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.