This month we are reading my second-favorite book ever: Stephen King’s post-apocalyptic masterpiece The Stand.
It was first published in 1978. A complete and uncut edition, with King adding some minor (in my view) material and updating the setting, appeared in 1990. We are reading the later, longer edition.
It is, indeed, a hefty chunk of book. The current paperback edition is 1141 pages, and looks formidable. Please don’t let that put you off, as it’s quite easy to read. My first time through took me a week. You won’t have a problem.
(Well, if your experience is like mine, you might have a minor one. You might put two days of your life on hold, including a date in my case, because you can’t wait to see how it ends.)
The Stand may or may not be literature, depending on your definition, but I suppose that’s true of any work, isn’t it? So what makes it my second-favorite book? It’s that the first time I read it, it came alive for me like no other work of fiction had, before or since. I knew these people. I laughed and cried with them. I visualized their world to a much higher degree than I do normally. As badly as I wanted to reach the end, I mourned it when it was over.
Stephen King has written many horror stories. This is not one. This is not a story that depends on possessed Plymouths or haunted hotels to get you. No, what may ultimately scare you long-term, despite its supernatural elements, is its plausibility.
It’s one of the most engaging and engrossing stories of good and evil I’ve ever read, and it just might have a thing or two to say about the human condition. I’m really looking forward to what is, I think, my fifth reading.
Please join us for the ride.
