a mirror, owned what he is, and owned how he's tried to hide what he is from himself, which is easily the hardest step. Good for him. Bad for Jack though. Because he doesn't take that final step.

Kelly

krwhiting said:

...I don't know King's history well, but I'll say this: he clearly is one who has looked in a mirror, owned what he is, and owned how he's tried to hide what he is from himself, which is easily the hardest step. Good for him. Bad for Jack though. Because he doesn't take that final step...

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I think that's the story in a nutshell: Torrance chose his weakness instead of to fight it.