Apr 26, 2010 03:14 PM
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Truth be told, I bought this insanely big book of Stephen King not because I am a fan of his writing. It had an eerie resemblance to resemblance to one of my all time favorite movies: The Simpsons Movie.
The plot is enchanting. An inexplicable dome cuts off a sleepy little town Chester’s Mill in New England. No one has a clue. The US government tries everything – right from firing a couple of missiles at dome to pouring the strongest acid on the planet. Finally they do something they are so good at – Giving Up.
Before you attack the comments space on this blog accusing me of publishing spoilers, let me explain. “Under The Dome” has absolutely nothing to do with the dome! The dome is just a passive observer. It sets the context and then retires completely to the background. The book is all about what happens inside the dome.
I have not read all the works of Stephen King and so cannot tell you if this is his lengthiest work till date but I can assure you that it is probably in the top two at least. The first chapter should rank right up there along with King’s best opening sequences. (This is something he wrote in 1976 and then gave up because he did not have the maturity to handle the plot. His second attempt – the successful one – began in 2007 and the book saw the light of the day in 2009.) The reader is truly hooked and mesmerized. The dome is the hero in this chapter. It is ruthless and methodical. It has no affiliations. It just materializes in an instant. All the massacre that takes place because of this sudden appearance is only peripheral damage.
Sadly, as I mentioned in the second paragraph of this post, the dome then takes a back seat and the story dives into an excruciatingly long and tedious journey into the psyche of – digest this – almost each and every resident of Chester’s Mill, complete with a background story of his or her current mental state. After a while, it becomes a futile exercise to keep a track of the million characters. Thanks to King’s foresight, we have a ready reckoner of all the characters in an appendix. Keep a photocopy of these three pages if you don’t want to flip the pages every second minute.
We see a mini world inside the dome – a world that consists of a wannabe world leader, a war hero, the neighborhood bully and the clichéd good guys Vs bad guys setup. It is interesting to start with but after a while, you yearn for the dome to come back into the story. You desperately want to read about the US government’s efforts to make sense of the dome. You even want a Morgan Freeman styled Astrophysicist to do something in the book by the book and fail!
That’s not King though. King loves to dwell into the human mind. So this plot is about just that. There is just some superficial detail about the dome and the rescue efforts.
When I finished reading the book which took about a month. My reaction was sort of a mixed one. I loved the way it ended though the dome’s explanation was laughable. However I skimmed through quite a few sequences in the book because I found them just boring or completely unrelated to the story – (My point of view. You are welcome to differ.)
It could have been a great novella – something that Stephen King is a master at writing. It could have given The Langoliers (of Four Past Midnight compilation) a run for its money if it were told in a hundred and fifty pages. The way it is now, it fails to connect with the normal reader. Of course, a loyal Stephen King fan will surely be mesmerized by its poetic language and its methodical build up.
For the rest – I guess we have The Simpsons Movie.
Afterthought: I think the book will sound much better in the audio version. Try it if you really have to. It is available on Audible.com. That reminds me. I have five audible credits and should burn them on something really nice. If you have a suggestion, please leave a note in the comments space.
Before someone asks me: My favorite Stephen King work is “The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon.”
Title: Under The Dome
Amazon Link: https://amazon.com/Under-Dome-Novel-Stephen-King/dp/1439148503/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF
8&s=books&qid=1270329238&sr=8-1
ISBN-10: 1439148503
