Rainer Maria Rilke

"Live a while in these books, learn from them what seems to you worth learning, but above all love them. This love will be repaid you a thousand and a thousand times, and however your life may turn,-it will, I am certain of it, run through the fabric of your growth as one of the most important threads among all the threads of your experiences, disappointments, and joys."--Rainer Maia Rilke


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Saturday, March 15, 2014

Always Better Than the TV Version

Under the Dome by Stephen King

Horror

This is only the fourth Stephen King book I've read, so I can't say it was classic King, but I can say that it was good!  It's about a thousand page book, but it doesn't feel like it.  It just flies right along.

This tale takes place in ,perhaps ,the scariest setting of all--small-town America.  On one normal, ordinary day, a clear dome slams down around Chester's Mill, Maine, trapping the townspeople inside and barring everyone else outside.  The clear dome is like an electric field, and there are plenty of explosions and grotesqueries to start the action.  The outside world is flummoxed.  Scientists can't figure it out the military can't blow it up.  The monsters inside (much like the real-world) are small-town politicians whose power-hungry egocentrism are ruining the tiny world.  There are so many main characters to keep track of, but don't worry.  Not all of them survive!  Barbie is an Iraqi vet and a wild card--an out-of-towner who won't buckle; Julia, a newspaper owner who wants to expose corruption; and, Big Jem Rennie, the evil SOB in charge.

What's so scary about this book?  Imagine if you were trapped in a small space with limited food, air, water, and there's a moron in charge.  Did I mention his son is suffering from a brain tumor, has had a psychotic break, and is on the way to being a serial killer?  Yeah, that complicates the plot a bit.  What's so scary is that the monster is your neighbor, your lover, even you.  Skip the awful TV corruption and stick with the book (always my advice).

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