Blaze: A Novel (Hardcover)

~ (Author), (Foreword)
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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Written circa 1973, this trunk novel, as Bachman's double (aka Stephen King) refers to it in his self-deprecating foreword, lacks the drama and intensity of Carrie and the horror opuses that followed it. Still, this fifth Bachman book (after 1996's The Regulators) shows King fine-tuning his skill at making memorable characters out of simple salt-of-the-earth types. Clayton Blaze Blaisdell has fallen into a life of delinquency ever since his father's brutal abuse rendered him feebleminded. King alternates chapters recounting Blaze's past mistreatment at a series of Maine orphanages and foster homes with Blaze's current plans to follow through on a kidnapping scheme plotted by his recently murdered partner in crime, George Rackley. Blaze talks to George as though he's still there, and the conversations give the tale tension, with Blaze coming across as a pitiable and surprisingly sympathetic contrast to prickly George. Despite its predictability, this diverting soft-boiled crime novel reflects influences ranging from John Steinbeck to James M. Cain. Also included is a previously uncollected story, Memory, the seed of King's forthcoming novel Duma Key. (June)
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From Booklist

*Starred Review* Blaze—Clayton Blaisdell Jr.—is a big dummy, very big: six-seven, 270. But not exactly very dumb. He was a smart little boy until his drunken father threw him downstairs three times in a row. He relearned to read a bit, mostly comic books, but was thereafter an otherwise learning-challenged ward of the state with a horrendous dent in his forehead. Now a mid-twenties adult, he has just lost his bosom buddy and partner in petty cons, George, who still speaks to him somehow, especially about the big score, the one to retire on. Blaze realizes that George isn't really haunting him; in fact, Blaze possesses an excellent, though highly selective, memory. In honor of George, he decides to do the big one, the kidnapping of a wealthy couple's baby. He succeeds, albeit imperfectly enough that the state cops and FBI know whodunit within a day, and he surprises himself by bonding with the infant, which for readers makes the hunt for Blaze an Alfred Hitchcock–like exercise in moral ambivalence. It's impossible not to root for Blaze, especially since Bachman flashes back copiously and with maximal sympathy to the damaged man's past. Stephen King, who "buried" Bachman in 1985, here revamps a 1973 manuscript by his alter ego that he says is something of an homage to James T. Farrell, Jim Thompson, and Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men. Powerful and moving, it's a worthy tribute, especially to Steinbeck. Olson, Ray
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Scribner; 1st edition (June 12, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 073948463X
• ISBN-13: 978-1416554844
• ASIN: 141655484X
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.8 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (168 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #86,846 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

95 of 113 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Blaze burns bright! Early, and great, King tale., June 15, 2007

By	George Beahm "www.georgebeahm.com" (Williamsburg, VA USA) - See all my reviews

Back in 1988, when I was researching my book, THE STEPHEN KING COMPANION, I spent time at the Special Collections at the Fogler Library at Orono, Maine, where the original, typed manuscript of BLAZE had been deposited, along with a number of other unpublished novels. This was what King calls a "trunk" novel, meaning it's a book that he never published; he wrote it and put it in the trunk, thinking it was unpublishable.

Well, when I read it, page by page, from first until last, I felt differently: Unlike, say, SWORD IN THE DARKNESS (a novel about a race riot), which is another trunk novel by King, BLAZE shone with a gritty kind of storytelling that marked King's early fiction. Clearly a homage to John Steinbeck's novella "Of Mice and Men," the story centers on Clayton Blaze Blaisdell, who is party to the kidnapping, along with his party George Rackley; Clayton, whose checkered past -- in and out of orphanages and foster homes -- strikes a sympathetic tone with the reader, as he finds love (albeit one-sided) where he least expects it: the infant he has helped abduct. (You may recall the famous Lindbergh kidnapping in all this, as I did.)

The most difficult thing in fiction is to make the bad guy seem sympathetic, but King pulls it off. In spades. Just as we feel for Lenny in Steinbeck's "Of Mice and Men," so, too, do we feel for Clayton, who is a criminal on the run; he has stolen the infant but, in the process, has stolen our hearts, as well. That is the art of fiction, the art of storytelling, and King's always had that gotta-read-the-next-page-to-see-what's-happened quality.

In King's fiction, the character comes first; the story then comes out of the character. King's modus operandi has always been that if you grow to care about the character, the story will mean something to you; but if the characters in the novel aren't sympathetic, you won't care about their fates and, by the extension, the book itself. So King starts with compelling characters believably motivated and pursuing their own ends.

What most readers probably don't know is that King's royalties on this book go to fund one of his foundations, set up for indigent creators who find themselves in dire financial straits due to no fault of their own. The Haven Foundation is the beneficiary of King's sales, and it's the only foundation of its kind. It's also King giving back to the community that supported him, which speaks of King's enormous generosity. (Wouldn't it be nice if the publisher matched King's donation dollar for dollar? Then the publisher could give back to the community, as well.)

At the Amazon discount, you can't afford NOT to buy this book if you're a King fan or you're a fan of good old-fashioned storytelling. And, as a bonus, your purchase will help, indirectly, freelance writers who these days are the true mavericks, the last of a dying breed. (Long story here, and this isn't the time or place to talk about it.) Suffice it to say that fans who want a taste of the early King will find their appetites more than satisfied with this relentless and unstoppable storytelling engine that propels the reader from first page to last: BLAZE is a meteor cutting a bright swath across the heavens, and you'll find a lot to mine in this early but wholly satisfying story by America's storyteller, Stephen King.

27 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Old Stephen Kings Hits The Spot For Constant Readers, June 18, 2007

By	Mr. Sinister (El Cajon, CA USA) - See all my reviews

Those of us who have been Constant Readers of Stephen King for years and years (since I was 13 years old) we knew about the dead novel called Blaze. It was a trunk novel that King wrote before the likes of Carrie and decided not to try and publish because he thought it was crap. For a long time out of mind Blaze sat in a carton at the Fogler Library at the University Of Maine at Orono in there Stephen King archive. Well...we love King, right? But most of us weren't afforded the chance to hop a plane across America to head to Orono to read that little hidden gem. Most of us. So it became the legendary unpublished novel by the world's most popular author. Mysterious. Wow! All these years later, King remembers Blaze and decides to give it a second chance. A little sprucing up and here it is for all the world to finally see. Written in 1973, this is nothing new. This is old Stephen King, starving, unpopular, unnoticed King. This is King when he was still struggling to keep his family eating. Great!


The basic story is centered round the 6'7" Clayton Blaisdell Jr., an all around dumb-as-a-ditch-post petty criminal with a heart of gold. When his partner is killed in a craps game, Blaze remembers the idea of the big score. He decides it's time to go through with the plan of kidnapping the infant heir of a rich family. Everything goes down with a few complications and Blaze is on the run for his life and the life of his little passenger.

King calls the striking resemblances to Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men an homage, and maybe it was, way back when, or perhaps it was a still-shaky author trying to flesh out his own novel with the structure of an old favorite. Either way, it works pretty well. The ending is a little rushed and there are a few spots of gratuitous flashback sequences that lend nothing to the tale as a whole, but it is Old King and that is Good King. Right away I fell into the story and was hooked. I can't say that about Lisey's Story or Cell or the abortion that was The Colorado Kid. This is King at his most honest. We Constant Readers appreciate that. Definitely worth the cash. At the end is a short story called Memory which enlarged into an idea that became King's next novel, Duma Key out in January of '08. Hmmmm. It's ok. Nothing fancy. Kinda choppy. Overall, Blaze is a nice reminder of why Stephen is one of my favorite authors of all time!

Dig it!

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Bachman is back from the dead...again!, July 10, 2007

By	Richard Stoehr "Idle Rich" (Bremerton, WA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

It comes as no surprise that 'Blaze' does not read like a Stephen King novel -- most of the Bachman books (with the exception of 'Thinner') are like that. When writing as Bachman, King adopts a different voice, harsher and more direct, and even the types of stories he tells are different. In this case, it would be hard to imagine a book that would surprise me more, coming from King's keyboard. Coming from Bachman, however, it sounds just about right.

'Blaze' is named for its lead character, whose full name is Clayton Blaisdell, Jr. but has gone by Blaze for most of his life. Blaze is a big guy, practically a monster of a man, complete with a nasty-looking indentation on his forehead and a rather slow intellect, both the result of an abusive father. Blaze is also a small-time criminal, but as the novel opens is looking to upgrade to the big time by kidnapping the newborn baby of a rich family. It was a plan cooked up by George Rackley, his former partner in crime. Problem is, George is dead, but Blaze still hears him (and talks to him) in his head.

The story begins just as Blaze is making his plans for the kidnapping alone. By jumping back and forth in the story, we learn of Blaze's colored history in and out of foster homes and orphanages, at the same time as he is committing his biggest crime ever, with the help of George's voice, always heard but never seen.

In this sense, 'Blaze' is King (Bachman?) at his most effective, telling stories in parallel, giving us glimpses and facets of this compelling character, but never all of it. He keeps us reading right to the end, enthralled by both the story and the characters he creates within it. Blaze himself stands out as one of King's most interesting people. He is not a writer or a teacher, he is about as far from an academic as you can get. He is a criminal, and not even an especially good one...but all the same, as the story progresses and you see how he got where he is, your heart will go out to him. Blaze is treated like a real person, never a cipher or a symbol, and therein lies the real strength of the novel as a whole.

Comparisons have been made to Steinbeck's 'Of Mice and Men' and even King himself admits that 'Blaze' is an homage to that novel. And while there are similarities, bear in mind that 'Blaze' is a story all its own as well. 'Of Mice and Men' is a great story, and I feel like 'Blaze' is a great story too...but what makes each story great is different.

In the telling of his tale, King found a unique voice, told a unique tale, and gave us a unique character to explore. Blaze is a big, clumsy guy, a criminal, not terribly bright, not very good-looking, not smooth or talented or skilled in any particular way. He is no James Bond or Kay Scarpetta or Anita Blake. And yet, by the time this novel is done, King makes you care about him, makes you want to help him, and even makes you cry for him a little.

Or at least, that's what he made me do.