The Long Walk

“They're animals, all right. But why are you so goddam sure that makes us human beings?” 

"These things, they don't even bear the weight of conversation," he said, "J.D. Salinger...John Knowles...even James Kirkwood and that guy Don Bredes...they've destroyed being an adolescent, Garraty. If you're a sixteen-year-boy, you can't discuss the pains of adolescent love with any decency anymore. You just come off sounding like fucking Ron Howard with a hardon.

A book that I found very hard to put down.  I read it late into the night, with my eyes burning and my eyelids heavy.  And yet, the knowledge that the characters in the story were experiencing a deeper, more intense fatigue than I am ever likely to feel made it impossible for me to put the book down.  Also, I just had to know how long and how far the walk would go.

This is only the second King novel I have read, the first being "The Girl who Loved Tom Gordon".  Neither of these books are classic King horror, but they both demonstrate that his author is a master story teller.  He certainly knows how to get me hooked and keep me turning the pages.  My husband bought me a copy of "On Writing" by King for my birthday.  I am really looking forward to reading it.  Although I doubt that reading it will improve my fiction writing to be anywhere near the quality of Kings.