Stephen King – The Shining
It’s Shining in the Dark.
Most of the time it’s easy not to read a book because of the genre or its writer, and in many ways this is the cancer of literary world. It’s the point where we divide the camp of literature into good and bad or classic and popular. Most readers like to stick to the same writers, genres and stories as they always have, unwilling to change and read something different because it’s been branded “unreadable” by critics, other writers etc…what does this have to do with a review of Stephen King’s The Shining? I think the name Stephen King sums it up. The “big mac” of literature and horror writer supreme. Now I’ve already stated one reason many avoid his books, the other is Stanley Kubrick. If you’ve seen the film version you know it’s a classic horror with cardboard characters but it’s a different story (Pun intended? – Editor) compared to the book. It’s my job not just to review The Shining, but convince you of its deep poetic meaning. (I don’t believe you. – Editor) Don’t believe me? Keep reading.
The plot of The Shining is simple, Jack Torrence is an alcoholic ex-teacher and once promising writer whose wealthy friend gets him a job as the winter caretaker of the Overlook Hotel. Along with Jack come his wife Wendy and son Danny, who has what Mr Hallorann calls “the shining”, the ability to read people’s thoughts and communicate with other “shiner’s” telepathically. Of course things start off well in the closed hotel, Jack enjoys his job and writes his play but gradually things go sour…the ghosts of the hotel want the Torrence’s to become permanent residents and use the crippled protagonist Jack as its tool, if he can be manipulated.
That’s the plot, this is the convincing. King creates a main character who is not a lunatic from the start but a man who you will care for and feel for. The narrative switches between the view points of the Torrence’s and each battles their own demons. For Jack these are very personal. He’s an alcoholic and it drives him to hurt those around him, he is haunted by the graphic memories of how in a blind rage he broke Danny’s arm (crack) and got fired from his teacher job by attacking a student, both caused by alcohol. Another dimension is Jack does not want to become his father, an abusive and spiteful man who he knew loved him, but at the same time Jack hated for what he did to his family. Will he break the cycle? The memories of the broken arm, the student and his father come back time and again and haunt him, try to change him but for Jack this is more than a job, its last chance saloon. Events push his family to want to leave the Overlook but Jack’s torn between his family and proving himself, not just as a recovering alcoholic, but as a man and a father. He’s desperate to hang onto the few remaining threads he has leave, Wendy and Danny and this job. He can’t endanger his family but as a man Jack can’t face failing at the simplest of job’s even in their darkest hour.
He’s not alone. Wendy fears for Danny’s safety, she fears for what Jack is capable of. She loves him dearly but these fears won’t go. Every time she hugs Jack she smells him for alcohol (even in the baron Overlook), it doesn’t help Jack’s feelings of universal failure. But do her fears come true?
As for Danny, he worries about his family falling apart, his daddy being going to the bughouse and the darkness in his daddy’s mind. At the same time the ghosts are after Danny, they want his power. They get coming after him, in the playground, the halls, even in the hedges. And his imagery friend Tony see’s something coming, something called “Redrum”.
Jack is already on the edge, this is his last chance at everything. With all his faults and insecurities it takes a lot longer than you’d expect for “all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy”. At the time of writing this book Mr King was in similar shape finding himself like many parents sometimes hating his own children and wife. The book looks at more than horror but commentates on the breakdown of the family dynamic.
These characters will become your own family and you will be dragged into the book unwillingly. It offers more than just a popular book; symbolism and deep meaning are forthcoming, from the boiling pressure that keeps building to the ghosts offering something Jack can’t find with his family, to a dead bee’s nest that links the past and present…
Now if you’ve believed what I’ve said there’s one thing I’ve left out. The Shining is more than a horror, but at its bare bones, that’s what it is! It’s a story of ghosts, murder and hedge monsters but hopefully I’ve given you an insight into more than just the surface of the book, and hope you can appreciate it as much as me. If you haven’t guessed I am a King fan, but you needn’t hold that against me. You may decide after reading this that you don’t want to delve into the pages of ‘The Shining’, but I hope you now realise that just like the Overlook Hotel there’s more to it than meets the eye.
Nice one James : )
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