A truly spellbinding novel to say the least, this particular story encompasses just about all the bizarre aspects one could encounter during his/her life.An absolute masterpiece by Stephen King, in every sense of the word.
IMPORTANT CHARACTERS
Thaddeaus Beaumont:Lets just say he’s half a main character in the story, a writer going through the most testing times of his life.
George Stark:A fictitous character, Thad’s’’dark half’’ who defies logic to come alive and haunt others’ lives.
Alan Pangborn:The local sheriff of Castle Rock, another important character on the right side of matters.
THE PLOT
A 11-yr old boy is plagued by recurring headaches, really bad ones which are accompanied by strange and eerie visions-that of sparrows, loads of them.Dr.Hugh Pritchard on operating his brain to extract a tumor, discovers a pulsing eye, fingernails, teeth instead.Having extracted all of it possible without causing damage to the brain, he declares it as another case of ’utero cannibalism’. When 2 twins are conceived in a womb, and the stronger absorbs the weaker.In this case the foreign tissue was found in the brain, no freak casebut how come it was alive?The tissue which should’ve died within a month of the birth of the child.What triggered it alive after 11 years?Anyway it was over now...or thats what the doctor thought at least. Several years pass since, the boy grows up to be a clumsy writer, Thaddeaus Beaumont, who faces a writer’s block after his first two novels.In his desparation to get it over with and write something different he writes under a different name, ’George Stark’, the main character in the novel being a killer.’George Stark’ however turns out to be 4 times more popular than Thad.But after 4 novels under a different name, his wife is pregnant with twins and thats when he decides he’s going to be a father as Thad again.He goes public about his identity, about George Stark.Why, he even has a fake funeral for George as a publicity stunt.And thats precisely when the problems begin.... Starting from murders he’s accused of by Sheriff Pangborn, to the recurrence of his headaches and...the visions...the sparrows.There is too much evidence against Thad, however Thad has airtight alibies of his own.Pangborn is caught in a battle of conflicing values but in the end trusts his instincts to believe Thad is innocent. On further investigation, Alan discovers the killings are done exactly in the same way as George Stark would and it all starts from the graveyard where Thad had had the phoney funeral.A person had actually walked out of the fake tomb, leaving 12-size footprints on the wet mud and then started the murders.So who was it?Someone who thought he was George himself, a crazy fan?Thats what Alan thinks but Thad knew better.GEORGE STARK HAD COME ALIVE!
RISE OF THE DEAD FROM THE ASHES OF THE PHOENIX
Thad had seen it coming all along.His wife had told him, he was a different person while writing as George, very distant, he had fits of madness too.It was as if Thad had become someone else.Besides, he knew it too.His hands would automatically grab a pencil and start writing crap he never knew about.He would always have used a typewriter.He had messages too, as if he had telepathic contact with someone.Messages which had no sense earlier but could be decoded to be the description of a murder later. Thad was gifted with 2 unique powers as a person which he realises eventually.He had some control over sparrows and a telepathic contact with his twin.The sparrows of course are known to be psychopomps-conductors between living and dead souls, as well as harbingers of the living dead.As George stark, Thad accidently brings his twin back to life and since then he himself is George Stark, becomes a part of him.Sort of an alter ego.It is only when Thad decides to be Thad again, that Stark has to be a different identity and he goes around murdering those responsible for his separation from Thad.He kills Clawson whose blackmails had forced Thad to take such a decision, the photographer who had taken pictures of his fake tomb and many others....But then wasn’t Thad responsible too?It isn’t long before he starts threatening Thad through phonecalls and telepathic messages.The very fact that he’s alive is enough to drive Thad to the edge of sanity.However whatever else he may be Thad discovers something important during the conversations.Stark didn’t know a thing about the sparrows, that Thad alone was still their owner...............You want to live through all the excitment, well ..no better way than to read it yourself.
SALIENT FEATURES
1.Only, stephen King with his amazing style of narration can actually make you believe a story as abstract as this, not only that he’ll actually have you enjoy it.
2.How he manages to inject so much humour amidst such taxing events is still the million$ question to be answered.
3.The way he has portrayed Thaddeaus Beaumont as a picture of innocence, confusion, terror and his acts of asperity and repudiation is absolutely fantastic.Don’t think i’ve come across anything like this before.
4.This book has a way of really consuming you and your thoughts, you just can’t help but give in to the intensity of the situation, which you can actually feel running through your veins.
5.He has a way of describing things, this Stephen King, makes every little thing seem so important with his able writing, so that when we finally reach the main event, it is some job...to be able to handle it.
6.The ending , is unexpected, abstract and also has a message for us.....more often than not, one’s sins maybe forgiven, .....but not forgotten, not even by his/her own , frequently realised in real life.
7.Not good for the heart patients I agree, but if you’re okay there don’t miss the sudden thrills, the excitment brought about by the approach of a ’’what will happen next?’’ situation for anything in the world.
A true 468-page thriller which’ll surely have your heart beating faster than ever before owing to the astounding spills of the story.A story which’ll leave you with mammoth inexplicable satisfaction.Read it today!
DETAILS:
Price:$7.99(u.s.)
Publishers:Signet, Penguin Books ltd.
Registered Offices:Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England.
Printed in:U.S.A.