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35 of 36 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An absolute must for serious Stephen King fans, October 3, 2005
The true identify of Richard Bachman did not get out until the publication of Thinner, Bachman's fifth book. These first four Bachman novels were the sorts of books you might find in a grocery store or - more likely - never have come across at all because they weren't really marketed at all - at Stephen King's request. Naturally, they didn't sell all that well - not until the true author was revealed, of course. These represent an interesting cross-section of King's writing life. Rage and The Long Walk are truly early King novels, Roadwork emerged in between the novels 'Salem's Lot and The Shining, and The Running Man was published in 1982, the product of a mere seventy-two hours of writing. They are quite different novels, yet they all share a common theme - a man displaced by society and doing what he can to combat the forces closing in around him.
This collection is about the only place you can find the novel Rage these days. After the Columbine tragedy, Stephen King basically had all copies of Rage pulled from the shelves. The novel features a high school student who wigs out, shoots two teachers, and holds his class hostage for several hours. The real heart of the story is the way the students react to their captor during their ordeal; they go way beyond merely sympathizing with him. King really breaks down the emotional walls of these characters, mining some of the real issues that teenagers have to deal with in their lives. To me, this novel is raw but instructive, surreal yet amazingly open and honest, and well worth reading.
If you ask me, The Long Walk (written while King was a college freshman) may well be the most fascinating novel King has ever written. It's a disarmingly simple tale centered on a seemingly mundane activity, yet in King's masterful hands The Long Walk burrows into the core of a number of characters, lays down miles of metaphors about the human condition, and absolutely mesmerizes you with its emotional force and power. The contestants (all but one of whom will die - and they know it) do a lot of talking while they're walking; most of them dance around the "why" issue, but we see clues to some of the reasons as each lad draws closer and closer to death. Cockiness turns to anger, fear, shock, and just about every other kind of dark emotion you can imagine. The boys are stripped bare in both body and mind as the Walk goes on and on. Through his characters, King is basically asking the reader how he/she will face death when it comes. Will you freeze up early on? How long will you fight to stay alive after you've pushed your body far beyond the breaking point? Will you lie down and accept your fate, or will you lose control and lash out at your perceived enemies? I could read this novel over and over again without ever growing tired of it. It's just endlessly fascinating and illuminating.
Roadwork represented an attempt on King's part to go straight, to prove he could write a mainstream novel. In its essence, Roadwork is the story of a man pushed beyond his means of coping with change. We the readers basically watch Bart Dawes go insane as the days pass. We watch him lie to his wife and to himself, drink himself into nightly stupors, procure destructive objects from dangerous men, and plot revenge on those who have taken away the few things in life he could cling to. At the center of his problem is his son Charlie, who died of a brain tumor three years earlier; George can't understand why his son had to die, and he can't bear the thought of his home, Charlie's home, being destroyed. Even as we watch Dawes do some terrible things, we can't help but sympathize with a man so beaten down by the cruel vagaries of life. King has said that Roadwork was in some ways a product of the death of his mother. The book served as a vehicle to let him work through his own emotional issues over his loss. Why does a loved one have to die? That question permeates this novel. It's a very personal story, but it is one almost any adult reader can relate to very well. It's a surprisingly impressive exploration of emotional disintegration.
With The Running Man, we have a complete novel that was written in only three days - and was published with almost no changes. Obviously, The Running Man is not your typical Stephen King novel. Action is the gas pedal, and King floored it from page one until the very end. Surprisingly, though, there is some pretty decent characterization of the main player - and a heavy undertone of social commentary worked into the book.
The setting is a future America in which society has totally fractured, leaving those on the wrong side of the tracks doomed to a life of misery. Ben Richards personifies that social inequity. Unable to provide for his wife and sick little girl, there is only one way out for him - the Network Games. No show satisfies the bloodlust of the public like The Running Man, and a man of Richards' temperament is just the kind of player the show is looking for. Richards proves himself a worthy contestant indeed - the Game in fact, will never be the same. To me, this novel is like a weak film adaptation of a King novel - stripped of all the nuances that make King such a special writer. That's not to way this isn't an exciting novel because it is - that's about all it is, though.
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16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
This is a review for Rage, July 29, 2004
It makes me somewhat angry that a book like Rage has to be shelved because of an incident like Columbine. It's one of the best books I've read in a long time, a book I would tell other to read in an instant, but I can't. The novel has been pushed in to oblivion because it deals with a school shooting. Yes, it deals with teenagers being violent, and blowing up emotionally, and then it also deals with them coming to grips with everything, realizing who they are. That may be what disturbes most people about this book. When they realize who they are, what they realize is far from pretty. But at no point did the story feel forced. Everything these teens said fit with their characters. Everything they did fit with what was being thrown at them.
Do I think this book is dangerous? Not at all! It actually shows the danger of holding your fears and problems inside. That's why Charlie went crazy. He held everything inside, just so he could conform to the norm. And conforming led him to something... well, read the book and find out. That's why, in the end, everything works out in it's own twisted way. And yes, this book is twisted. Very twisted. But not dangerous. What happens in the end was was truelly frightening though. If you can get your hands on a copy, grab it. You'll never be able to put the book down. The pace is fast, the story is amazing, and the characters are so well thought out that you'll feel that you may have actually known them. This is one of King's best books.
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14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Darkside of Stephen King., June 25, 2005
The Bachman Books were a way for Stephen King to write a different style under a psuedonym. Under the Richard Bachman pen name, King has managed to paint a bleak but realistic world (unlike the supernatural landscape of 'Salem's Lot and The Stand)).
Rage:
This book is about a young teenager named Charlie Decker. He's like any ordinary kid but he has a problem.
His childhood has turned him into an angry sociopath who's unable to cope with life and does the most drastic thing he could think of, he holds his Algebra class hostage. Let the mind games begin!
Long Walk:
In a futuristic America, a totalitarian government has taken over. To placate the population, a dictator known as The Major presides over a deadly game of endurance call The Long Walk. 100 teenage boys are selected to participate. The winner gets set up for life, the rest are left for dead.
Roadwork:
A hard working joe who's life is turned upside down when his home is selected for demolition. A sour relationship, a voice in his head and a new rifle make a terrible combination. When the fuzz come around that's when the fun begins.
Running Man:
Another bleak tale about a media and consumer driven society (sounds familiar). The growning have-nots are greatly out numbering the haves. One of the many have nots (Benjiman Richards) decides to help out his sick child and part-time prostitute wife by becoming a Free-Vee games contestant. Along the way, he learns and is tranformed into something he never thought he was capable of becoming.
An awesome collection of short novels. I higly recommended this novel. You'll never regret it.
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