by Jay Wilburn
The plan is to reread all of Stephen King’s works in the order that they were published. Richard Chizmar of Cemetery Dance had the vision. I’m doing it because I am a writer and I want to improve my fiction. And I love Stephen King’s stories. I think there is something to be learned through this process.
You can also go back to the beginning and read Before Carrie or any of my other posts up through this one and beyond by checking out this link to the Master List of all my #StephenKingRevisited posts.
After finally finishing Wizard and Glass, I’m invigorated to continue the Dark Tower series with this fifth book Wolves of the Calla. I had gotten stuck on that fourth book years ago and stalled my reading through the series. I simply had to resign myself to the style of these books. While my mind wants to stick with and follow our main storyline, I have to choose to buy into the story within a story flashback tales of the books instead of being of the mindset of just waiting until they are over.
Going through his recovery from the van accident and facing down his mortality, probably not for the first time, Stephen King was struck with the fear that he wouldn’t live to finish this epic series. This fifth book begins a three-book run ending with book seven in The Dark Tower itself.
He’ll revisit the world again later, but he seemed to be desperate to reach an acceptable end point in the event that King himself reached an endpoint.
I’m a bit fascinated by authors who reach a stage in their careers and lives where they are desperate to complete certain works before time runs out for them. Some of my favorite authors have or are going through this. I may be getting that itch myself to a degree, but I’ve been of that mindset so long with all I went through concerning kidney failure and transplant, that desperation to finish has evolved into more of a steady drive to see how much I can do with a day, finished or not.
I am drawn to the work authors – great authors – create in this state of mind. Do they pour out all they have stored up, going for broke? Is there a raw edge to their storytelling that may not have been there before? Is it possible the work becomes “less perfect?” That’s not necessarily a net negative if it is further from perfection. Maybe it is morbid curiosity, but I like to see what authors do when they become unchained or even unhinged in moments like this.
So, I get to stick with the Dark Tower world for a stretch here and that doesn’t sound so bad.
My next post in this series will be After Wolves of the Calla which will be linked on the Master List of all my Stephen King Revisited posts.
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