Stephen King asks many philosophical questions in his novel DESPERTATION.
Can you imagine asking God for a favor to help save the life of your best friend? You pray and will do anything G-d wants as long as your friend is saved.
Would you think that G-d would want you to pay back His favor with interest? That you will be required to sacrifice something bigger than you could ever imagine?
When you are praying desperately would you thing that perhaps G-d is cruel? Would you think that you might be risking your friend’s life if G-d should answer your prayers? Are you ready to do anything G-d asks you to do?
David Carver and his family and some other travelers are trapped by Collie Entragian a very dangerous man. He is the only remaining police officer in a Nevada wasteland named Desperation.
He has killed most of residents and visiting miners and is now about to do the same to these vacationers. He believes he is ’’saving’’ them for a undesirable fate. He has lost his sister to the Entragian’s. They are evil and cruel. He was helpless to help his mother as he watched her dragged out of the police station’s cell block.
David, (who is 11 years old), risks his life to free Entragian’s prisoners. Before his fateful visit to Desperation David had built a relationship with G-d when his best friend Brian became comatose after a terrible accident. David’s faith and questions about G-d are the focus of this book.
The China Pit Mine, (that was once a cave), has now been re-opened by the Diablo Mining Corporation. (King plays with name symbolism here) The company has plans to remove all the copper and other natural resources in the area.
While they are digging the miners uncovered a powerful and deadly spirit. It is an unformed god known as Tak. Tak is raw power and can control human beings and the ’’lower’’ creatures of the earth against their will. Arachnids, buzzards, rats, snakes and wolves all signal when Tak is coming. The scope of Tak’s control is wide. These creatures move through the once busy mining town obey Tak. Tak is the opposite of David’s G-d.
Through his book we wonder which characters are left? Which god is stronger in the ability to manipulate? Which god will be the cruelest?
To find the answers to these questions you will have to read the book!
MY FINAL THOUGHTS:
I found the language used were like thoes of North America’s First Nations. It is used to signal Tak’s thoughts and physical manifestations, such as the carved creatures with extraordinarily persuasive powers--these King labels can tahs. Touching the can tahs can prove to destroy one’s resolve; Steve and Cynthia--two strangers searching together for Steve’s lost boss Johnny--handle a can tah and feel the intense wave of destructive, tempting pleasure. Holding onto these small-carved charms leads to madness, and this pair skates dangerously close to succumbing to Tak’s invitation.
King uses his references to gods that lived long before the understanding of out monotheistic G-d.
I thougt that the plot came together very well. It explained the what the significance of Brian’s near-death experience meant. I was happy that David returned to his faith and this gave him the ability to perform miracles, ( feeding all of Entragian’s hungry people with a few crackers and some Jolt soda pop).
This book is a depiction of the Good verses Evil. It is telling us that if we do not change our own greed one day we will be the ones to face Tak’s evil.
Tak is symbol of our own desperation when we abandon our faith and fall back to our base human desires.
The idea of fate and our human need to control our destiny is shown beautifully when the ’’has been writer Johnny Marinville and David Carver relationship. Johnny does not like ’’Prayerboy’’’s G-d at first. This leads to a surprising ending.
Even though I found this book a thought provoking I was so frightened as I read the 690 pages of this book I will never read a book by Steven King again! I bought the book on sale at Chapters Book Store in Victoria, B.C., Canada.
I am only recommending this to fans of scary books.
©LL