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Of all the plague themed books I have read this year, Stephen King’s [b:The Stand|149267|The Stand|Stephen King|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1213131305l/149267._SX50_.jpg|1742269] is pretty challenging to summarize. It’s a fairly long novel, with many twists and turns, ups and downs, and a meandering plot driven by a bizarre cast of characters. There were moments I really enjoyed it and others I wanted to throw the book in the trash. It felt like I was reading three different novels crammed into one, to be honest.
The first part reads largely as a survivalist pandemic novel. After a fatal error, a super plague is unleashed from a government lab and wipes out a significant portion of the population. Here the plot moves the fastest as we shift from character to character, seeing how the quick advancement of such a pandemic ultimately hits at both the individual and society level. It’s a Stephen King novel, so I don’t think it’s a spoiler to say, don’t get attached to too many of the characters. For me this was probably my favorite part of the novel, as characters are put in unprecedented, challenging situations and have to make tough choices that effect their survival and others.
The second part then reads as a pseudo-paranormal struggle between good and evil. The remaining survivors of the former United States are inundated with dreams of a mysterious dark man in Las Vegas (aka: evil) and a Godly old woman in the Midwest (aka: good). People then must make the choice of which of these figures they must travel to (with apparently no other options available in this strange, forced dichotomy). The shift from pandemic novel to this was really jarring and clunky for me. This is magnified by the fact that none of the characters are especially memorable, and the few characters of color that survived (and they are a very few) take on unfortunate stereotyped caricatures. It’s a lot of cringe over a few hundred pages.
Especially jarring, is the dark figure who is supposed to represent the ultimate evil… My experience is undoubtedly in the minority, but I first became aware of Randall Flagg as he serves as Stephen King’s antagonist in the fantasy novel [b:The Eyes of the Dragon|10611|The Eyes of the Dragon|Stephen King|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1430121758l/10611._SY75_.jpg|3083085]. Written for children, this novel’s central plot point revolves around napkins — boy do I wish I was joking — and the fact that this is how I was introduced to Flagg really made his reveal in The Stand underwhelming (if unintentionally hilarious).
The third part transitions as humanity tries to assemble a functioning form of government and society. As they do this, the ultimate showdown between good and evil looms on the horizon. Whether or not this ending is satisfying or anti-climactic, I still cannot say. Afterall, ”He laughed and laughed and laughed. Life was such a wheel that no man could stand upon it for long. And it always, at the end, came round to the same place again.”
So now as I sit here reflecting on the experience that was reading The Stand, I can’t say I loved it or hated it, there was simply so much of it that in the end these feelings all canceled each other out and left me somewhere in the middle of these reactions. I will say, I originally chose to read this book as a part of the BBC Radio 4’s "The ten books we rarely get around to reading" challenge, and while it is the third longest book on this list, it probably took me the shortest time to read. If Stephen King is good at anything, it’s making content with great “readability.” For this reason, I say give it a read and decide for yourself.
The first part reads largely as a survivalist pandemic novel. After a fatal error, a super plague is unleashed from a government lab and wipes out a significant portion of the population. Here the plot moves the fastest as we shift from character to character, seeing how the quick advancement of such a pandemic ultimately hits at both the individual and society level. It’s a Stephen King novel, so I don’t think it’s a spoiler to say, don’t get attached to too many of the characters. For me this was probably my favorite part of the novel, as characters are put in unprecedented, challenging situations and have to make tough choices that effect their survival and others.
The second part then reads as a pseudo-paranormal struggle between good and evil. The remaining survivors of the former United States are inundated with dreams of a mysterious dark man in Las Vegas (aka: evil) and a Godly old woman in the Midwest (aka: good). People then must make the choice of which of these figures they must travel to (with apparently no other options available in this strange, forced dichotomy). The shift from pandemic novel to this was really jarring and clunky for me. This is magnified by the fact that none of the characters are especially memorable, and the few characters of color that survived (and they are a very few) take on unfortunate stereotyped caricatures. It’s a lot of cringe over a few hundred pages.
Especially jarring, is the dark figure who is supposed to represent the ultimate evil… My experience is undoubtedly in the minority, but I first became aware of Randall Flagg as he serves as Stephen King’s antagonist in the fantasy novel [b:The Eyes of the Dragon|10611|The Eyes of the Dragon|Stephen King|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1430121758l/10611._SY75_.jpg|3083085]. Written for children, this novel’s central plot point revolves around napkins — boy do I wish I was joking — and the fact that this is how I was introduced to Flagg really made his reveal in The Stand underwhelming (if unintentionally hilarious).
The third part transitions as humanity tries to assemble a functioning form of government and society. As they do this, the ultimate showdown between good and evil looms on the horizon. Whether or not this ending is satisfying or anti-climactic, I still cannot say. Afterall, ”He laughed and laughed and laughed. Life was such a wheel that no man could stand upon it for long. And it always, at the end, came round to the same place again.”
So now as I sit here reflecting on the experience that was reading The Stand, I can’t say I loved it or hated it, there was simply so much of it that in the end these feelings all canceled each other out and left me somewhere in the middle of these reactions. I will say, I originally chose to read this book as a part of the BBC Radio 4’s "The ten books we rarely get around to reading" challenge, and while it is the third longest book on this list, it probably took me the shortest time to read. If Stephen King is good at anything, it’s making content with great “readability.” For this reason, I say give it a read and decide for yourself.