#BookReview ‘The Mist’ by Stephen King

About the book…

It’s a hot, lazy day, perfect for a cookout, until you see those strange dark clouds. Suddenly a violent storm sweeps across the lake and ends as abruptly and unexpectedly as it had begun.

Then comes the mist…creeping slowly, inexorably into town, where it settles and waits, trapping you in the supermarket with dozens of others, cut off from your families and the world. The mist is alive, seething with unearthly sounds and movements.

What unleashed this terror? Was it the Arrowhead Project—the top secret government operation that everyone has noticed but no one quite understands? And what happens when the provisions have run out and you’re forced to make your escape, edging blindly through the dim light?

First published as the opening story in the collection, ‘Skeleton Crew’, and adapted into the acclaimed movie by Frank Darabont as well as a one season tv series, ‘The Mist’ is one of 7 novellas which Hodder Books are re-releasing as stand alone publications.

A cynical money making exercise to cash in on those who collect series of covers, or a scheme  to exploit a pensioner’s up coming 50th anniversary of debut novel, Carrie?

Personally, I think this is a great idea-most of King’s books are massive doorstop chunks, and by publishing novellas from different collections, this makes reading not such a scary prospect for those who may have been put off by the size of his other novels. Also, thanks to massive research on my part, the books fit neatly into practically all pockets and take up little room on one of the book cases/shelves . This is especially handy if you happen to have a partner who keeps a beady eye on bookish comings and goings (walks off whistling with hands in book filled pockets…)

Anyway, back to the story.

A huge storm attacks the lakeside home of David Drayton, Long Lake local and artistic celebrity, his son Billy, and his wife, Steff.

The heatwave giving way to a thunderstorm rolling across the lake, gives way to huge structural damage, and, as is people’s want in situations like this, they head to the supermarket to stock up on goods which may come hard to find. Taking their neighbour, Norton, an out of towner with them, leaving Steff to begin tidying up the debris made by falling trees and shattered glass.

Once in the supermarket, the thin mist which has been spied rolling across the lake, gets thicker, more opaque, and creates a bubble effect within the supermarket. And then, the things in the mist begin to reach out tendrils and the screams begin…

Hunkering down in the supermarket, survival of the fittest is down to which side of the line you stand on, Drayton and his small band of realists, or Norton and his ‘Flat Earthers’, who are certain this appearance of monsters is a huge error on the part of the soldiers in the Arrowhead Project. Which ones survive to the end of the novella?

That would be telling!
The tale is told from David’s first person perspective so you have this connection with him, and therefore, with the town and its people. King excels at his descriptions of small town life and the actions of people like you, or I, in extreme circumstances.

This is pared down, early King, which , being written in the late 70’s/early 80’s has some unpleasantly used epithets and stereotypes, but these are used to exemplify character traits rather than seeming to be the voice of the author himself.

Split into devour-able chunks, the tale is one of survival, and what I loved about it is the everyman perspective, and the show, not the tell, effect of the narrative. He keeps the monsters at bay, and does not over explain them, or their source, leaving the reader free to take the canvas he has constructed, and to paint on it with their own palettes.

The themes are common-survival and security, the base layers of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, and in the space where an explanation should exist, fear, speculation and some very bad takes take hold. Including that it is a punishment from God, that is the rationale , if it can be called that, of local woman and monstrous creation, Mother Carmody. She is on a level, in my humble opinion, with Annie Wilkes, a woman who uses religion as a flaming sword of justice with absolutely no rationale behind it.

The speed at which the terror of confinement and how far reaching it is outside the supermarket is so primeval, especially when considering the children who are either at home, stuck outside , or else, are in there with a parent at home. Each reader will bring their own moral code with them and find certain actions inexplicable, but this again, is where King excels. His storytelling is so pervasive, so engaging, that you can see the face of terrified Billy, the grotesque Mother Carmody, manager Ollie Weeks on the situation in the loading dock, and Mrs Repperton , battling creatures with a can of spray and a tennis racket.

They come alive.

And the horror, never will I forget the fate of Norm The Bag Boy -he doesn’t have a surname, is defined by his role and his badge on his uniform, his corporate responsibility and bravado the basis of his undoing and the pinnacle of his achievements.

And the contrast between Norton, the out of towner who at one point thinks this is a giant joke being played on him, and local man made good, David Drayton is superb. David’s art has made him successful and yet, they are facsimiles of the one picture he has created, which was used to sell groceries for a commercial entity. Even his status is one fed on the false perspective of both the painting, and the process behind creating it. He starts out the story as a loving family man, and ends it as a survivor of atrocities, fuelled on by the need to protect his child. Norton, however, the man who turns up and throws money around and has little to no sense of actual values, feels his money should buy him status and when the two men go head to head, the sparks fly off the page.

The foreshadowing which King often uses, appears as a father’s worst nightmare, looking up into the sky as the thunder storm , David imagines he can see the horrific sight of an Old Testament God, coming across the Lake and towards his house, a God so huge that his face cannot be seen and yet, the impression gleaned is that this is a god of vengeance on man for the sin of pride. And then this is mirrored at the end of the story (not saying how) and there is lovely sense of circuitousness which belies the ambiguous nature of this tale.

”You know what talent is? The curse of expectation.As a kid, you have to deal with that, beat it somehow. If you can write,you think God put you on this earth to blow Shakespeare away.Or if you can paint,maybe you think-I did-that God put you on earth to blow your father away.”

What I loved, apart from the sheer terror induced from reading this, is that it sets you up for the tales to come-it has an earnestness which is Classic early King, and lasts not a page longer than it has to. Pared down, sharp, succinct and brutal, this is a modern gladiatorial arena set in the most ubiquitous of settings, the commercial supermarket.

It make be over 30 years old, and yet, it strikes me that there are similarities between then and now, with regards to the pandemic. The internet is like the supermarket, where you have, divided into two camps, those who want to escape the nightmare and get back to a sense of normal (the vaxxers) and the anti-vaxxers, who prefer to trust their own flawed logic, religion, or both to give them the answer. The question being, did we meddle in things which we didn’t understand? And both camps have to admit that yes, yes we did. And the punishment for this weaponizing of virus’ is worldwide pandemonium , a world which has families divided, separated and against each other. Divide and rule. It might be a stretch, but reading Mother Carmody’s increasingly irate speeches made me think of the disqualified nurse shouting at the anti-vax ‘debate’ about the Nuremberg trials. And making about as much sense, yet using their recognised title-‘nurse’ is not a protected title by law, yet those who are not allowed to practice may still use that, and do so without impunity, the same way Mother Carmody uses her clout as a local figure,to beat down her opposition.

It has made me think each and every time I go to a supermarket, especially Asda which has a glass fronted window, what would you do in this situation. Would you try and get home, try and find help, or hole up there and pray for rescue?

All in all this is a strong contender for my favourite story in the whole book, I will look at the rest of them under the ‘Skeleton Crew’ title this coming week (I ran out of sticky notes for all the links to other worlds of the King universe!)

The Castle Rock set stories will be looked at individually also, as part of my Castle Rock readathon, so check out the blog for #CastleRock and upcoming reviews and musings!

Links to the wider King universe-

Page 24-‘chattery teeth’ are mentioned, there is a story in ‘Nightmares And Dreamscapes’ which is named for these novelty items, except this is one you don’t want gathering dust on the shelf…

Page 26-Bridgton Maine , specifically Kansas Road is also mentioned later in Skeleton Crew in the story Trucks, and is also where King himself lived at one point .

Page 74- Mrs Carmody quotes the Bible ‘the moving finger has writ, not in fire, but in lines in the mist.’ The Moving Finger is a tale in the collection ‘Nightmares And Dreamscapes‘ where a terrible fate awaits  poor Howard Mitla…

Character Ollie Weeks- in the Ed McBain novels set in the 87th Precinct, Ollie Weeks is the name of a not too great detective, almost the complete opposite of the one here. This might be a homage as King has often expressed his fondness for these stories over the years.

If anyone else spots something I missed, reach out and let me know!

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