#CastleRock #Readathon ‘Uncle Otto’s Truck’

About the story…

This terrifying tale about a creeping truck, getting closer and closer, was first published in Yankee magazine in 1983, and then collated in 1985 collection, ‘Skeleton Crew’

The truck in question, co-owned by Otto Schenck and George McCutcheon, is a Cresswell truck, that kept on breaking down, and ends up stuck in a field, rotting and rusting away.

Emblematic of the American dream, for those who come in search of a better life from all parts of the world, it is a truck that neither knows how to work. So there it stays, like a monolith to capitalism until it is used as a murder weapon.

Narrated by Otto’s nephew, Quentin, he relates how his family made, lost, and made their fortune as German immigrants and owners of the hardware stores with their names on it . The income seems to correlate with Otto’s descent into madness, his obsession with the truck, and increasingly odd, eccentric rich man image. As such, his notion that the truck is getting closer, is disregarded by Quentin, until he sees his uncle’s body, and suddenly, his entire family history takes on a completely different perspective.

A neat tale of vengeance, and the consequences of your actions being greater than anything you could anticipate, this is a E.C Comics type of tale where having a first person narrator pulls you into the story. The familial history lacks a distance from what has happened that the reader brings to the story, that perspective leads you to take what Otto is saying with a huge pinch of salt. But, this is a Stephen King story, therefore there is bound to be a sting in the tale.

Murderous trucks?

Sounds familiar…

Links to other King works-

Pg 380-Derry ,home to one of many Schenck and McCutcheon hardware stores, also appears in ‘IT’, ‘Insomnia’ and many more books and stories.

Pg 380-Harlow, the setting or appearance of this Maine town is seen in works such as ‘Lisey’s Story’

Pg 381-Billy Dodd-father of the future The Dead Zone’ antagonist, Frank Dodd

Pg 382-Bridgton, the location of ‘The Mist’

About the author…

Stephen King is the author of more than fifty books, all of them worldwide bestsellers. His first crime thriller featuring Bill Hodges, ‘Mr Mercedes’, won the Edgar Award for best novel and was shortlisted for the CWA Gold Dagger Award. Both ‘Mr Mercedes’ and ‘End Of Watch’ received the Goodreads Choice Award for the Best Mystery and Thriller of 2014 and 2016 respectively.

King co-wrote the bestselling novel ‘Sleeping Beauties‘ with his son Owen King, and many of King’s books have been turned into celebrated films and television series including ‘The Shawshank Redemption‘, ‘Gerald’s Game’ and ‘It‘.

King was the recipient of America’s prestigious 2014 National Medal of Arts and the 2003 National Book Foundation Medal for distinguished contribution to American Letters. In 2007 he also won the Grand Master Award from the Mystery Writers of America. He lives with his wife Tabitha King in Maine

Links-https://www.stephenking.com/

Twitter @StephenKing

@HodderBooks