Kate wrote:
> 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.
I dunno. Granted, probably only King could have had something
like that published (Charles?) but I think (I hope) he was
fully aware of what he was doing. Like your husband, I
enjoyed it, mostly because it's been a while since an author
has fucked with my mind like that.
I thought the whole almost generic quality of the mystery
(and characters) was intentional, forcing us to concentrate
on the plot and more specifically the upcoming solution
which, of course, he had no intention of giving us.
After all, King's certainly capable of creating memorable
characters and some real head-spinning plots.
And because he was (I think) trying to get us to look at why
we tell stories to each other, I think the story more or less
had to be told second-hand.
It's not that I absolutely LOVED the book, but I did enjoy it
quite a it, and even after I got sucker-punched, I found it
really hard to dislike. What does your husband think, since
he did enjoy it?
Kevin
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