Book Review: Fairy Tale

 

•  Author: Stephen King

• Where I bought this book: Carmichael's Bookstore, Louisville, Ky. 

• Why I bought this book: I've read every one of King's books. I ain't gonna stop now.

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   Fairy Tale is a shining example of the genius that is Stephen King.

    It's got a great story, with wonderful characters, and it's well told. What's not to like? I'd say this is among the Top 10 novels King has written.     

    It highlights the strengths of a King story, while playing down the tropes and flaws. But they are there. Indeed, as King seems to be drifting away from horror and into the realm of fantasy and thrillers, he has heightened his tendency to over-describe and overwrite.

    I first noticed this in 11/22/63, the story of the JFK assassination, when Jake Epping/George Amberson chases Oswald through Dallas in chapters that seem never-ending. In the latter part of Fairy Tale, when the action gets fast and furious, King's penchant for extraneous details slows things down.

      But so what? By this time we are so wrapped up in Charlie Reade's adventures with his dog, Radar, in Lilimar, that we easily speed through to the ending. But here's the thing -- we like Charlie, and his dog, and what he is doing, and we really don't want it to end. Because with King, we know it could have a happy or a sad ending.

    And because we have come this far, we know Charlie. We like him. Like many a King character, he's a normal teenager in a regular middle-of-America place (there's even a crazy old man in a weird house on the edge of town). Charlie has an unremarkable life -- his mother died young; his father struggles with alcoholism, and Charlie finds solace in football and his friends.

    But remember that old guy, name of Howard Bowditch? Well, Charlie somehow meets up with him, and they grew to like each other. Bowditch tells Charlie something remarkable about that shed in the back yard; Charlie looks into it, and the adventure begins.

    He enters a different world, one of hope but exacerbation. He senses its history, and how it seems to be  falling apart. He meets people he's never known before -- could never have known before -- but knows whom to trust and whom to help. It's a remarkable journey.

    When we first meet Charlie, the teller of this tale, he speaks in the voice of a young man. We watch him grow up as we hear him age through his words. Such is the power of Charlie's story and the mystical voice that King gives him.