Deep Cell (Cell - Stephen King)

Member Name: marandina

Product:	Cell - Stephen King
Date:	24/08/06 (276 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good pace, post-modern analogy of angst ridden times

Disadvantages: Some may consider light-weight in terms of social comment if that was what was intended

It’s been a while since I’d read any Stephen King. A growing disenchantment with his meandering writing style had cut the invisible writer-reader relationship we’d established many years ago when King used to write horror/fantasy corkers like “it” and “The Shining”. So it was with a little consternation and surprise that I was given “Cell” as a present a few months ago for Father’s Day and I was charged with seeing whether I could still read the self-professed master of horror fiction.

Set in the present day (we assume although no date is mentioned), an event called “The Pulse” occurs at 3.03pm, Eastern Standard Time, on October 1. Clayton Riddell is in Boston and just about to celebrate the sale of his first graphic novel. Out of nowhere, people start to viciously attach each other, maiming and killing in a bloody frenzy that appears to stem from them using their mobile (or cell) phones. In a fraught struggle to return to his hotel, Clay makes it back with mayhem and hysteria breaking out all around him. Linking up with two other, still normal people called Tom McCourt and the teenage girl, Alice Maxwell, the three embark on a hazardous road-trip to try and find a safe haven from the insanity that has descended upon the country. Along the way, Clay is desperate to find his wife and son, hoping against hope that they have escaped the effects of the deadly Pulse.

For anyone familiar with previous works by King, comparisons with “The Stand” seem obvious. Key elements are there including the sweeping journey by survivors following an apocalyptic event, the archetypal villain who in this case is The Raggedy Man (read Randall Flagg in “The Stand”), the tension and horror in the fight for survival and an explosive finale. Bearing in mind that “The Stand” is considered to be one of the author’s best pieces then this is a favourable comparison. Written in the third person and from Clay’s perspective, the initial dedication at the start of the book to Richard Matheson and George Romero, the doyen of the zombie flick, will give an obvious hint as to what the theme of the book is centred on. The victims of “The Pulse” are zombies in all but name although King refers to them as phone-crazies for the most part. With a tendency to rip and gouge, maim and kill then the phone-crazies complete with blank expression and little in the way of verbal communication could have been dragged off the picture boards of one of Romero’s zombie movies. However, the parallels aren’t as straight forward as at first glance. As the story progresses, the changes that occur as the world becomes a more innocent, primitive place with the regression from technology that follows the transformation of so many of the population challenges the notion that everything is necessarily as it should be with the world today. It’s one of the most interesting aspects of the story that the villainous nature of the phone-crazies becomes greyer as the story unfolds and the whole black and white; hero-villain argument becomes less clear cut.

There was a lot I liked about “Cell”. From straightforward horror story to more thought provoking reflections on today’s troubled times, the story gripped me initially then made me think as it unravelled. The book explodes into action in the first few pages and the pace remains frenetic throughout with little or nothing in the way of slipping off into those lengthy tangential reveries that the writer has had a tendency to do as he has got older. As a vehicle for drawing analogies, Romero has been creative in using his zombie creations to present social reflections from the times he has made his films and this is a thoughtful aspect in King’s piece in that “Cell” strikes me as a post-modern reaction to the terrorist influenced times we live in. With several mentions of terrorist events including both 9/11 and the London tube bombings, King appears to be relating the phone-crazies to the terrorists who have perpetrated so much devastation over the last few years although this parallel fades later in the book. You may debate this point if you have read the book already and the observation is blurred further by the unknown source of “The Pulse” but I couldn’t help but relate much of the story and the characters that the author employs to the events since 9/11. I also liked the deceptive implications of the title of the book. Whilst it would seem obvious to relate the title to the central aspect of cell phones, the development of the phone-crazies into flocking groups who are evolving at a rapid rate into something different and appear to operate as one, single entity linked by telepathy, then the fact that they are forming into a physical cell of their own takes the underlying notion of the story in a different and more thought provoking direction. For those thinking more conspiratorily, the phone-crazies could be the ultimate terrorist, sleeper cell activated by persons unknown.

On the down side, the story lacks ultimate credibility despite the obvious care and research that went into it. King gives credit to Robin Furth for his input around the technology of cell phones and the impact on cell phone users, both mentally and physically and by the time you have reached the conclusion, there is still the overriding sense that this is still just a camp fire story and not a lot more despite King’s desire to make the reader think that maybe this could happen at some time in the future. Maybe that’s just the cynic in me but the statement that Stephen King does not own a cell phone at the book’s conclusion simply didn’t wipe away all the positive applications of technology like this and the, as yet, unproven notion that cell phones actually fry our brains in some way. More irksome were the liberties that King takes with his grammar at times. Beginning sentences with “And” and “Because” always strikes me as lazy but there are writers that get to the point where their editors seem to turn a blind eye to such indiscretions. Annoying to purists, this will hardly dim anyone’s enjoyment of the book.

All in all, I really enjoyed “Cell”. At 400 pages and generally short chapters, the story rattles along and there is plenty of indirect social comment to ponder on. The characters are well drawn and do inspire empathy from the reader and King’s powers of description remain as first rate as they always were. For me, this is the best book King has written in a while and will appeal to both existing King fans or those who like the horror/fantasy genre in general. It’s not a classic but classics are hard to come by these days!

Recommended with 4 stars.

Thanks for the read

Mara

ISBN 0-000001-441932

Published by BCA Books

I read the hardback version, which is available at Amazon for £10.78

Summary: Overview of the book