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The "horror" genre, or "dark fantasy" genre, or whatever you want
to call it, is all too often the redheaded stepchild of literature: rarely acknowledged,
and never with grace. Well, almost never. Edgar Allen Poe is acknowledged as a classic
writer, but he is regarded as "safe" because he's been dead for over a 100 years
and just wrote short stories. Occasionally THE LOTTERY by Shirley Jackson or SOMETHING
WICKED THIS WAY COMES by Ray Bradbury will be given the recognition they deserve, but for
the most part everything in this genre is kept in a literary ghetto, without recognition.
THE SHINING, by Stephen King, is slowly but surely changing that perception. It is
regarded in some quarters as King's best book. I am not going to go on and on about how
frustrating it must be for someone of King's prolificity and stature to have people think
that his best novel was written 22 years and 30-some books ago. Or rattle on about how his
best book has yet to be written. Or rant about how THE DARK TOWER tetralogy or
however-many-books-long-it's-gonna-be will be the cornerstone of his work, his CHRONICLES
OF NARNIA, if you will. Nope.
Let us just say that this is an incredibly strong, well-constructed novel, with King using
all of the wonderful little literary tools and bricks and mortar we love him for.
In THE SHINING, King introduces his readers to Jack Torrance, his wife Wendy, and their
son, Danny. Almost immediately, King reveals that Jack Torrance is more than a few screws
short of a hardware store. He is a high school teacher who has just been hired as the
winter caretaker for The Overlook, a resort hotel in Colorado. A caretaker? Well, The
Overlook is in a beautiful but isolated setting and those Colorado winters really kick
butt. As a result the hotel is cut off from the rest of the world for five to six months,
hence the need for a caretaker. So, the hotel management hires Torrance: a disgraced
teacher and recovering alcoholic with a few elements of the sociopath bubbling around
beneath the surface of his smiling face.
Now, the Torrances have big plans. Jack figures the isolation of the place will be an
ideal environment for him to work on his play. Wendy, Jack's loyal and long-suffering
wife, is torn between --- as King so wonderfully puts it --- her grief and loss of the
past and her terror of the future. But she's strong, this one. And Danny? Well, Danny is
in the eye of the storm that is their marriage. But he's got a few tricks of his own.
So the little family moves to The Overlook. And The Overlook has...a
history. Especially with its winter caretakers. It has a personality, a life,
all of its own. It is a beautiful pastel birthday cake with a razor blade inside. Make
that a box of razor blades. Jack is ever so susceptible to the influence, the malevolent
currents of the old hotel as they eddy and sway about him, drawing him in, sucking him up.
Though, to his credit, he initially fights them, he ultimately willingly and joyfully
embraces them, like a drunken conventioneer would a $10 hooker. Wendy knows something is
wrong, but initially tries to ignore it. And Danny? Well, Danny has "The Shine."
He can sense things no one else can. Well, almost no one else. But by the time Wendy and
Danny get the wake up call, Jack is totally around the bend. And, by the way, it's snowing
like crazy.
People who think more about these types of things than I do believe that THE SHINING will
still be read, studied and debated 50 years from now. Don't wait that long to read it.
Yes, it is a horror novel. But, as with most of King's novels, the true, real horror
presented is not of a supernatural nature but made up of things we visit upon ourselves
and each other.
--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
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