BR: Bag of Bones (Stephen King)

Slow moving, but generally worth the read. I quit halfway through, switched to an action novel which cleared my head and allowed me to continue the slow trudge.

The best thing about this novel, aside from reaching the end (660 pages… it could have been pared back to 450 and I would have been happy), was its intricacy. Almost everything tied in to the end. Of course, for a novelist like Stephen King, I would expect nothing less. However, I found the protag’s involvement left me feeling uneasy. Could Mike have figured everything out sooner and prevented much of the bloodshed? I found Mike to be too blasé about some of the things that happened to him, around him. Yes, they all turned out to have significance, but for a long while he ignored things that he really should have worked much harder to understand. Clues that he tried to find answers to, but then gave up.

In fact, he accepts (with little regret) that the answers were so close at hand but he was distracted from searching for them. Admittedly, the distractions were significant, but there were still large gaps where Mike could have picked up the puzzle pieces and figured things out. Another factor that detracted from my enjoyment was the (almost) apology that SK makes (through Mike) in the epilogue. I won’t ruin it for anyone who wishes to read, but Mike (who was a novelist) mused on the convenience of another character’s death. It neatened things up, removed him from a moral dilemma, and it did feel staged, as though SK couldn’t bring himself to allow this scenario to continue. It is said that a story tells something of the author, I wonder if this tells something of SK?

Mike was an enjoyable guy to get to know. He was real, human, and his reactions were, on the most part, believable. His pace and speed of reaction was slow, however it could be argued that the supernatural influences that bore down on him were smothering his natural inquisitiveness, his natural instincts.

I did enjoy the book, and I did care for Mike, but nowhere near as much as I care for most of DK’s characters. Mike was put upon, troubled by his wife’s death – maligned by it actually, however aside from this single event he had no other emotional depth. Mike’s only psychological hitch was his inability to ask for help, or to express his emotions to others. This was never explored, never explained – even to those whom were in grave danger and *should* have been informed of the potential threat. I expected Mike to journey through this, to be forced to ask for help at the end… but no, he continued to keep much of what was happening to himself and consequently tragedy befell those around him because of this selfishness. Was this a flaw on SK’s part? Did he put that in as a way to illustrate the type of man Mike was? I thought this would be Mike’s journey (growing up and learning to ask for help -- to let other people in to the struggles he endured), but no. Not at all. In fact Mike had no personal journey, he didn’t grow, he didn’t change, he just was.

Or, again, was this a tactic to show how the evil spirit controlled Mike, dominated and directed him? I’m not so sure… if it was a matter of control, then Mike could have been overpowered long before the climax.

DK’s characters grow and change. They learn. I think this is the basis of my dissatisfaction with SK. His characters don’t grow, they just are. The books I enjoy the most are those in which characters evolve. It's often subtle, but there is some kind of shift. Even ordinary guy turned into hero to save a loved one, or a hero revealed to have a deeper psychological impetus for his courageous drive, or a weak character who has to find strength to save themselves. No, not Mike. He just trundled along, self-absorbed, focussed on his own loss, his own desires.

Or is *that* the point? Does SK write characters who aren't entirely likeable? Though, I had the feeling we were meant to like Mike.

Even in ’48, with Hoke who killed without a backward glance, he had a journey. He stayed in that city for a reason, he endured the awful uncertainty and the constant threat of death for a personal reason, he wasn't just an adrenalin jock. We learn this at the end. That made me care for him, remember him… Mike Noonan, not so much.

I’m glad I finished the book. But I will focus on other writers for a while rather than attempting to return to another SK novel.