Christina Reviews *Stephen King's The Shining*

          I didn't read this book until after I'd already passed "Sh" and it is very important to me that these reviews be in alphabetical order.  It was pure fate that I had just reached that spot between "Sl" and Su" around the same time that I finished this book.  But even if it hadn't magically worked out that way, I probably still would have referred to this novel as Stephen King's The Shining.  A book written by Stephen King has its own special reason for being.

          I'd had this book on the shelf for years, but it took me until now to read it.  And that's because I had so many other books to read.  And I was intimidated by the book's length.  Who can be bothered with a 683 page book?  That's way too long for me.  I can't be sitting around all day reading a horror story.  I've got to work 40 hours a week like anyone else!  Not all of us can get rich off of our hobbies.

         The Shining is about a family of three who go to stay in a hotel during the off season.  The father, Jack Torrance, is going to be the winter caretaker.  His five-year-old son Danny has psychic abilities and is haunted by the tragedies that occurred in the hotel over the years.  The wife is disturbed because her recovering alcoholic husband seems to always be on the verge of doing something awful.  And as the months go by, and the snow begins to fall, his temper overheats like the neglected boiler in the basement.

         It doesn't help that they also have to worry about the possessed hedge animals and the secret of Room 237.  The fact that Danny sees the word "murder" backwards in a mirror in one of his visions and can only make out that it spells "Redrum" was a stroke of pure genius in my opinion.  There is something genuinely creepy about this story.  I blew through the first four hundred pages during a four day weekend.  But as the pages went on, the story seemed to drag on.  At some point, I just wanted it to end already.  I'm trying to think of what could have been cut out.  Probably 90% of the Halloran chapters.  Halloran is a hotel employee who has the ability to "shine" just like Danny does.  He tells Danny to call to him in his mind if there's ever any trouble.  But I didn't need to read so many pages of his misadventures as he tries to make his way to the hotel so that he can save the day.  All I needed was just enough so that his appearance didn't come across as Deus Ex Machina.  But is it possible for Deus Ex Machina to exist in a book that's all about reading people's minds?

        I didn't much like the wife (Wendy).  Maybe it was due to a lingering distaste for Shelley Duvall's performance in the Kubrick version.   In the movie, Wendy was this sad sack woman who probably never passed a jumper in a department store without having to take it home.

         Stephen King is a great writer.  There's no doubt about that.  I really enjoyed this book.  It was a great horror story that also delved into the hidden horrors that can lurk deep within the human psyche.  But like I said before, it didn't have to be so long.