This describes Mike's first visit to Sara Laughs after his wife has died. This chapter establishes that it's been four years since his wife died. He hasn't been in a relationship since and has few friends. He can't write and spends most of his days watching movies and doing crossword puzzles. Why the subject of getting a job isn't even brought up, I'm not sure. Let's just say that King wants to establish that Mike is a lost soul looking for release from the grief. Not troubled, he's stopped drinking, just lost and looking for direction.
He goes to Sara Laughs and the sunflowers that are in his dreams are also there in real life. He tries to recreate his dream by walking up the driveway instead of driving up it. Nothing scary happens to him, no dead wife-corpse comes up the drive to attack him. There is a long drawn out sequence where Mike takes a flashlight and shines it all around the dark house looking for the creepy crying child he thinks he hears. Why he doesn't turn on the lights, which he does a few minutes after the noises stop, is not made clear. He wants to leave after he hears the creepy noises but thinking about it, he decides the crying child was just the pipes and he's going to go ahead and stay at Sara Laughs.
The Next Chapter introduces the psychic child which I am dreading and will put off reading until tomorrow. But so far this book is pretty good for a King book and I am still interested after almost a hundred pages. Let's see if the next hundred pages are as good...
Saturday, October 3, 2009
Bag Of Bones: Chapter 5 (pages 56-70)
This chapter deals with the increasing nightmares and visions Mike experiences and the trip to Key Largo he takes to get away from them.
Mike is starting to drink a lot. "The kind of drinking that could get a man in trouble." Oh yeah Steve we all know that kind of drinking.
The dreams are described in more detail and Mike starts noticing irregularities. He has a cut on his hand in the dream and in real life he get a cut on his hand. Hmmm.
An interesting question King poses in this chapter, well I guess interesting is one word for it, is: Is it OK to masturbate to your dead wife's picture?
Mike looks at a picture of his wife in a bikini and starts to become aroused thinking of all the sex they had together, which is described in semi-graphic detail, and that question "pops up." Mike doesn't succumb to temptation and controls himself. It's an odd situation but one that would probably occur in real life. So kudos to you Mr. King for creeping us all out.
Mike decides to go to Sara Laughs, the place of his nightmares, to put his fears at rest. He'll be heading out July 4th.
Mike is starting to drink a lot. "The kind of drinking that could get a man in trouble." Oh yeah Steve we all know that kind of drinking.
The dreams are described in more detail and Mike starts noticing irregularities. He has a cut on his hand in the dream and in real life he get a cut on his hand. Hmmm.
An interesting question King poses in this chapter, well I guess interesting is one word for it, is: Is it OK to masturbate to your dead wife's picture?
Mike looks at a picture of his wife in a bikini and starts to become aroused thinking of all the sex they had together, which is described in semi-graphic detail, and that question "pops up." Mike doesn't succumb to temptation and controls himself. It's an odd situation but one that would probably occur in real life. So kudos to you Mr. King for creeping us all out.
Mike decides to go to Sara Laughs, the place of his nightmares, to put his fears at rest. He'll be heading out July 4th.
Bag of Bones: Chapter 4 (pages 43-55)
This chapter deals mostly with Mike's writer's block. It is so severe he starts to hyper-ventilate when he goes to type something on his computer. He can only use the Notepad function. Also time is running out on his manuscripts stored in the vault.
The biggest plot point in this chapter is the Dream Mike has about Joann at their summer home in Maine "Sara Laughs." He walks up the driveway and her corpse comes running to meet him. I'm not big on dreams being described in literature (even nightmares) it kind of seems pointless to describe a fictional situation "in" a fictional situation. Unless the dreams are short and to the point I lose interest very quickly.
The biggest plot point in this chapter is the Dream Mike has about Joann at their summer home in Maine "Sara Laughs." He walks up the driveway and her corpse comes running to meet him. I'm not big on dreams being described in literature (even nightmares) it kind of seems pointless to describe a fictional situation "in" a fictional situation. Unless the dreams are short and to the point I lose interest very quickly.
Bag Of Bones: Chapter 3 (pages 26-42)
This chapter goes into great detail about Mike's life as a publishing author and his newly acquired writer's block. I was looking forward to hear King's thoughts on the publishing business but was disappointed when nothing of note was revealed to the reader.
The numbers are a cliche: 500,000. The money is a cliche, 3 million a book (there are no discussions of royalties which would've been really interesting.) How much money has King made on a book like "The Dead Zone"? Written in 1980, sold millions of copies since then, made into a movie and a TV series. Ten million on that book alone? Possible, but we don't know and his description of a writer's business dealings is just generic enough so we don't get any answers.
The main plot point of this chapter is that his hard-nosed agent wants another book and Mike can't write but he does have four books that he wrote earlier stored in a safety deposit box ready to go. So he can publish one "new" book a year for four years. After that he's in trouble.
The numbers are a cliche: 500,000. The money is a cliche, 3 million a book (there are no discussions of royalties which would've been really interesting.) How much money has King made on a book like "The Dead Zone"? Written in 1980, sold millions of copies since then, made into a movie and a TV series. Ten million on that book alone? Possible, but we don't know and his description of a writer's business dealings is just generic enough so we don't get any answers.
The main plot point of this chapter is that his hard-nosed agent wants another book and Mike can't write but he does have four books that he wrote earlier stored in a safety deposit box ready to go. So he can publish one "new" book a year for four years. After that he's in trouble.
Bag of Bones Chapter 2 (pages 16-26)
Chapter 2 expands on Mike's career as a writer. A writer like King, a genre writer like King, a best-selling writer like King. Unlike King though, he 's not a number one but a number ten or fifteen best-seller. The biggest plot point in this chapter is the little ritual that Joann and Mike have when they finish the book. Which seems to be that he dictates the last sentence of the book to her while she types it. They drink champagne. He says, "So that's all right isn't it?" She says, "That's all right." Then they have sex. Hmmm. Seems as good a ways as any to finish a novel. Let's move on...
Bag Of Bones: Chapter 1 (pages 1-15)
First person narrative. Starts in Derry Maine one of the famous fictional Maine towns that King loves so. Nice first paragraph, where we discover the protagonist's wife is dead. It's quick and to the point with a nice "real life" detail thrown in to give it greater force. This is what fiction is about. A non-writer would write: "My name is blah-blah my wife died in 1994." But King, for all his faults, is a writer and he uses the writer's tools to flesh out his characters and his plot. He makes everything very real and that's where his success comes from. Authenticity. When he fails on authenticity, his books fail, and almost every time at some point because the reality breaks down and we can all see the strings that move the puppets but his best work contains long stretches of "real life."
He describes the car crash that led up to her death. Her death wasn't called by the crash but by an aneurysm that occurred while she was running to help. I think that he did this because he wants to make sure Joann (the wife) is labeled as a "good person." Why King didn't just have her in the car crash I'm not sure, maybe that will play a role later in the book, maybe not.
He goes into the funeral and the concrete details are superb. I've never lost a spouse but my mother died when I was young and I can imagine that he felt like the protagonist in this book losing his wife at a relatively young age (36). Finding her stuff laying around the house. Little notes etc. I mean it's all cliche but it's also real that's why it's a cliche. It happens to everybody.
The biggest plot point revealed in this chapter is that she was pregnant which Mike Noonan ( the main character) didn't know about. When they performed the autopsy they could tell it was a girl which must mean that Joann was at least a couple of months into the pregnancy. This of course adds more to Mike's grief. Not only has he lost his wife, he's lost a child also.
This is the first chapter that Joann's "ghost" appears to Mike. In a dream of course but I think that soon she will be appearing "for real."
She's an angry, scary ghost which I thought was unusual. It seems odd to me as imagining your just deceased wife as some zombie corpse coming to get you. But that's what she is so far. The Undead clutching her copy of Maughm's "The Moon and Sixpence," and declaring, " It's my dust-catcher." Spooky. Let's read on.
He describes the car crash that led up to her death. Her death wasn't called by the crash but by an aneurysm that occurred while she was running to help. I think that he did this because he wants to make sure Joann (the wife) is labeled as a "good person." Why King didn't just have her in the car crash I'm not sure, maybe that will play a role later in the book, maybe not.
He goes into the funeral and the concrete details are superb. I've never lost a spouse but my mother died when I was young and I can imagine that he felt like the protagonist in this book losing his wife at a relatively young age (36). Finding her stuff laying around the house. Little notes etc. I mean it's all cliche but it's also real that's why it's a cliche. It happens to everybody.
The biggest plot point revealed in this chapter is that she was pregnant which Mike Noonan ( the main character) didn't know about. When they performed the autopsy they could tell it was a girl which must mean that Joann was at least a couple of months into the pregnancy. This of course adds more to Mike's grief. Not only has he lost his wife, he's lost a child also.
This is the first chapter that Joann's "ghost" appears to Mike. In a dream of course but I think that soon she will be appearing "for real."
She's an angry, scary ghost which I thought was unusual. It seems odd to me as imagining your just deceased wife as some zombie corpse coming to get you. But that's what she is so far. The Undead clutching her copy of Maughm's "The Moon and Sixpence," and declaring, " It's my dust-catcher." Spooky. Let's read on.
Bag of Bones By Stephen King: Introduction
I'm starting off with a slightly "easier" book because that's what I've been reading lately. For the past two or three years I've been unable to read with anything like regularity for a number of reasons but now I have the time and the necessary focus to be able to read on a regular basis and I am very grateful for that.
When we begin a book we start first with what we know of the author and his previous books.
Stephen King: I loved him when I was in high school and probably read the majority of his works during that time. Since high school whenever I've tried to read one of his books I usually end up throwing it against the wall in disgust. The cliches are endless, the dialogue stilted and ladled with big fat spoonfuls of faux-New England slang and dialect. But King books were a big part of my life growing up and there are many worse things to read than King.
During the past month or so I've read three King books in quick succession. I started with his earlier books, they are better plotted and less bloated than his later books. I started with the Uncut version of The Stand. A 1000 page book that I had fond memories of in High School and I found it surprisingly good. Despite it's length it was tightly plotted and read very quickly. I did start to notice the King cliches or "tropes" if you want to dignify them with a fancy word. First, urinating in your pants a sign of fear or terror. This was so common in The Stand that I started to chuckle every time it happened and it happened what seemed like thirty times. This will reappear in all of King's books (as far as I know).
King also has alot of sex in his books. Not graphic descriptions but the characters have sex an awful lot. But in the Stand, for the most part it's just like brushing your teeth "Stu and Frannie went to bed and she reached out ready to recieve his love." Or something like that was at the end of every chapter it seemed like. Later on in his work the sex will be described in greater detail but I had forgotten just how constant it is.
King also has a "magical black person" in the Stand in Mother Abigail. This will reappear again and again culminating in The Green Mile. But it's a constant in a great deal of his work.
Then I read The Dead Zone: a very slim book for King. Nice little plot, not his best work but I liked the early carnival scene where he starts to become aware of his powers. The protagonist "John Smith" is just such a "nice guy" that he's kind of faceless and the reader never really feels like he knows him.
The Shining: I think the Shining is a good example of what most of King's work is like. A writer, trying to write starts to make contact with the "other side," with nightmarish results. This one has it all, the little kid with psychic powers, the menacing haunted house filled with ghosts, the magical black person. King does do a good job with his protagonist and his alcohol abuse and his attempts to quit. King has a well-documented history of drug and alcohol abuse until the mid-eighties when he quit due to family pressure. But it's interesting in this and other works that clear signs of alcoholism in the characters are never called alcoholism by King and his characters are never called alcoholics. King himself is the same way, refusing to call himself a drug addict or an alcoholic even when he admitted to being on so many drugs and drink he doesn't remember writing Cujo. Let's just say that Jack in the Shining doesn't deal with his alcoholism in a manner that works. Let's hope King has faced his issues a better way.
Let's get on to the current book, which I had gotten for Christmas in Hardcover in 1998. I remember reading up to page 100 or so and the psychic little girl was introduced and I stopped reading it. The opening chapter were still very vivid in my mind though because they are very good.
Bag Of Bones: By Stephen King
Scribner, Hardcover, first edition, 1998.
When we begin a book we start first with what we know of the author and his previous books.
Stephen King: I loved him when I was in high school and probably read the majority of his works during that time. Since high school whenever I've tried to read one of his books I usually end up throwing it against the wall in disgust. The cliches are endless, the dialogue stilted and ladled with big fat spoonfuls of faux-New England slang and dialect. But King books were a big part of my life growing up and there are many worse things to read than King.
During the past month or so I've read three King books in quick succession. I started with his earlier books, they are better plotted and less bloated than his later books. I started with the Uncut version of The Stand. A 1000 page book that I had fond memories of in High School and I found it surprisingly good. Despite it's length it was tightly plotted and read very quickly. I did start to notice the King cliches or "tropes" if you want to dignify them with a fancy word. First, urinating in your pants a sign of fear or terror. This was so common in The Stand that I started to chuckle every time it happened and it happened what seemed like thirty times. This will reappear in all of King's books (as far as I know).
King also has alot of sex in his books. Not graphic descriptions but the characters have sex an awful lot. But in the Stand, for the most part it's just like brushing your teeth "Stu and Frannie went to bed and she reached out ready to recieve his love." Or something like that was at the end of every chapter it seemed like. Later on in his work the sex will be described in greater detail but I had forgotten just how constant it is.
King also has a "magical black person" in the Stand in Mother Abigail. This will reappear again and again culminating in The Green Mile. But it's a constant in a great deal of his work.
Then I read The Dead Zone: a very slim book for King. Nice little plot, not his best work but I liked the early carnival scene where he starts to become aware of his powers. The protagonist "John Smith" is just such a "nice guy" that he's kind of faceless and the reader never really feels like he knows him.
The Shining: I think the Shining is a good example of what most of King's work is like. A writer, trying to write starts to make contact with the "other side," with nightmarish results. This one has it all, the little kid with psychic powers, the menacing haunted house filled with ghosts, the magical black person. King does do a good job with his protagonist and his alcohol abuse and his attempts to quit. King has a well-documented history of drug and alcohol abuse until the mid-eighties when he quit due to family pressure. But it's interesting in this and other works that clear signs of alcoholism in the characters are never called alcoholism by King and his characters are never called alcoholics. King himself is the same way, refusing to call himself a drug addict or an alcoholic even when he admitted to being on so many drugs and drink he doesn't remember writing Cujo. Let's just say that Jack in the Shining doesn't deal with his alcoholism in a manner that works. Let's hope King has faced his issues a better way.
Let's get on to the current book, which I had gotten for Christmas in Hardcover in 1998. I remember reading up to page 100 or so and the psychic little girl was introduced and I stopped reading it. The opening chapter were still very vivid in my mind though because they are very good.
Bag Of Bones: By Stephen King
Scribner, Hardcover, first edition, 1998.
The First One
This is the first post of this blog. A quick summary of the primary purpose of this website: Everyone reads books differently. We all have different life experiences and knowledge bases which we use to interpret the words printed on the page. Take the sentence: "Mark sat down on the table and began to write." We all have a different image of what a table is. Some would see a large dining room table, some might envision a cramped card table in a dusty apartment. Some might imagine a picnic table in the backyard. Every sentence of every piece of literature is interpreted just a little bit differently in each person's mind. Books are not movies or TV where everything is laid out for you. It takes more work. Sometimes a little bit more work, sometimes a great deal of work. This is an attempt to examine that work in detail. You don't have to have read the book in some cases, some of the posts will have enough explanation to stand on their own. Others you might not understand what's going on until you've read the book. The best thing to do is to pick up the book along with me and read together.
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