Re-reading Stephen King's "Richard Bachman" novel Roadwork. It's more of a non-genre novel than his usual, and very much a portrait of its time (the early '70s). I don't think I've re-read it since I bought the collection of the first 4 RB books in 1985.
What Are You Reading?
- Thread starter TimmyBoston
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Chan Eil Whiskers
Fumbling about.
What's it about and what's the tone? It's a little series of books, right? Who is Richard Bachman?
I like SK as a writer but don't like horror.
Thanks and happy shaves,
Jim
I just finished rereading The Long Walk.
Before that was this, again. Great read, funny too.
Now, yet again.
I actually read this very novel earlier this year for the first time. I have this old mass market paperback edition. Of the four, my favorite was The Long Walk. You are right in that Roadwork is very much a portrait of the early 70s. While it was certainly not my favorite King story I am glad I read it.
The Long Walk will soon become a movie. I hope...
Stephen King's 'The Long Walk' in the Works at New Line (Exclusive) - https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/stephen-kings-long-walk-works-at-new-line-1105541
Stephen King's 'The Long Walk' in the Works at New Line (Exclusive) - https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/stephen-kings-long-walk-works-at-new-line-1105541
I just finished a reread of GRRM's A Game of Thrones. I've read the entire series, and like the rest of the world have been awaiting the next installment for what seems like forever. Rumors are that it might be around sometime in 2021, so I've decided to reread the series in hopes that by the time I finish A Dance with Dragons that The Winds of Winter will finally be out. It's been a great reread thus far, as I've forgotten many of the details (it was years ago that I started the series - way before HBO decided to adapt it) Am now about 1/4 way through the second book, A Clash of Kings
Pretty amazing that way before The Hunger Games and Battle Royale that King had come up with those exact ideas in The Long Walk & The Running Man.
Got two going this week: "The Great Society" by Amity Shlaes and "The Order" by Daniel Silva. Halfway through each; both are quite good.
I almost started The Dark Tower series again. I still have The Gunslinger in paperback I bought in an airport when I was 15. I really liked The Talisman by Stephen King and Peter Straub. Thats likely my favorite SK book. Desperation I also enjoyed. The last one I liked was Insomnia.
Not many SK novels really translate very well to movies. Its difficult to capture the details and nuances of his writing, and the ever present dread.
Jim,
As others said above, "Richard Bachman" was a pen name King used for 5 novels published in the late '70s and early '80s. Roadwork is about a 40-year-old man whose house and long-time business are about to be plowed under by a new turnpike extension, and his midlife crisis consists in resisting (violently, I think) the vast and unwelcome changes. It's very much a '70s story, set during late 1973, with gas shortages and mentions of Nixon's Watergate travails. Quite grim and wintry.
The other 3 in the 4-novel collection are not "horror" as in supernatural stuff like The Shining or Salem's Lot, but they are disturbing all the same. A high school senior snaps, shoots his teacher, and holds his classmates hostage, a story more complex than it sounds); and two dystopian SF novels about future Americas where a special kind of competition becomes a matter of life and death for the protagonists. The 5th "Bachman novel, Thinner, is horror for sure.
If you like King but have skipped his horror, no doubt you have read his novellas "The Body," which became the film Stand By Me, and "Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption," which became the film with Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman. If not, you should read them immediately!
Just added that Elmer Keith book to my wish list. He was a character.
Just starting "The High Window" by Raymond Chandler, third in his Philip Marlowe series after The Big Sleep and Farewell, My Lovely.
Chan Eil Whiskers
Fumbling about.
I'm not sure I've read The Body, but I certainly will.
The Green Mile was a great book. I'd seen the movie. I didn't understand the movie at all, but the book was a million times better.
RH&SR, also excellent and very much worth anyone's time.
Purchased this novella collection just now.
Thanks and happy shaves,
Jim
Attachments
Jim,
Stand By Me was the first true, honest adaptation of a King work to the screen. The Dead Zone a few years earlier came very close, but SBM really knocked it out of the park and was completely unlike any adaptation before, as well as unlike any King story before. When I tell people who "hate Stephen King" but "love Stand By Me" that he wrote the latter story, they don't believe me.
Jim,
Stand By Me was the first true, honest adaptation of a King work to the screen. The Dead Zone a few years earlier came very close, but SBM really knocked it out of the park and was completely unlike any adaptation before, as well as unlike any King story before. When I tell people who "hate Stephen King" but "love Stand By Me" that he wrote the latter story, they don't believe me.
Robert Ruark has been unfairly forgotten. He wrote honestly about Africa, and nowadays we can't have that. His novels Something of Value and Uhuru truly portray the Africa he saw in the '50s and '60s.
His last novel, The Honey Badger, is dynamite as well.
He was! Its written "in his own words" mostly typed from recordings so you really get a feel for how he thought and better understand where he was coming from.
Its an epic read. Starting at the beginning with family history before he was born, through his childhood, cowboy days, military service, guiding hunters all over North America, his escapades in Africa and then as a gun writer, filled with pictures and descriptions.
His knowledge of game animals, habitat and behavior is amazingly intimate. One only develops that kind of insight from years afield studying animals and understanding how they think.
If you havent read Ruarks Horn of the Hunter its also a very good read. Robert Raurk also had a very keen insight into animals, as well as people, and an equally keen sense of humour. His writing style is in such a way as you see things unfolding through his eyes and develop a very clear picture. It takes place in the 1950's and his professional hunter was the famed Harry Selby when he was only in his 20's.
Something of Value, also written by Raurk is a fantastic book. Its about the Mau Mau uprising in Kenya in the 1950's.
"When we take away from a man his traditional way of life, his customs, his religion, we had better make certain to replace it with SOMETHING OF VALUE." ― Robert Ruark
I was just sitting here thinking about Something of Value and yeah, 'honest' is a very apt description of his writing. Life isnt always pretty and Ruark didnt pull any punches in his writing. I think he's my favorite writer. I may even place him higher than Cormac McCarthy as much as I enjoyed his Border Trilogy, No Country For Old Men and The Road.
I havent read The Honey Badger but from reading the description of it, it sounds like a journey of his soul, perhaps vicariously through another character, with a healthy dose of his great humour.
"In "The Honey Badger", first published (posthumously) in 1965, Ruark—thru his hero—searches for a purpose to his existence in a tapestry encompassing the restaurants of New York, through wartime London to the plains of Africa.
And just what is a honey badger? A mean little animal which, when cornered, attacks straight for the balls!!
Immensely readable."
Thanks for mentioning it.
Second subscription to Bookbub. Gotten some GREAT books off there; and, if they prove to be boring, you're only out .99 cents.
For you Hemingway readers, there is a new collection of his NICK ADAMS Stories out, with some previously unpublished material. Always a good read. The new book takes Nick from a young boy through his adventures of life and ends with him looking at his child and remembering his father and father's lessons.
For you Hemingway readers, there is a new collection of his NICK ADAMS Stories out, with some previously unpublished material. Always a good read. The new book takes Nick from a young boy through his adventures of life and ends with him looking at his child and remembering his father and father's lessons.
shoelessjoe
"I took out a Chihuahua!"
Fresh back from the war, Nick Adams’ healing commences ... Big Two-Hearted River, one of the finest short stories ever, period.
I'm putting "Fresh off the boat" by Eddie Huang on pause, and I picked up "Son of a trickster" by Eden Robinson instead.
"Trickster" is quit good so far.
"Trickster" is quit good so far.
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