Tuesday, August 10

King of the world

I finally finished Wolves of the Calla, what was the latest King when I bought it in the fall. Usually I can rip right through his books, but I read this one in fits and starts and thus never got into it until, well, yesterday. Lying around feeling sickly gives one the opportunity to focus on one's book a little more.

King took a somewhat roundabout approach to this book, the fifth in the Dark Tower series (I still think I & II are my favorites), but it gave him the opportunity to fully develop his characters, making Jake into a man and making Roland more human. There were many nudge, nudge/wink, wink moments (you should have seen me trying to sound out some of the phonetic spellings) as well as great connections to other books (Black House, 'Salem's Lot, etc.), but I had a love/hate relationship with King's self-referential moment at the end. While I loved Shyamalan's captured reflection (so Hitchcock, so perfect), it's a little harder to pull off in book form. Nevertheless, all of it made me glad I read so much fucking King. It's all connected, baby.

Book VI is out now, and of course I want to read it immediately because the ending of this one is still fresh in my mind. But there are other worlds than these, and to them I owe my attention.

No comments: