Bedtime reading...not! (Insomnia - Stephen King)

Member Name: smcc

Product:	Insomnia - Stephen King
Date:	28/08/01 (64 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A hero to relate to, Believable story (unbelievably), Really can't put this one down, even second time round

Disadvantages: Takes a while to get into, Not for the squeemish or prudish, Can actually cause insomnia

As a big fan of Stephen King I find it strange that every book I pick, I feel as if I'm not really going to enjoy it. I get a sort of 'deja "read it all before" vu' effect. Even in the early stages of just about every book, that feeling stays for a while. Then, suddenly, you know you are hooked. The improbable becomes probable (how DOES he do it). I personally think that if anyone else wrote these books, the critics (and readers) would dismiss them as garbage, but Mr King is not called Mr King for nothing...

Onto THE book. Although I find Stephen King's books compelling, it is a very rare thing that I will consider reading one a second time. This is the exception. I'm still trying to put my finger on the one ingredient that this book has which differs from his other works.

The scenario is of a normal OAP in a normal town. He's nothing special, his wife's dying and he doesn't know how he'll cope. He does cope, but not without the gradual erosion of his sleep pattern. As his slumber period shrivels on a nightly basis, things start to appear strange in his life. As a person who frequently stays awake till all hours and then has to get up to go to work, I can relate to sleep deprevation (albiet voluntary) and I know when I am overtired my eyes appear to make things glow and colours appear more vivid. Believe me ther ARE times when I look out of the bedroom window in the early hours expecting to see the things Ralph Roberts sees. How can a fantastic story like this convince you so much that it could be real?

The story takes a while to get into (not second time round though), maybe because it is such a nothing-to-write-home-about situation (to start with). Ralph Roberts certainly is a hero worth looking forward to being old for. Raeding the part where a young mother has been badly beaten by her husband and Ralph goes to confront him without thinking about the fact that there is almost
40 years difference certainly makes Rambo look a fair wimp in comparison (alright, maybe not).

The question of whether it was just me having some sort of connection with this book was dispelled when my wife was persuaded (by myself and my mother-in-law) to read it. The book took a while to latch on, but soon even she could not put it down (probably again because she suffers a little from insomnia...though not self-induced like my own).

Ralph's draw into the other world, where the little bald doctors decide people's fate, is so gradual that, again, you don't notice the mudane becoming the fantastic. YOU JUST ACCEPT IT!

If you have never read a Stephen King story in your life, listen up...READ THIS ONE! You really don;t need to be a fan of King's other work to appreciate this one.

Warning: it has been proved that reading this book CAN actually cause insomnia...it's true...I'm writing this in the wee small hours!!!

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