Lovely Little Shelf

The Book: Under the Dome, by Stephen King

The Story: This story is just a big huge “What if?”  What if a giant dome suddenly fell on top of a small town?  What if you were gardening on the town line?  What if you had a pacemaker, and this thing was emitting electricity?  What if there were already a power-struggle going on within the town, as there is in most towns?  What if? What if? What if?

In this story, it’s a normal day, a normal town and all of a sudden, they are trapped under a giant see-through but impenetrable Dome.  It is sky high and just as deep.  No one knows where it came from or how to get rid of it. The first part of the book just captures that initial shock.  Stephen King bounces around the town, showing how everyone reacts and of course giving us a little bit of gore.

As the story unfolds, different characters start to step out of the woodwork.  I just started to list them, but gave up after a few.  When I say that this is a sprawling cast of characters, I mean it.  There are probably 30 people that are introduced and delved into.  There are maybe 10 that make up the real cast of characters that move the action along.  The middle of book is spent just growing these characters and going into how everyone under the Dome reacts when everything starts to go from bad to worse.  Lines are drawn and the town members begin to choose sides.  Despite attempted help from the outside world, things are looking pretty bleak.  There is a Town Selectman who is power hungry and manipulative.  There are crazy religious nuts.  There is a band of intrepid kids.

Meanwhile, the air is starting to get thick.  Things have stopped growing, and there is just a bad smell in the air.  This tension- the human factor and the environmental factors that are starting to weigh in-  set a real tension.  The book really builds that tension and rides it until the very last page.

What I thought: I thought this was everything Stephen King does right.  I told my husband, and I stand by this, that if The Stand and Needful Things got together and had a baby, it would be Under the Dome.  It is this crazy cataclysmic situation (a la The Stand) that happens in a small town in Maine (a la Needful Things).  And let me tell you, they make a pretty little baby.

A 1072 page baby.  Seriously, this book is huge.

I don’t know where to start.  I think what Stephen King does best is characters, and this book was no exception.  The characters were incredible and unforgettable.  I found myself actually, visibly cringing at some of them.  That’s only the result of good writing.  They come off the page and just make the book fun to read.

I really loved how everything seemed so “current”, if that is the right word for a book that takes place a few years in the future.  His references were spot on and just made the world that he was creating both under the Dome and outside of it seem very real and the situation to be very plausible.  It seemed like there was a statement being made about Dubya, the environment, how we use technology.  None if it was totally in-your-face preaching, but he did manage to get his point across.

And, like any Constant Reader, I squealed a little bit at the references to his other books.  These never get old for me.

So I liked it. Loved it, really.  It was, of course, kind of gory and spooky. But beyond that, it just had heart.  By the end, the characters had to respond to a lot of the most primal, deep fears: death, loneliness, being mocked, being trapped, crazy government, the dark.  The ways that these fears are explored is why Stephen King is a bestselling author.

Conclusion: This is Stephen King being Stephen King on his best day.  Don’t be intimidated by the 1000 pages, they are worth it without a doubt.  I’m trying not to gush, but really. Read this.