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BLAZE
Richard Bachman
Scribner
Fiction
ISBN-10: 141655484X
ISBN-13: 9781416554844
• Read an Excerpt
As Stephen King hastens to tell us in his foreword, BLAZE is a “trunk novel,”
the last of the Richard Bachman novels from the 1966-73 period. Published now
for the very first time, it has gone through some revisions (and you can read
King’s description of that process). So perhaps the book can be thought
of as a collaboration, if you will, between the young Bachman and the seasoned
King. No matter to whom it is credited, BLAZE contains some of King’s finest
work.
This is an obvious homage (as King acknowledges) to John Steinbeck’s OF
MICE AND MEN, a tale that, almost from its opening paragraph, is sure to end badly;
it’s merely a question of who it will end badly for and to what extent.
“Blaze” is the nickname for Clayton Blaisdell, Jr., a promising child
of humble origins whose fast track to success is abruptly derailed by his drunken
father, whose actions leave Blaze occasionally clever but not smart. Blaze’s
childhood and adolescence is described in vignettes that alternate with what is
to become the most significant event of his adulthood.
Even as we slowly learn what has led him to his present course --- a litany of
offenses committed both against and by him --- Blaze is in the midst of planning
and executing the kidnapping of Joseph Gerard IV, an infant whose parents are
extremely wealthy. He is aided and abetted by George, his now-deceased sidekick,
the brains to Blaze’s brawn whose ghostly presence is at least partially
a manifestation of the echoes of Blaze’s lost intelligence.
This is not a happy story, though there are more than a few laughs, demonstrating
that a sort of grim humor can worm its way into even the darkest of lives. There
are also some poignant moments; in one of these instances, I was torn between
bursting into tears and throwing the book across the room (I did both, but don’t
tell anyone). And yes, it ends badly --- though not as badly as it could have.
As an added bonus, Scribner has reprinted a short story by King, “Memory,”
which first appeared in Tin House magazine in 2006 and is the basis for his next
novel, DUMA KEY, to be published in early 2008. BLAZE thus references both King’s
past and future, which merge in an unsettling and occasionally brilliant volume.
--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
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