Elevation

In recent years, Stephen King has strayed from his horror roots to write novels that focus more on real-life scenarios. The Outsider, released earlier this year, arguably combined the best of both old-school-horror and Kings more recent sensibilities. In Elevation, an end of the year novella, King again combines a focus on real-world issues with a touch of fantasy. Elevation is probably best described as a fable. Scott, a resident of Castle Rock, has an interesting medical dilemma. He's losing weight each day, but nothing he physically does seems to stop that process. He loads his pockets with heavy metal, but his weight is exactly the same. As time progresses, the weight loss starts to speed up. At the rate he's going, Scott only has a couple months before the scale hits zero. As Scott is coming to terms with his dwindling mass, he's also battling it out with his new neighbors. One half of the married lesbian couple runs through the neighborhood each day. She brings their two dogs with her, both of whom have no problem using Scott's front yard as their toilet. After a pretty ugly confrontation, Scott decides to put things to rest and befriend the couple. He's heard the murmurs from other townspeople who don't approve of the couple's same-sex relationship. Determined to right some wrongs, Scott formulates a plan to set things right between the town and the couple. Elevation works as a story of moral integrity and acceptance, themes that grow more and more poignant as the year has progressed. Those of you expecting a terrifying read from Mr. King should probably steer clear of this one. I've seen that the book was chosen as Goodreads best horror novel of the year, but that genre doesn't really reflect what Elevation is. Instead, it is a well-written and timely tale of one man's will to leave the earth a little better than when he got here. It wasn't what I expected, but it was ultimately a very quick and rewarding read.

This story is set in the author’s default location Castle Rock, Maine, the real place Stephen King and his imagination roams, walks and dreams, among other nefarious and sometimes macabre or horrific events. It has more of a ‘what if’ framework of a Twilight Zone episode and has only some mild horror elements. The main characters include Scott Carey, who suffers from a mysterious illness that is causing rapid weight loss yet leaving his appearance healthy looking on the exterior. Also featured are a married lesbian couple who have opened a Mexican themed vegetarian restaurant and are facing various forms of intolerance from neighbors and random people in the community. Scott knows that eventually his weight will eventually become zero. He knows that in one way, or another, his time is limited since his physical weight eventually is headed toward a zero on the scale. This is a novella 144 pages in length but is marketed as a novel by Scribner. I realize that the term novella is an approximation. At point of purchase at Amazon it is listed as 161 pages including additional pages which feature dedication, an ‘about the author’ section, copyright, and end pages. The term novella is generally defined by word count between roughly 17,000 words and up to 40,000 words in length. (The length of 144 pages is safely in Novella land). I liked this story. I think it could fit inside a short fiction collection along with several other novellas and short stories. Yet Stephen already has If It Bleeds out. Ahem. Maybe Scribner just wanted to make some of the old green folding stuff, you know, the cheese, the cash, the mazuma, the bacon, the bank, the bucks, the readies, the wad, the gelt, the Jack -- the MOOLA! Nothing wrong with that, but if you pay for a double cheeseburger and get a hamburger – you just got ‘Hamburgled’! I think everyone who bought “Elevation” in Kindle should get a coupon for a few dollars off any other Stephen King book in his catalog or a pre-order. I really love the shout out to Richard Matheson in the dedication. The context of the story is contemporary. I am directly implying this feeling of doom and gloom gripping the world since 9/11 and 2015. Hopeless exhaustion in the face of brutal stupidity, overly PC, judgmental and perverse levels of racial, religious, ideologue-driven attacks and intolerance, gun violence and including homophobia -- not seen in the USA for 70 years. Even truth, itself, and our Constitution and voting rights are under attack. It’s wearing everyone down. Some people ARE a challenge to be a good neighbor, a good friend. Even to simply meet someone and talk nowadays is challenging. What topics are safe and will not activate the PC police or the language police, or left-wing or right-wing ire? I mean a simple, “Looks like rain, doesn’t it?” could turn into a screaming match about if global warming is real – or, not? Likewise, you, yourself, might knowingly or unknowingly seem that way to strangers. It does matter what we say, and it does matter what we do, and we all have a limited amount of time on this world. The concepts of this story are rooted in the real world until something fantastical occurs. There is a smattering of Richard Matheson here and Hans Christian Anderson and the Brothers Grimm, and the aforementioned Rod Serling. The tone and style are adult in nature. What is cool about this story is that I think anyone pre-teens and older could enjoy this book. Stephen King rarely disappoints. In fact, some of his books that I avoided when they were issued, later on I thoroughly enjoyed. He wrote several stinkers (I won’t friggin’ list them) this is not one of them. And the list is brief. Would it piss you off if I listed them? hahaha

Excelente servicio

Master storyteller, at it again!

Si legge in un paio d'ore ma quelle ore sono sentite e con tante lacrime. Sicuramente non il solito horror di King, ma un racconto bellissimo e umano per provare che sa scrivere non solo racconti dell'orrore.

Great book

Excellente histoire chargée d’émotion, comme toujours avec le King. Les personnages sont forts et attachants à la fois. Je recommande.