On Nov 13, 2005, at 7:07 PM, Dave Zeltserman wrote:
> I personally like King, and agree that Misery is a
good read, and
> borderline noir. That said, I could not get through
Colorado Kid. I
> found the writing to cutesy and artificial, and
slogged through the
> first 30 pages before throwing in the
towel.
Dave, you didn't miss anything. My husband read it and liked
it a lot, so I read the whole thing. The device of having
the
"action" (such as it was, and it wasn't much) of the story
told at second-hand by two Old Geezers to a Sweet Young
Thing, removed all tension. And, as you can see by my
capitalization, the characters were almost entirely cardboard
cliches. I think the concept of not providing any explanation
or motivation for the central character is just lazy and
self-indulgent. Many of you claim that the "solution" to a
mystery is unimportant, but I'm sure you find it important
that a character's motivation explains their actions. Since
the "Colorado Kid" was only sketched in, and his actions were
as theoretical as intelligent design, the reader doesn't even
get the satisfaction of a complete portrait.
It doesn't take a Stephen King to set up a conundrum and
leave it unsolved. I suppose it would make a great writing
contest though -- write your own ending to "The Colorado Kid"
for $10,000 and the chance to meet Stephen King.
Kate Derie
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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