Insomnia - Stephen King

Insomnia (King, 1994)

Elderly widower Ralph Roberts starts waking up earlier each morning. As the months pass and his day now starts at 2 AM instead of 5, he struggles to find a solution. Still mourning his wife, the lack of sleep starts to steal what little joy is left in life, and then he starts seeing things. And as his visions start to happen more frequently, he can no longer pretend they are hallucinations....

This richly imaginative novel covers a lot of ground, but I think its primary subject is the significance of a human life, regardless of the mark it can make. Even though the events of the book focus on forces fighting over a single boy whose life will be important to the world in the future, the actions and choices of Ralph, Lois, Bill, and the other characters highlight the importance of ordinary human lives.

There are many poignant scenes to that effect: Ralph defending his neighbor from her abusive husband, or a tearful Lois telling Ralph how her son tried to put her in a retirement home. My favorite might be the last (no spoilers), but one of the best is probably the scene in the cave where Ralph and Lois find the mementos of people who died unexpected deaths. While this is a great horror/fantasy scene with a tense showdown, it still takes the time to call out heart-wrenching details: a child's trumpet, a woman's shoe, an old bicycle. Each object imparts a bit of the person's final moments and reminds us of tragedy and evil in our world.

My only complaint (besides the occasional vulgarity that seems to come with the territory) is that King makes use of a few recurring images and ideas a tad too much for my taste.  What is intended as a subtle note of continuity comes across as a clanging bell after awhile, particularly the whole "Ralph is so tired he can't find his Cup-of-Soup" spiel. However, this is a fairly minor annoyance given the high quality of the story as a whole.

Arbitrary rating: 4.5 out of 5 ordinary human lives

The Dark Tower: The Wind Through the Keyhole - Stephen King

The Dark Tower: The Wind Through the Keyhole (King, 2012)

Written after the series was completed in 2004, this slim little volume is almost like an intermission between Books IV and V. It actually tells three stories, each within the other, but the technique isn't distracting and is actually very well executed. The main framing story has Roland and the gang narrowly escaping a deadly storm called a starkblast. While waiting in their shelter, Roland tells two stories to pass the time.

The first story finds a young Roland sent to a mining town with his partner to track down a murderous shape-shifter. This story is an interesting mix of Western, mystery, and horror, with a little science fiction thrown in - very entertaining and suspenseful.

The second story was told by the young Roland to a boy who survived one of the shape-shifter's attacks. It was a bedtime story from Roland's childhood about a boy named Tim. After his father dies and his mother marries an abusive drunk, he journeys north into wild territory to find the truth about his father's death and to help his mother, braving unknown creatures, malevolent relics, a starkblast, and a man who is trying to trick him into doing evil.  Though it starts out as a very realistic story, it eventually gets into some fantastic fantasy, with delightful cameos from Flagg and North Central Positronics.

Another excellent read in this fascinating series. My only complaint: the "bedtime story" portion is easily the longest of the book, at around 160 pages, and it would take at least 2-3 hours to read to a child.  Hope you're not too sleepy, kid!  Also, it doesn't read like a bedtime story. It's more of a prequel to the Dark Tower series, written in the same style as the flashbacks from Wizard and Glass. It even has a few very heart-wrenching scenes of spousal abuse - part of the evil Tim is trying to cure. It's a good story, I'm just not sure I buy the genre label we're given.

Arbitrary rating: 4 out of 5 delightful cameos