Review: Carrie

Carrie by Stephen King
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

On the surface, Stephen King’s first published novel could have been subtitled “The Ugly Duckling Goes to the Prom”, such is the simplicity of the under current storyline. ‘A picked-on and teased girl named Carrie White, who lives alone with her religiously stubborn mother, is an outcast in her school group, until the popular girl sees the error of her ways, and convinces her popular boyfriend to take the unpopular girl to the prom rather than herself, in order to atone for her wrongdoings, but also hopefully to bring the ugly duckling into the world for everyone to see she is really Cinderella’. The fact that Stephen King writes this basis of the story so well is an important facet, as everything that occurs outside of this, in the paranormal world, would never work so well if the actual base of the story wasn’t so strong. That what occurs in the book is so left of centre is the beginnings of what would become the Stephen King phenomenon.

What makes this so readable is that it is compact, and rather short in the scheme of the massive novels that were to come. But the story here is told in short, readable sections, such that it can be read in snatches between classes or in the bath or before sleep without having to commit to large sections. It moves back and forwards between what is happening at the time of the story, and then publication a few years in the future, describing the events with the element of hindsight. It is an effective method of keeping the reader informed of what is happening and what is going to happen, though it does give away some of the elements of surprise and suspense that would normally be the case, as events and even deaths are announced before they actually happen in the book’s present day.

What is evident immediately is King’s ability to draw you in to the story and how he allows you to determine for yourself whether you like the characters and whether or not you believe they are good or evil. He doesn’t write the people in his story to essentially be autonomously a particular character, he gives you enough leeway to decide for yourself if they are likeable or deplorable. Of course, who doesn’t enjoy a particularly evil person getting away with bad stuff, especially when in most cases they then find an even more evil end to their affairs. Perhaps here in Carrie, it is the number of innocents who are carted off that may disturb some of the light hearted readers. And the scale of the destruction. But wow, when she blows, she blows!

I still enjoyed revisiting Chamberlain again, and bathing in the blood that is released in so many ways during the course of the novel. Yes, King can write about women (no doubt with not just a little help from his wife Tabitha on this one), and he can write about the paranormal, and he can sure rain death and destruction on all who inhabit his stories. It may not be as fleshed out as many of his long novels to come, but many people will enjoy the fact that the story moves along and concludes itself without having to wades through thousands of pages.

Rating: Blood in the streets. 4/5

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Stephen King: Carrie pp. 170-end

I guess one of the things I have had some problems with in regards to Stephen King novels is the endings. Not all of them, mind you, and probably not even half of them, but on occasions it just feels as though the whole story runs out of steam, and the ending feels either rushed or just not in the direction the story was going. While that isn’t the case in Carrie, it does feel like it maybe comes to an abrupt end rather than a fashioned one. And, I guess, given that Carrie’s demise does come quickly once she has disposed of her mother, then perhaps that is appropriate.

This being his first published novel, it is a shorter story in all, and if this was handled later on, I suspect the destruction and morbid slaying of the students at the prom would have been given a bigger expansion. Also the disdain of knocking off Chris and Billy would surely have been brutally and perversely explained in greater detail if this book had been written at a later date, with more confidence in his publish-ability behind him. Even the confrontation between Carrie and her mother just feels as though it lacks something, though I have no doubt that at the time it was published it would have been adequate. Given what he has written since and the vision available to Stephen King as a result, the final battle feels a tad tame in comparison. Of course when this was published there was nothing to compare it to.

Stephen King: Carrie pp. 100-169

Poor old Tommy Ross. The White Knight (no pun intended re. Carrie White) of Stephen King's first novel. Not only is he popular, he's dating the most eligible girl in school. But when she asks him to, instead of taking her to the prom that he ask Carrie White, the misfit loner with the religious crackpot mother, he does so with little discourse. He treats Carrie with respect and with charm, and does everything to help make her prom experience the best it can be. Of course in 'real life novels' the White Knight always ends up with the princess and they live happily ever after. but this is a White Knight in a Stephen King novel, and though it is his first published novel, we learn very quickly that the White Knight in his stories can invariably end up in far worse shape. And so it befalls for Tommy Ross, who does everything that an upstanding young man can do to please his girlfriend and try to bring out the misfit into the community, and he is taken out by a milk pail full of pig's blood that cracks his skull and ends his life. Well played Mr. King.

The Chris/Billy relationship moves through several significant stages rather swiftly, with each more or less believing they are in control of what is occurring. The few days that separate Billy's thoughts that he would do anything for Chris - even kill, while he is collecting the pig's blood...

"Billy said nothing, but of course it was not for Freddy Over-lock, who was an asshole. It was for Chris Hargensen, just as everything was for Chris, and had been since the day she swept down from her lofty college-course Olympus and made herself vulnerable to him. He would have done murder for her, and more."
Excerpt From
King, Stephen. “Carrie.” Random House, Inc., 1974-08-15T07:00:00+00:00. iBooks.
This material may be protected by copyright. 

... to where he is already ready to move on from the relationship just a few days later as they are about to put their plan into action at the prom - no doubt all come down to the fact that between the two events, Chris sleeps with him for the first time.

"He wondered how long she would last. Maybe not long after tonight. Somehow it had all led to this, even the early part, and when it was done the glue that had held them together would be thin and might dissolve, leaving them to wonder how it could have been in the first place. He thought she would start to look less like a goddess and more like the typical society bitch again, and that would make him want to belt her around a little. Or maybe a lot. Rub her nose in it."
Excerpt From
King, Stephen. “Carrie.” Random House, Inc., 1974-08-15T07:00:00+00:00. iBooks.
This material may be protected by copyright. 

Ah, you see? The boy has gotten what he wanted, and now golden exterior has been washed away and exposed the girl's real personality, and he's ready to run away. Just a typical male reaction, right girls?
... or...
The boy does everything the girl wants from him, but now he sees that split personality, the psychotic to the meek, and he knows that somehow he has to get away.

I guess it depends on how you read it.

So I got through this part, and things have begun to happen at the prom. Unexplained, terrible things. And Sue has sensed the terror building, and left her home where she has been holed up for the evening, and head into town. The final paragraph I read before putting the book down and going to sleep last night was this:

"She saw the man on the police-station steps cup his hand around his mouth and scream something; unclear over the shrieking town whistle, the fire sirens, the monster-mouth of the fire. Sounded like: “Heyret! Don't hey that ass!” The street was all wet down there.
The light danced on the water. Down by Teddy's Amoco station. “—hey, that's—”
And then the world exploded."

Excerpt From
King, Stephen. “Carrie.” Random House, Inc., 1974-08-15T07:00:00+00:00. iBooks.
This material may be protected by copyright. 

The perfect place to end, until I can return, almost like the end of a TV episode, when you have to wait until the following week for the next instalment.

Stephen King: Carrie pp 26-100

The several major confrontations that are detailed within this section of pages of the book are as eye opening in the framework of the story as anything else. The first mentioning of the incident involving things falling from the sky on the White household when Carrie was three years old. The confrontation between school principal and Chris Hargensen father, an almost David and Goliath battle that David apparently comes out on top. The short and sharp confrontation between Chris and Sue at the soda fountain, where Sue stands up against popular opinion for the first time in her life. And the moments between Carrie and her mother, as assertive control in the relationship begins to slip from the grasp of one and become stronger in the other. All of these resonate throughout these pages. As Carrie begins to understand her powers she is increasing her ability with them.
Perhaps the part of the story that doesn't quite ring true for me is the Sue and Tommy relationship, and that Sue asks Tommy to take Carrie to the prom. Really? No matter how bad someone was feeling about what they may have done to someone, would they actually ask their boyfriend to take another girl? While I can roll along with this premise when reading the book, it feels a bit too convenient for the plot for me if I was to be critical of it.

What this section of the book did most for me was make me think about my own childhood, and the bullying that I was involved in, both on the receiving end and -  somewhat shamefully on any reflection - the handing out end. For many years I guess I have thought that what I had been involved in was kids teasing another kid, that's all. The teasing involved one particular girl by a group of which I was a part of, and though I would like to hint that my role was a 'minor' one, in the way that Sue Snell's role may be considered a minor role in the shower with Carrie White, that could in fact only be what my mind recalls, and not what the person involved thought at all. Indeed, unfortunately for the girl in question, she also had her first period at a very inconvenient time, during an English class in Year 7, an extraordinarily embarrassing time for her, and one that no doubt was mentioned on later occasions in her (and let's not mince words) bullying. I have no idea how much bullying this girl received, though I am somewhat sure that the few people in the group that I was involved in were not the only ones who teased and humiliated her. She eventually changed schools because of this. And that is a sad indictment on a number of people.

“In the wake of two hundred deaths and the destruction of an entire town, it is so easy to forget one thing: We were kids. We were kids. We were kids trying to do our best. . . .”
Excerpt From: King, Stephen. “Carrie.” Random House, Inc., 1974-08-15T07:00:00+00:00. iBooks. This material may be protected by copyright.

These words rang strong with me, but only to the point that I feel that, with my own experience, they are a cop out. Sure, the person of our own bullying didn't come complete with telekenesis and then wreak her revenge on us. She was simply forced to move schools to escape us. And maybe we were only kids at that time. But it doesn't make what we did right. And all I can do now is ensure that my kids never repeat the mistakes I made, 

Stephen King: Carrie. pp 1-25

A woman's menstrual cycle. Even mentioning the words starts to flash big red warning signs in front of your eyes. The problem with being a male is that I've never had one, but I've still had to put up with the consequences of them for a large proportion of my life. And yes, while those of the female persuasion start to cry out to me "You don't know what it's like! What it does to your moods and body!" - let me say that that is only partly true. Because who pays the price of this change of seasons every three and a half weeks? Who cops the brunt of the mood swing and the general awfulness that the female will have during this time each month? That's right, the poor old male who was just passing nearby on his way to the fridge for a beer.

The opening stanza of Carrie is confronting in that way. It combines that awkwardness that we may feel about that first period that women have, with a brief look into what is also an awakening of another part of Carrie White's inner consciousness. From King's own memories, it was his wife Tabitha who encouraged him to move ahead with this novel, and that she helped 'correct' some pieces that didn't ring quite true. No doubt the opening scene in the shower was one of those. The confused thoughts of the teacher Miss Desjardin who initially reacts with anger and then with incredulity when she understands that it is Carrie's first cycle, at an advanced age, and that she has no knowledge of them at all. And the fact that the light bulb shattered of its own accord during this, as has happened before, or so Miss Desjardin thinks to herself at that time. As is mentioned in the thesis after the events that are yet to occur, perhaps this should have rung more alarm bells than it did. But then again, when your mother delivers you alone in her own bed, also in a state of stubborn unknowing that she is pregnant, what can you really expect?...

Stephen King Book #1: Carrie

Book #1. Carrie. First published April 5, 1974. 

I can only remember having read Carrie once, and that was sometime back in the early 1990's when I was wading my way through the King back catalogue. I had, as with most people of my generation, already seen the film version starring Sissy Spacek as Carrie White and Piper Laurie as her mother, along with other notable cast such as John Travolta, Amy Irving and William Katt. Though I have always enjoyed the film, when I read the book everything became so much more clear. Not that I would have expected anything else.

I enjoyed it a lot. Which probably raises the question, why have I only read it once when I read so many other King books so often? The only response I can give to that is that I've never owned a copy of Carrie. I had borrowed that copy from the library, and had never come across a copy since. This will explain to you why I am reading this as an ebook in the photo here, because I downloaded it to get started with my 'project' as soon as possible, rather than returning to the library to find this book again.

So... away we go!