Synopsis: happens in the small town of Chester's Mill in Maine one day the unthinkable: Literally out of nowhere, the town suddenly a giant, invisible dome of the Incommunicado. The mysterious bell jar can be up to a small breeze to penetrate anything, neither inside nor out. Anyone who is in that moment on the borderline of the dome, pierced by her.
The residents of Chester's Mill, small ordinary citizens with their advantages and quirks are, by their de facto separation from the outside world on their own. The tensions between themselves lead to the struggle between good and evil, and finally to catastrophe.
Review: As a horror veteran Stephen King in November 2009 its highly anticipated epic "Under The Dome" published, the comparisons were with his masterpiece "The Stand" made quickly. However, the basic design of the book is more reminiscent of "Needful Things" on almost 900 pages (in the American edition even more than a thousand pages) he draws a picture of a perfectly crafted losgelasen 08/15-Community middle class, whose aggression substituted by an external event together be. Is it in "Needful Things" an incarnation of the Incarnate, who incited the people sent each other, so here it is a dome that excludes them from a place of interaction with the outside world almost completely. Henceforth, within the dome are the only rules which give the people themselves, and the reader can witness their behavior, as if the people in Chester's Mill laboratory animals in an experiment.
The dome is like an emotional greenhouse effect, which no one can escape. A power-hungry and unscrupulous provincial politicians jumped onto the pocket-dictator, his followers gathered around him, manipulating the crowd and tried to abuse the dome of his intentions. Meet him face a few Upright, including an Iraq war veteran, a doctor, a journalist and a gifted teenager. As with a magnifying glass, the small Nicklich, we all know from our environment, to a matter of life and death.
inserted in the drawing of the figures, the only weakness of the book. The list of dramatis personae can look like any old Shakespearean drama, but in the end they all remain pale. They are simply figures on Kings chessboard without life of its own, either all good or all bad. They seem like a perfectly choreographed dance, but not surprised. This is, however, hardly different, for behind the massive storytelling, which in King plays the leading role, the character development comes back completely. That was when King had always been and will probably not change, is the decades-long success proved him right.
One misses the nonexistent three-dimensionality of the characters not: The rate at which King strikes, allows also to no time. The book is a real page-turner , and one can hardly help it once to put it down.
interesting is the tome also for the reason that King is here for once all unashamedly political. For him, the fictional Chester's Mill is under its dome is a placeholder for the earth on which we all live and on us gradually, thanks to our home-made greenhouse effect, assumed the air threat. Furthermore
also recognizes the little political savvy reader in the characters and the allusions in the text barely veiled parallels to the America of George W. Bush and his right-wing administration. For Stephen King, in the last presidential election Barack Obama supports and has more recently declared voters is the Democratic Party, herein lies a will, although no will to art:
"Obviously I'm on the left of center I did not believe there was justification for going. into the war in Iraq. (...) Sometimes the sublimely wrong people can be in power at a time when you really need the right people. I put a lot of that into the book. (...) I enjoyed taking the Bush-Cheney dynamic and shrinking it to the small-town level. The last administration interested me because of the aura of fundamentalist religion that surrounded it and the rather amazing incompetency of those two top guys. "
Conclusion: Whether the political and socio-cultural overtones as an essential part of the book is responsible or simply can only inspire Kings of masterful storytelling ability , ultimately plays only a minor role. Who from the old masters of horror once again a really great tome in the tradition of "The Stand," "It", or even wants to have "Needful Things," which is "Under The Dome" well served.
As long as one is not just ardent fan of George W. Bush, one can look forward to reading about a thousand pages of fun.
Stephen King: Under The Dome
Publisher: Scribner (USA), Hodder & Stoughton (UK), 2009
Number of pages: 1074 (USA), 900 (UK)
U.S. hardcover:
UK hardcover:
0 comments:
Post a Comment