I'm about a quarter of the way into Revival, and I'm wishing I had a nifty magical stopwatch that could freeze time, like something out of The Twilight Zone, so that I could hunker down and just finish this thing without having to worry about extraneous nonsense like feeding myself, going to the bathroom, and spending time with family and friends.
Of course, if such a device actually existed, there would no doubt be a price--isn't there always? I'd freeze time and lie in bed, burrowing deeper and deeper into the book, and then I'd start to see movement out of the corner of my eyes, and of course it would be the darting forms of the creatures that live between seconds--I think they call themselves Inbetweeners--and they'd get closer and closer, until everything got all blurry and weird, and I found that I could no longer unfreeze time, and that I myself had become an Inbetweener.
So maybe I should just enjoy Revival at a normal pace that doesn't infringe upon the firmly established rules of reality.
So far, soooo good. Reflective King is my favorite King. I thoroughly enjoyed Mr. Mercedes (there were times when King managed to thoroughly and authentically transform his voice into something entirely new), but Revival is functioning upon a different level. Mercedes is solid, but it's simply a story--one in which King is mining his experience as a reader of crime fiction. Revival isn't coming from a place of pastiche/inspiration--it's coming from the heart. Like The Body, It, and Hearts in Atlantis, Revival is rooted in King's own childhood, and like those books, it sings.
I'll reserve judgement until I'm finished reading it, of course, but right now, it seems to me like this might be one of the monumental ones. As a Constant Reader for most of my 39 years on this deranged planet, I find myself a little giddy over how damned good this book is so far...
Now, where's that stopwatch...
Of course, if such a device actually existed, there would no doubt be a price--isn't there always? I'd freeze time and lie in bed, burrowing deeper and deeper into the book, and then I'd start to see movement out of the corner of my eyes, and of course it would be the darting forms of the creatures that live between seconds--I think they call themselves Inbetweeners--and they'd get closer and closer, until everything got all blurry and weird, and I found that I could no longer unfreeze time, and that I myself had become an Inbetweener.
So maybe I should just enjoy Revival at a normal pace that doesn't infringe upon the firmly established rules of reality.
So far, soooo good. Reflective King is my favorite King. I thoroughly enjoyed Mr. Mercedes (there were times when King managed to thoroughly and authentically transform his voice into something entirely new), but Revival is functioning upon a different level. Mercedes is solid, but it's simply a story--one in which King is mining his experience as a reader of crime fiction. Revival isn't coming from a place of pastiche/inspiration--it's coming from the heart. Like The Body, It, and Hearts in Atlantis, Revival is rooted in King's own childhood, and like those books, it sings.
I'll reserve judgement until I'm finished reading it, of course, but right now, it seems to me like this might be one of the monumental ones. As a Constant Reader for most of my 39 years on this deranged planet, I find myself a little giddy over how damned good this book is so far...
Now, where's that stopwatch...