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Roadwork Kindle Edition

by Stephen King (Author)

311 customer reviews

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Only Stephen King, writing as Richard Bachman, can imagine the horror of a good and angry man who fights back against bureaucracy when it threatens to destroy his vitality, home, and memories. “Under any name King mesmerizes the reader” (Chicago Sun-Times).

Barton Dawes’s unremarkable but comfortable existence suddenly takes a turn for the worst. A new highway extension is being built right over the laundry plant where he works—and right over his home. Dawes isn’t the sort of man who will take an insult of this magnitude lying down. His steadfast determination to fight the inevitable course of progress drives his wife and friends away while he tries to face down the uncaring bureaucracy that has destroyed his life.

This #1 national bestseller includes an introduction by Stephen King on “The Importance of Being Bachman.”

Length: 324 pages

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Product Details

File Size: 2425 KB
Print Length: 324 pages
Page Numbers Source ISBN: 0451197879
Publisher: Scribner (January 1, 2016)
Publication Date: January 1, 2016
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
Language: English
ASIN: B018ER7INW
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Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #44,220 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
- #152 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Suspense > Horror
- #512 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Literary Fiction > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense
- #1153 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Horror

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Customer Reviews

311

4.0 out of 5 stars

5 star		45%
4 star		24%
3 star		18%
2 star		8%
1 star		5%

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

281 of 290 people found the following review helpful

King's "mainstream" novel should not be overlooked

By Daniel Jolley HALL OF FAMETOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE VOICE on October 2, 2005

Format: Mass Market Paperback

I think it's safe to say that Roadwork is King's least-read novel, largely because it represented an attempt on King's part to go straight, to prove he could write a mainstream novel. Written in between 'Salem's Lot and The Shining, Roadwork was released in 1981 as Richard Bachman's third novel. I first read it as a young teenager, and I no longer remembered a great deal about it - except that, at the time, I did find it somewhat boring. King himself has never gone so far as to call Roadwork a good novel. Reading it again now, though, I was surprised by the sophistication and emotional power of the story. You almost have to have experienced some of the pressures of adulthood to really relate to the protagonist, Barton George Dawes, and it really doesn't matter that the story is imbedded in the socioeconomic worries of the early 1970s. In its essence, Roadwork is the story of a man pushed beyond his means of coping with change.

On the face of things, Dawes doesn't have it that bad. He has a good wife, a good job, and friends. Inside, though, he is suffering miserably - and has been since his little boy died of a brain tumor three years earlier. Having never allowed himself to grieve properly, his mind proves unable to bear the disruptions caused by a new local road construction project. He's worked for the same laundry since he got out of school, and it will have to relocate elsewhere because of the roadwork - and he is the one responsible for finding a new site. He's lived in the same house since he got married, and it too has a fateful date with a wrecking ball - and he has to find a new home for him and his wife. It's just too much for him, and he can't do it.Read more ›

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79 of 83 people found the following review helpful

There was bound to be a split decision on this one

By Brian Seiler on August 6, 2001

Format: Mass Market Paperback

There are really two classes of King readers. The first are the early-career lovers. These are people who like suspense (though I have yet to learn how you get that from a forum where the subject controls the pace) and raw plot motion, and there's nothing wrong with that, but it's definitely not a very rich or complete approach to take. The second group are the late-career fans of work like Hearts in Atlantis and Desperation, who generally give a more deep and introspective read to the work and aren't as concerned with things moving along at a brisk clip. For those who may be wondering, I am probably best classified as one of the latter.
The first group will hate this novel. Rather than being a continuously moving story about a collection of things happening to people, Roadwork is essentially an examination of the destruction of one man. And let me tell you, that character examination is SUBLIME. The only character that I have read in a King work who was clearly better defined was Johnny Smith from The Dead Zone, and this book would best be compared to that earlier work.
There is very little to be bored with in this book if you're not worried about things always happening. If you are, you might be better advised to move on and leave this one alone--there aren't a lot of bodies or explosions. The atmosphere and characterization, however, are superb. I read this as part of the Bachman Books, which have regrettably been taken off the market as a set, and I was impressed by the depth and expression that King managed in this side-project (not reflected in his other work under the pseudonym).
There are problems with this book, though. For one thing, it is absolutely mired in the seventies. Younger readers may get lost trying to relate to such a thing as an oil embargo.Read more ›

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45 of 47 people found the following review helpful

A tale of the first energy crisis...

By Joe Kenney on December 20, 2002

Format: Mass Market Paperback

Roadwork starts off suspensefully, as a crazed man with a knack for carrying on conversations with himself buys a high-caliber rifle and a .44 Magnum revolver. However, the explosive result of this purchase, which you might expect to be soon coming, doesn't arrive until the very end of the book. To get there, we must wade through some very dense, overly-detailed (but very well written) exposition.

Bart Dawes has finally been pushed too far; at age 40, he's lost his only son to a brain tumor, and now the public works commission has decided to build a new highway system, which will not only go through (and thereby erase) the building Bart's worked in for the past twenty years, but also his home. Bart must move, but he refuses to. In the process, Bart will lose his job, his friends, his wife, and his sanity, but he stands strong in his refusal to leave his home, reminiscent in a way of Hank Stamper in Ken Kesey's "Sometimes a Great Notion."

Roadwork is different than anything Stephen King (well, Richard Bachman, to be precise) has written; it's more a character study than anything else. As King himself wrote in his "Why I Was Bachman" introduction to the first edition of The Bachman Books, "Roadwork is probably the worst of the lot, because it tries so hard to be good." And that's the whole of it: Roadwork reads like it's been written by a young writer who's trying hard to appeal to the literary crowd. It's verbose, packed with introspection, and moves along at a snail's pace; the total opposite of the Bachman/King extravaganza The Running Man.

It's no surprise that King relates that Roadwork was written at a time when he was trying to impress those elitists whom would ask him at cocktail parties if he'd ever write "something important.Read more ›

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See all 311 customer reviews (newest first)

Most Recent Customer Reviews

Kudos to Stephen King!

as usual, my favorite writer has come through with another good book. I enjoy all his books, whether as Richard Bachman or Stephen King. Read more

Published 24 days ago by Judith A. King

Three Stars

Good early King (Bachman)

Published 1 month ago by Gerald Goldstein

Predictable

This one was a bit predictable. It was a good read though.

Published 1 month ago by Robert E. Brown

Too close to Home for Comfort!!!

Only because I love Stephen King and hold him to the highest level, I cannot give this a 4 or 5 STAR Rating. Or maybe it only hits too close to home? Read more

Published 1 month ago by Toneman

Page turner!

Very quick read and couldn't put it down.

Published 1 month ago by Leen1

Stephen King has given us another winner. This book ...

Stephen King has given us another winner. This book has several turns and the main character is different than other King books.

Published 1 month ago by Ryan's Gma

Can tell it's a King story. Not many twists in plot. It's a ok read on...

Don't expect any surprise , ok read. Not close to Kings best work. Better than most fast reads and I would recommend .

Published 1 month ago

Four Stars

Another Stephen King RIGHT ON

Published 2 months ago by Ralph Grosso

Five Stars

King at his best.

Published 2 months ago by Amazon Visa

Roadwork

I really liked this book. He was a guy who stood up until the end for what he believed. He was the last of the straight shooters.

Published 2 months ago by smooth0906

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