I don’t understand that it took me 20 years to see what an amazing writer Stephen King is. When I first read him the said approximately 20 years ago, I think it was The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon that was the first book. My mother was member of this bookclub where you were sent a book each month, a book that was chosen for you, so I read all kind of books because of that. At that time I also read Dean Koontz, and his books are creepy as hell. So when I saw Stephen King and he was called King of horror, I thought this is it, I’m going to read something even more creepy and scary than Dean Koontz. But.. the horror I didn’t understand that horror is not always about killing and slaying innocent victims, and have a drunken, divorced police detective investigate.
Horror is also about human nature, how cruel people can be, to them selves, to others, to the world. What happens when ordinary people are put in non ordinary situation. And I did not at all see the super natural, science fiction, the extraordinary imagination that is in Mr. Kings head. He is the master of thinker out of the box, or in the case of Under the dome, really thinking in the box.
Well, back to the dome. The book version, I haven’t seen the tv-series. It all starts a October morning, the dome is suddenly there and nothing gets in or out of the small town called Chester’s Mill. It is as many of Mr. Kings book set out in the state of Maine, US. Even Derry is mentioned at some point, loves that he uses the same area, the same towns, referring to towns, hotels that is used in other of his books. It’s as if the entire town is under a bell jar, although the dome is somewhat permeable, the air is slowly getting worse and the stream going through town is drying out leaving a smell of rottenness.
As always Stephen King has a cast of people that extend the most novels. I’m not sure what it is in his writing, but it’s easy to follow the different persons even though you not have heard from them the last 50 pages. The novel is fuller when you hear from all the, most of them, in first person, and not just having one narrator. And he is willing to tell who the murderer is, who has a grudge against who, who is willing to kill, what the plan of the bad guys are, because that not really the most important in the story.
The main characters are Dale Barbere a war vet called Barbie, Julia Shumway news reporter and owner of the local newspaper, Rusty Everett physicians assistant married to Linda Everett officer, Big Jim Rennie second selectman and king of Chester’s Mill, in his own opinion, and a number of people that are spun by Big Jim, Andy Sanders first selectman, Rennie Junior his son, Pete Randolph chief of police, reverend Lester Coggins, and a horde of young people that his son recruits to “help” the police force.
Big Jim is the kind of man that wants to be in control, doesn’t care about others, and just wants to see the world burn. The story is so well written that you tend to forget the outside world, that is outside the dome, even though you also tend to forget that it’s time for bed and you should put the book down, you are caught under the dome with the townspeople, you cheering for the characters trying to live a peaceful life might not be the correct word, but the have enough things to worry about with the dome, so having to be scared of the policeforce and the people that you are supposed to trust as well.
It is extremely difficult to describe the content of a this book as there are so many people and in some cases their background story as well, a lot to keep track of, which seems easy when reading but impossible to give a resume of afterwards. If yo are interested in reading about people, getting to know them, please give Under the dome a try, or just Stephen King in general.