On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Before he was a bestselling author, writing twisted tales of creepy clowns, apocalyptic epidemics, bloody prom-night massacres, and varied vicious villains, Stephen King was something much scarier: a high school English teacher.

Though King is known as the master of the macabre, the ghastly guru of modern horror, he is also - at his core - a former educator. As such, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft provides fascinating insight into the writing process for one of our era's most prolific authors. Like so many of King's novels, On Writing incorporates a mishmash of styles and genres: the non-fiction book is part autobiography, part ruminations on life, and part "how-to" guide. With guts and gusto, On Writing covers everything from King's childhood to his literary pet peeves to his near-death experience in 1999. Though this memoir might not be everyone's cup of tea, I could drink a gallon of this book and thirst for more.

The first section of On Writing outlines some basic details of King's earliest days, including amusing anecdotes of the writer's childhood and mildly dysfunctional family. With self-effacing humor, the author outlines the development of his emerging talents (including his first limited-edition novella: a plagiarized retelling of The Pit and the Pendulum that he sold to his elementary-school peers in the schoolyard), recalls his adolescent fascination with the science-fiction and horror genres, and details the many (MANY) rejection notices he received when he began submitting stories to magazines. One image from this section lingers in my mind: King, hunched in the laundry room of his trailer after a long day of teaching high school students, relentlessly typing the manuscript of what would become his first published novel, Carrie . Even the world's biggest authors have to start somewhere, and Stephen King has never forgotten his humble origins.

As he moves into the "how-to" section of On Writing, King really hits his stride. Fortunately, the author is aware of the pitfalls inherent in writing about writing: as he states in the "Second Forward" preface, "This is a short book because most books about writing are filled with bull****." While he excludes Strunk & White's The Elements of Style from this dismissive statement, I would argue that King's own book belongs in such illustrious company; in fact, if I was still teaching AP English, I would absolutely utilize portions of On Writing in my classroom.

As a fellow veteran educator who loves horror and the craft of writing, I’m fairly certain that I am the exact target demographic for On Writing. This book is (like so much of King's work) an earnest, unflinching, no-holds-barred commentary from an insightful - though flawed - author and observer. King frequently acknowledges his own shortcomings: he harbors no grand illusions that he is an equal of Faulkner, Steinbeck, or Hemingway (all of whom receive passing mention in this tome).

Of course, as much as the literati loves to dismiss King's work, the sheer number of books he has sold provides incontrovertible evidence that King's work resonates with many, many readers. As Neil Young sings in "Ambulance Blues" (from On the Beach), "All you critics sit alone / You're no better than me for what you've shown... You're all just pissing in the wind." I can't help but imagine that King recites this line to himself every time he receives a scathing review. As I now know from writing Incomplete and A Different Slant of Light, crafting a novel - even an amateurish one - takes a lot of work. SO. MUCH. WORK. Though a reader can consume a book in a matter of days (or hours, if inspired), authors spend weeks, months, or years pouring their hearts into each page. Believe it or not, writers are people, too.

So, if you're hankering for a humorous "how-to" guide with horror Easter eggs, On Writing might be a worthwhile endeavor. If you're a fan of Stephen King, though, this book is a must-read: it will sink its teeth into you with the feverish intensity of Pennywise the Clown and provide you with an escape sweeter than Andy Dufresne's.

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The Dark Tower by Stephen King
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

"Endings are heartless... Ending is just another word for goodbye." - Stephen King

In the "Coda" section of Stephen King's The Dark Tower, the author warns us that "There is no such thing as a happy ending" - that endings are, by their very nature, never really the end of a story. By acknowledging this conundrum, King sets the stage for what he anticipates will be a divisive conclusion to his fantasy/horror/sci-fi/metafiction epic, the Dark Tower. And what a doozy he's left for his readers!

It took me a little more than a year, but I finally finished the Dark Tower series last night. The adventures of Roland Deschain and his Ka-Tet occupied my attention for thirteen months, as I worked my way through the series; of course, I also read many, many more books on the side (many of them significantly better than the seven books in this series... but I digress). Like any other epic, the Dark Tower has plenty of peaks and valleys in quality, with some truly moving moments closely followed by plodding plot development. I will argue that, while this is not King's magnum opus, it's still an entertaining read with plenty of Easter eggs for long-term King Fans - his "constant readers," as it were.

The Dark Tower picks up immediately where Song of Susannah left off: Susannah Dean is held captive at the Dixie Pig, while the rest of the Ka-Tet is frantically in pursuit. The not-so-long-gestating "little chap" has been ushered into the world, and is ready to live up to his namesake, the villainous Mordred from the King Arthur mythos. While the Ka-Tet is initially focused on saving their "Lady of Shadows," they must also complete two other tasks of monumental importance: save the Dark Tower and its beams from the destruction of The Crimson King's "Breakers," and save the writer Stephen King from his untimely demise. Without giving away too much else, I will say that King embraces his inner George R.R. Martin in this final tomb, often to devastating effect. Will Roland and/or his Ka-Tet make it to the Dark Tower? What lies in store for Walter O'Dim (a.k.a. Randall Flag from The Stand)? What will become of the Crimson King? Who will live, and who will perish? You're in luck, Constant Reader: King answers all of these questions (and more) in the final half of The Dark Tower.

Though some readers might be unhappy about the "metafiction" injected into the last few books of the series, I find King's insertion in the self-referential narrative to be a thrilling twist. Yes, you need some suspension of disbelief to appreciate this plot point - but can't the same be said of all King's stories? If we can take It's Pennywise the Clown or the vampires of ’Salem’s Lot at face value, then we shouldn't have any issue with the writer appearing as a character in his own story. Just saying.

While King has a longstanding reputation for botching the endings of his stories, even he knows that he needed to "stick the landing" for a project of this size and magnitude. "I wasn't exactly crazy about the ending, either, if you want to know the truth," he states in the Author's Note, "but it's the right ending. The only ending, in fact." In this circumstance, I have to agree with King: the final pages of his seemingly never-ending epic can only end one way... and King gives his characters exactly what they deserve. Of course, in order to understand and appreciate the ending, you have to remember the beginning of The Gunslinger: "The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed."

It's an uncanny coincidence that my first review of 2023 was for Stephen King's The Gunslinger, and my first review of 2024 is the The Dark Tower - the eponymous conclusion of King's fantasy epic. These two novels - the first and last in King's Dark Tower series - bookended all of 2023 and the start of 2024. While I'm not so enthralled by the series that I'll hunt for every subtle (or not-so-subtle) reference in King's other novels, I do feel like I've been transformed in some capacity by joining Roland in his voyage to the Dark Tower. Just as various characters must say goodbye to each other, I, too, will bid adieu to the Ka-Tet after completing this series.

Happy trails, friends.

Or, as Roland Deschain might say, "Long days and pleasant nights."

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