Rashmi bookmarks “Dreamcatcher”

This is the second book by Stephen King that I have read in as many weeks (broken only by a brief stopover for a Dean Koontz book that I started but abandoned in such haste, it does not warrant a ‘review’). Originally created under the working title of “Cancer”, Dreamcatcher is the story of four childhood friends Gary Ambrose ‘Jonesy’ Jones, Pete Moore, Joe ‘Beaver’ Clarendon and Henry Devlin, and Douglas ‘Duddits’ Cavell.

There are two events of prime significance in this book; totally unrelated at first, but inexplicably and inextricably woven together as later events prove. One occurs in their early teen years, when the four save Duddits from a group of sadistic bullies. The other occurs some years later, on their annual hunting trip to the Hole-in-the-Wall.

Let me start with what I liked about this book. I thought the central theme of the novel was awesome. I liked the way the childhood encounter with Duddits explains as well as resolves the alien invasion years later. I also liked the characters of this story. Each of the four friends had traits that were distinct as well as something we could all relate to. I was especially in awe of Duddits who grows from a helpless bullied boy with Down’s Syndrome, to the powerful force that brings it all together in the end. And without giving too much away, I will say that I really liked the element of telepathy - how it was first discovered, and - even more brilliant - how it is finally tied in to the novel’s title.

And now for what really put me off! First - and this, from what I hear, is just the way Stephen King writes - I found the narrative unnecessarily long-winded. A very good idea seemed buried under an avalanche of words, words, and yet more words! The other major problem I had with this book was its very gross obsession with the victims of alien invasion breaking wind and releasing the “shit-weasels” out of their… yes, anus. There may be no logical explanation to my next point, but I found the incessant references to movies, directors, actors, books, authors… quite annoying. And finally, I thought the liberal spray of bad language could have been turned down just a notch!

Having only read two books by Stephen King (one of which was by “Richard Bachman”, and obviously not intended as horror) I cannot with any authority say if this is a typical example of horror by the universally acknowledged king of horror or not; but I will say that although this book had elements ranging from grossness to science fiction, it was not Horror. That said; I have liked enough to give King a few more tries!