He's back...and better than ever. (Dreamcatcher - Stephen King)

Member Name: nikkisly

Product:	Dreamcatcher - Stephen King
Date:	16/03/01 (189 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: It's Stephen King....

Disadvantages: I've finished it...

I'll read anything - and I mean anything, from encyclopaedias to the back of cornflake packets (although I'm not over keen on historical novels).I don't really feel complete without a book in my hand.Yet as much as I read, some things remain sacred - particularly what is known in our household as the "Kingfest".

Ever since Stephen King published his first novel, Carrie, back in the days when I was a mere slip of a teenager, the publication of a new Stephen King novel has evolved into a personal ritual. I buy in chocolate - lots of it - and I switch of the 'phone and I indulge myself. I wallow in Stephen King, continuing to read until the book is complete. This was the case with 'Dreamcatcher'.

In the usual King setting of Derry, Maine, four boys perform a courageous act. They rescue a Downs Syndrome boy fom bullies and, as a result, they become his friends. Yet Douglas (or Duddits as he is known) remains a forever child, and cannot participate in the annual hunting trips which his friends take every year without fail.

The book opens when the four have become men and are on their regular pilgrimmage to the hunting lodge.Two of them have gone off to the stores for supplies, one has gone a-hunting in the woods whilst the fourth sits sentinel on the fringes. A stranger comes stumbling out of the woods and the nightmare begins...

King has excelled himself in this latest venture. It is a story of boyhood, of lasting male friendships and unbreakable bonds. Yet, being King, it is also a tale of strange lights in the sky. Of 'grey men' who appear on earth spreading a mysterious fungus which causes people to experience telepathy and of weasel-like creatures who have a nasty habit of invading peoples bodies until they burst forth in a scene reminiscent of that gross one from Alien where the 'thing' suddenly erupts from the stomch of it's victims.Except, being King, these things erupt a lo
t lower than the stomach ...if you catch my meaning.

Since this is King, there is almost inevitably blood and gore in this case, buckets of it. Yet just as inevitable is the black humour - the first sign that people have been inhabited by the' weasels' is that they develop flatulence, the smell of which could almsost kill at 100 paces.

The book skips between past and present in typical King style. One moment the reader is reliving an incident from the friends childhood, the next we are right slap bang in the present - and a very horrific present it is too. Running concurrently with the friends' 'adventures', is the story of the military's attempts to rid the area of 'grey men' and 'weasels'. King portrays these as fanatical, hard as nails characters - but naturally they all have their human flaws, without which this wouldn't be the Stephen King we know and love. As they swoop through the sky in their helicopters, you can almost hear Wagner blaring out through the speakers - although in this case, it is the Rolling Stones.

The great beauty of this book is that it stimulates the imagination.And, not only can you 'see' the scenes which King so carefully sets, but you can hear them, smell them and almost taste them too. (And I bet a pound to a penny that you won't be able to go to the toilet for weeks after reading this without checking the bowl before you sit down!)

Although I would describe myself as a huge fan of King's writing, I do occasionally see what I perceive to be flaws - I'm not blinded by his reputation. In the past, my main criticsm of King's books is that he frequently seems to wander off somewhere mid-book (maybe smoking those funny cigarettes?) and the plot tends to meander off course as a consequence. Not this time, though. King is back and he's kicking...

It may sound far fetched, but then most horror books would, in the cold light of d
ay. But in the dark of night, King has the ability to make you believe that, yeah...it just might happen. "Dreamcatcher" is King at his best - suspenseful, psychologically taut, humane and even occasionally funny. It is a story of battles, of survival (or not), of heroism and, most of all of friendship.It would not be unfair to say that some of the scenes from this book are vaguely recognisable from other literatue and films. There are shades of "Alien", touches of 'Tommyknockers', and a soupcon of "Apocalypse Now". Yet this is not really a criticsm, since King has taken the merest shadow of an idea, enlarged it, twisted it on it's head and thus given it a whole new interpretation. The result - almost 600 pages of pure, unmistakeable King.

And Duddits? Well, Duddits has a purpose - but you'll have to read the book for yourself. My lips are sealed.

And it has left me sad. Sad because I have finished reading it and it will probably be several months before I can switch off the 'phone and break out the chocolate again. Oohh, you lucky, lucky people - I hope it's as good for you as it was for me.

"Dreamcatchers" - Stephen King - Hodder and Stoughton ISBN 0 340 77071 6

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