23. Doctor Sleep

By Stephen King

Recycling my Letterboxd post with some slight revisions below as I also talk about Doctor Sleep, the novel.  I also added some excerpts that I liked:

I first watched the theatrical version on Netflix in 2021, expecting it to be rather meh yet entertaining. I was pleasantly surprised to find how invested I was in the story, which takes place decades after The Shining. 

At the time I hadn't yet read the novel Doctor Sleep, but I found the psychic phenomenon portrayed in the movie quite easy to understand. Mike Flanagan did a wonderful job bringing the world of Doctor Sleep and The Shining to life, even reconciling the contrasting aesthetics of Stephen King and Stanley Kubrick.
     

And if you ever happen to be one of those unfortunate people who’s ever lost a kid—nothing left but a bike in the vacant lot down the street, or a little cap lying in the bushes at the edge of a nearby stream—you probably never thought of them.  Why would you?...  You’d never think of the RV People, those midlife pensioners and cheery older folks in their golf hats and sun visors with appliquéd flowers on them.
     And mostly you’d be right. There are thousands of RV People, but by 2011 there was only one Knot left in America: the True Knot. They liked moving around, and that was good, because they had to. If they stayed in one place, they’d eventually attract attention, because they don’t age like other people. Apron Annie or Dirty Phil (rube names Anne Lamont and Phil Caputo) might appear to grow twenty years older overnight. The Little twins (Pea and Pod) might snap back from twenty-two to twelve (or almost), the age at which they Turned, but their Turning was long ago. 

I really grooved on the idea of psychic vampires preying on clairvoyantly gifted children. That scene where baseball boy met his end was truly disturbing and horrific (Jacob Tremblay really is the default actor to portray abused, tormented children!). Rebecca Ferguson easily stole the show as the Big Bad Boho (how she sucked in Danny's steam with such reptilian relish!).

Coincidentally, when I was watching Doctor Sleep I was in the midst of reading The Bone Clocks and couldn't help but wonder at the similarity between Stephen King's Steam Stealers and David Mitchell's Anchorites, immortal beings who murder and feed off children gifted with "psychic voltage". There's even an exciting battle at the end between the "good" and "bad" psychics, much like how Dan and Abra face off Rose the Hat and her gang.

     “Oh, and make sure you talk to Walter. Ask him what drugs might keep a rube child nice and docile for a long period of time.”
     “This child doesn’t sound like much of a rube to me.”
     “Oh, she is. A Big old fat rube milk-cow.”
     Not exactly true. A great big white what, that’s what she is.
     Rose ended the call without waiting to see if Crow Daddy had anything ese to say. She was the boss, and as far as she was concerned, the discussion was over.
     She’s a white whale, and I want her.
     But Ahab hadn’t wanted his whale just because Moby would provide tons of blubber and almost endless barrels of oil, and Rose didn’t want the girl because she might—given the right drug cocktails and a lot of powerful psychic soothing—provide a nearly endless supply of steam. It was more personal than that. Turn her? Make her part of the True Knot? Never. The kid had kicked Rose the Hat out of her head as if she were some annoying religious goofball going door-to-door and handing out end-of-the-world tracts. No one had given her that kind of bums rush before. No matter how powerful she was, she had to be taught a lesson.
    And I’m just the woman for the job.

Earlier this summer I found a pristine paperback of Doctor Sleep at a yard sale for two bucks, and was almost done reading it when I learned there was a Director's Cut that had an additional 30 minutes worth of material. I found a copy online and started watching it again. 

I actually prefer the climactic battle from the movie more than the novel. In the book, the Overlook Hotel had burned to the ground due to the boiler exploding. Rose and her gang had built a campground near the site because the land is still permeated with evil vibes. That's where Dan and Abra go to face off Rose, and Billy is also there to provide help. Dan had met with Abra's dying great-grandmother earlier on, who gave him her cancerous steam before she passed away. This was Dan's secret weapon to wipe out the gang. 

In the movie, the Overlook Hotel is still standing, though abandoned. And Rose is unaware of its existence until Dan and Abra lure her there as a trap. I thought the movie wove this version of events together rather nicely. The Director's Cut also added more interaction between Dan and the ghost of his father, who "now" tends bar at the ballroom of the Overlook Hotel.

However, I preferred the ending of the novel to that of the movie. In the movie, Dan sacrificed himself in the boiler room so that Abra could live. It didn't make any sense, as Dan had time to escape and the Overlook was going to be destroyed by the raging fire anyway, along with its ghosts. It didn't seem fair to Dan's character, who never had a chance to live the rest of his life completely free of the Overlook's spell. The book gave Dan that chance, so it's a much more emotionally satisfying ending.  

In any case, the various incarnations of Doctor Sleep gave me some nicely crafted immersive fiction to escape into.  At 528 pages, Doctor Sleep almost rivals The Bone Clocks' 608 pages in length, yet is a much faster read as Stephen King does not over-indulge in literary wordiness.

14. Razorblade Tears

By S.A. Cosby

“Folks like to talk about revenge like it’s a righteous thing but it’s just hate in a nicer suit.”           

         --Ike Randolph

I spotted this 2021 hardcover on my MIL’s bookshelf that was in our guest room during our holiday visit.  Olman had already read it when he stayed there in November, and he highly recommended it, so I chose this over the Megan Abbott book I’d brought. And besides, how often do I get to read a new release?

Olman sums it up pretty well:

The main character in Razorblade Tears is an ex-con who runs his own landscaping business. Cosby puts his knowledge to good use as yard tools and equipment feature heavily in the action. And there is a lot of action. It reminded me a lot of the Spenser books where he and Hawk have to go full commando.  It's a great set-up. Ike Randolph's gay son (whom he rejected due to his own homophobia) and his husband are brutally murdered and he and the husband's white trash dad (who also has his own roughneck past) pair up to get revenge.  They are a great buddy duo, both can fight and do crime and their banter is a mix of well-written repartee and heavier shit as they get to know and appreciate each other.

Indeed, Razorblade Tears was a highly readable buddy vigilante thriller that was burdened by some heavy-handed wokeness, which was expected as the plot dealt with issues of homosexuality, toxic masculinity and race relations in contemporary Virginia.  

Adding a two-dimensional transgendered character as part of a plot twist was also somewhat Crying Game-y.  Tangerine came across as so whipsmart she can clap back at Ike’s failings, yet she’s so gullible she’d fall completely under the charm of an older senator who’s known to be a Grade A Asshole?

Olman said the dialogue was well-written but I found it rather ham-fisted and unrealistic at times, though I did agree the plot was well-constructed and fast-paced.  I wouldn’t be surprised if Razorblade Tears has already been optioned for an upcoming movie, though Denzel Washington might be getting a little too old for the lead. 

Early on in Ike and Buddy’s “investigation”, they visit their deceased sons’ former workplaces.  Isaiah’s coworker Amelia lays it down for them:  “You both think our sexuality is something that has to be explained. It isn’t.  It’s just who we are. It wasn’t Isiah being gay that caused problems between the two of you. It was how you dealt with it or didn’t deal with it that caused the problems.”

And then there's Buddy Lee, whom Olman thought was a great character.  I agree too, but also felt that he was also idealized as a kind of white cipher, ie. the ignorant white trash with a heart of gold, the culturally racist character who gradually gets wokified when he joins forces with Ike and sees the world through a Black man’s eyes.  

Here’s a section where their racial differences are laid down pretty thick as Buddy comments on Ike’s nice new truck, and Ike has the perfect response:

“So let me ask you this.  Would you switch places with me?”

“Do I get the truck? 

“Oh, you get the truck. But you also get pulled over four or five times a month because ain’t no way your Black ass can afford a nice truck like this, right? You get the truck but you get followed around in the jewelry store because you know you probably fitting to rob the place, right? You can get the truck but you gotta deal with white ladies clutching their purses when you walk down the street…”

And later in the book when Buddy is trying to justify his past behaviour:

“I ain’t trying to make no excuses, but when you grow up around people—your aunt and uncles, your grandparents, your brothers and sisters, your friends—all of them saying things that you don’t even think about being wrong or right, you don’t put that title on yourself…  So you do think I’m racist.”

Ike: “I think maybe for the first time in your life you’re seeing what the world looks like for people that don’t look like you. I mean you still ignorant as hell, but you learning. But then, so am I. We both learning…”

Cosby did a good job at making these kind of exchanges sound as realistic as possible, but it still came across as wishful dialogue.  For those who are already well-informed, the novel will come across as rather heavy-handed, but for non-Black popular fiction readers who aren't as up on their CRT, perhaps it may enlighten as well as entertain.  Cosby also had a way of expressing strong emotions in keenly observed moments, especially when dealing with Ike’s loss for his son:

Maybe Mya was right. Maybe he didn’t deserve to grieve Isiah. It didn’t seem fair for a man to mourn someone abundantly that he had loved so miserly.

Overall, this was satisfying genre fiction - there was no holding back on action, violence, guns, bloodshed and destruction.  It involved family ties, friendship, hardened criminals, redemption, vengeance, political corruption, conspiracies, child abduction, sexuality, racism and LGBTQ+ issues!  All in a contemporary Southern setting.  And despite some of my misgivings, SA Cosby did a very good job juggling all these facets to make very entertaining fiction.

One thing I’m glad about reading this was that it helped add one more to 2021 (finished on NYE!), as I was 99% certain The Bone Clocks was going to be my final book for the year.  At least I went out with a bang with Razorblade Tears!

Inserted in My MIL’s Razorblade hardback was a clipped NYT article about author S.A. Cosby, and it makes an interesting observation:  “As a Black crime writer in the rural South, Cosby is an anomaly.” It goes on to say that most well-known African-American crime writers like Chester Himes and Walter Mosley set their stories in urban environments like LA or NY.  Cosby thinks one of the main reasons Black crime writers tend to avoid the South has to do with its painful and abhorrent history - genre writers just don’t want to tackle it.

12. The Duplicate

By Wiliam Sleator  

Read this within two days. First at the playground where R & her BFF spent a good 90 minutes running around (and this was after the switch-off), and then again on a rainy Sunday.

 

It's a nice hardcover copy from Dark Carnival that was printed in 1988, so god knows how long this has been on the shelf. I originally bought this as a xmas present for my teen nephew-in-law, then ended up giving him something else. I know, what an aunt, eh?). Olman seems intrigued too.

 

The Duplicate is a tight, claustrophobic psychological sci fi thriller for young adults. The story was also much darker than expected, so note to self: this is not something my kid should read until she’s at least 13!

Book 39 – The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest

By Stieg Larsson

Well-- it’s been over year since I became The Girl Who Kicked Herself For Not Getting The Cheap Hardcover at Chainon.

Last we left off with the exciting conclusion of The Girl Who Played With Fire, Lisbeth Salander was shot in the head by her estranged Pa, her semi-conscious body airlifted to the nearest hospital. Even though you know our heroine is going to pull through somehow, it was still one hell of a cliffhanger to nurse for a year and three months. When hubs got me an iPad last Xmas, I was tempted to get the e-book, but thought the $11 price tag was a little steep. Now that it’s finally released in paperback (for $8! so Why-TF was the e-version more expensive?), I promptly ordered a copy.

Lemme tell ya, it was well worth the wait, despite the fact that this 563–page action-packed tome kept me up multiple nights in a row.  To quote that silly line from the new Cronenberg movie: “It excited me!”

Unlike the majority of trilogies or series where each sequel is like a watered-down and/or inferior version of the original (take The Dark Materials trilogy, for instance), each installment of the Millenium trilogy was better than the last. I liked The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo all right, but The Girl Who Played With Fire took it to the next level, focusing on the character development of the fascinating Lisbeth Salander, as well as allowing her to kick even more ass (physical and cyber-spatial) than before.

The second book also introduced a whole web of new characters and how they were all inter-related to one another. Of course, the common denominator was The Girl herself, but there were new writers working for Millenium, various police inspectors, government officials, secret police agents, biker gang members, old friends of Lisbeth, as well as not-so-friendly people from her tragic past.

The third book has many of the same characters, and then some. It’s like a crazy Swedish version of The Wire, except we have a young woman entangled in some secret government conspiracy to have her locked away in an institution for life. And all because her father happens to be a badass Russian defector and ex-spy who keeps getting into trouble with the authorities because he's an underworld gangster as well as a wife-beater!

Despite the fact that Salander is not able to kick as much ass as she did in the previous book (due to her recovering from a bullet hole in the head (--oops I gave it away, oh well!), Salander’s motley crue of unlikely allies (a few who have friends in strategic places) rise to the occasion to help her out of this conspiracy mess, and Lisbeth also turns to her comrades at the exclusive Hacker Republic for help. The plot of TGWKTHN has been criticized for being preposterous, which is ridiculous. I mean, the Millenium trilogy from the get-go has been about as realistic as, say, the Bourne books. This is escapist fiction, for chrissakes, and other than the not so subtle theme of Men Hating Women, these books aren’t pretending to be anything more. If you want to read a more realistic story, then go read some Margaret Atwood or something.

More importantly, despite the phenomenal number of subplots and characters, Larsson managed to tie everything together into something that was competently cohesive. There was a whole other seemingly unrelated subplot where Erika Berger quit Millenium to work as editor-in-chief for the major newspaper, SMP, and within the first two weeks of her new job, conventiently acquired a stalker. That storyline could have been cut out, but at the same time, it felt like it fit into the narrative, logistically and thematically. It could’ve been a structural mess in the hands of a less disciplined writer. As an experienced journalist, Larsson also did a great job writing about the bustling newsroom of a major daily, the inner workings of Swedish governmental politics or a general overview of constitutional laws. The complicated plot allowed Larsson to touch on various aspects of Swedish society, from the high-ranking offices of CEOs and government officials to some shabby apartment of a lowly drug dealer.

Even if you think the story was rather preposterous, Larsson grounded his universe in such a confident, straightforward maner that you won’t immediately realize how much info you’ve been absorbing at once… that is, until you’re having a fitful night of sleep as the various elements from the novel float about inside your head! Even after more than a year between the 2nd and 3rd books, I was able to remember many of the plot points and characters. I think, after reading the Millenium books, everyone becomes a little like Lisbeth Salander, with her photographic memory and careful observation of details. And the finale was awesome. There were no loose strings I could find.

Immediately after finishing The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest, Olman and I watched the movie version, which was rather hurried, omitting tons of details and subplots. A few times Olman went “huh?” after the movie skipped or altered something from the book. Since he hasn’t read the Millenium books, I had to fill him in on some background info. So if you’re gonna watch the last movie, it might not make as much sense if you haven’t read the final book. It might have been worthwhile to split the book into two parts, like what they did with Twilight and Harry Potter. Let’s hope the American remake will do this!