King Sized Dilemma

I unabashedly love the books of Stephen King.  I usually wait a few years between readings and then devour everything he’s written in those years.  Luckily he’s extremely prolific and there’s usually a bunch of his work waiting for me after these interludes.  The Kindle has made it so easy that I don’t even have to wander around the book store wondering whether I’ve gotten all his latest works.  Just before heading to Panama I downloaded several of his works and anticipated passing time in the airline terminals enjoying this latest King fix.  It started out great as I knocked off several of his novellas and then ran into a wall almost as real as the Maine barrier featured in the current book, Under the Dome.  One of the things I’ve liked about King’s books are his protagonists, usually an everyman/woman, who struggles against evil and succeeds, although sometimes at great cost.  That seems to be missing in this book (so far) which follows the descent of the residents of a small Maine town that is suddenly cut off from the world by an invisible dome.  I was initially excited because the seeming hero, a guy named Barbara (last name), was similar to one of my absolutely favorite literary figures, Jack Reacher, from Lee Child’s awesome series of books.  Barbara, with the truly unfortunate nickname of Barbie, is a wandering veteran who becomes trapped in and then embroiled in the dissolution of the town pitted against a truly evil selectman.  For the first time I’ve actually considered putting down a King book and not finishing it.  The writing is still top notch but I find myself incredibly frustrated by the plot where good people are seemingly willing victims to the evil.  I know this has happened, Nazi Germany being the most glaring example, but here King is doing it with my fellow New Englanders and I don’t like it.  King’s done this before but he always lets the good guys have at least a fighting chance but I’m halfway through and there’s been precious little in the way of standing up to evil yet.  I’m a little worried that maybe it’s me that’s changed. I’ve written earlier that I find I don’t enjoy the drama of sports as much as I used to, maybe this goes hand in hand with that.  I never would have even considered putting down a King book before finishing it so I'm a little worried about myself.  I’m going to finish it because I find myself thinking about the characters all the time and trying to figure out how they're goning to get out.  I guess that means King’s done it to me again but it was more painful than it should have been.  Hopefully “Barbie” can rescue Chester’s Mill from itself, I’ll let you know.

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