TCCDM Dig & Flip: The Dead Zone - Stephen King (1979)
The Dead Zone
by Stephen King
(1979)
Hardback, 426 pages
NO SPOILERS:
The Dead Zone was Stephen King's fifth novel (not counting Bachman) and had the unenviable task of following his epic tome, The Stand. That's too bad for any book. Whaddyagonnado? But I was pleasantly surprised by how much I got into it. It was also the earliest novel of his that I hadn't gotten around to reading until now. It's not horror, this one. The story is more of a slow-burning thriller wrapped inside a mystery. The main character is John Smith. Smith is a nice, average fella, a schoolteacher, who suffers an unfortunate accident and recovers only to find he has occasional premonitions.
John Smith is just another one of King's well-written characters who, through no fault of his own, catches the wrong end of the life-stick. We like Smith, and we grow to hold a great deal of empathy for him. King develops or describes all his characters with a precise pen, and we easily root for the good guys and comeuppance for the bad. Plus, King always seems to have a real knack for writing conversation like nobody's business. The same is true here. Nothing ever feels forced or sounds fake. I don't often hear this novel mentioned when discussions of Stephen King's better novels come up, but I think it should be included. Of the 60-plus books he's written throughout his career, The Dead Zone would be in my top 20, 25 for sure. Stephen King, even this early in his craft, is on another level, and we'll not see another like him for a very long time.
"Monolith" - T. Rex / "Electric Warrior" (1971)
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