Carrie was Stephen King's first published novel, written while he was at university. It's not his first published work; to my knowledge, that would be Graveyard Shift, a short story which appears in Night Shift, if I recall correctly.
The story (as relayed in the introduction) goes that Stephen King, newly married to Tabitha, was writing short stories to sell to magazines for extra money. He started Carrie, wrote the shower scene, and decided his time would be better spent writing short stories to sell than a novel which nobody might want. Tabitha fished the pages out of the bin, read them, and suggested that he finish them.
Incidentally, Tabitha King is a writer too. In one of the most romantic things I've heard, Stephen King has said that Tabitha is one of his favourite writers. I have her first novel, Small World, which was published in 1981. I might slip that into my experiment, between Roadwork and Danse Macabre. It would actually be pretty interesting to read both Stephen and Tabitha King's work in published order together, to see if they were thinking on similar themes, if they inspired each other, if they both worked out the same issue through writing, etc.
Carrie was published in 1974, at which point Stephen and Tabitha had been married for three years and had two children, Naomi and Joe. Joe is also a writer, under the monicker of Joe Hill. He and his father have collaborated on a few recent short stories. One is available on the Kindle store, and I gather that the others are available as eBooks, but haven't researched where yet. Joe Hill has published three novels and a collection of short stories; I've read Heart-Shaped Box and intend to read NOS4A2. So including him is also a possibility. I don't need to commit to that right now, since his collection of short stories, 20th Century Ghosts, wasn't published till 2005.
Owen Phillips King, who was born quite a bit after Carrie, in 1977, is also a writer. He's published a collection of three short stories and a novella and one novel, starting in 2005. He's also married to a writer, Kelly Braffet, and they are cute together, but, honestly, this is getting absurd. According to Goodreads, Kelly Braffet has published four novels, starting in 2005. I wonder what happened in 2005; did the King family propose a writing competition in 2004 or something?
I'm kidding, I'm sure that year is a coincidence.
Naomi King is not a writer, doesn't even have her own wikipedia page, and probably enjoys her privacy. And if she or Joe turns out to be married to a writer, I am throwing in the towel right now.
Anyway, Carrie. In short, it's about a telekinetic teenage girl, who has horrible things done to her, and makes things explode in return. Apparently, King was inspired to start writing it because someone had told him he couldn't write women, and he wanted to prove them wrong. So, he began with menarche, and the theme of menstruation and blood continues throughout the novel. It's a lot more apparent in the book than the film (I saw the film at thirteen, and it scared the bejeesus out of me).
I first read Carrie at fifteen, possibly sixteen, and since I experienced menarche at the age of eleven, it was old news to me by that point. My grandmother experienced it at eight. That was a terrifying experience for her. Her 1950s father conducted himself well; he was the only one in the house, so he tootled off down to the shops to buy her some towels.
The book is semi-epistolary, with newspaper clippings and excerpts from books within the fictional universe discussing the event. There are also third person segments which offer a more unbiased viewpoint. It's pretty short, especially for Stephen King. In my paperback edition, only 242 pages in total. Purely based on wrist strength, it's a lot easier to read than the brick that is the illustrated edition of 'Salem's Lot, which I'm working through now.
I like Carrie, and I think that Stephen King does write quite good women. I don't like Carrie as much as Rose Madder or Dolores Claibourne, but it's pretty good. The film is a pretty faithful adaptation, too.
Part of what inspired me to do this in the first place was this flow chart, which lists the links each of Stephen King's books has with the others. In Carrie's case, it references Castle Rock. Later, Johnny Smith in The Dead Zone mentions the prom night fire, and Ray Bower, the infamous body of The Body (filmed as Stand By Me) was from Chamberlain, where Carrie is set. Finally, Dinky Earnshaw of the Dark Tower #7 says he doesn't want to be like Carrie.
The story (as relayed in the introduction) goes that Stephen King, newly married to Tabitha, was writing short stories to sell to magazines for extra money. He started Carrie, wrote the shower scene, and decided his time would be better spent writing short stories to sell than a novel which nobody might want. Tabitha fished the pages out of the bin, read them, and suggested that he finish them.
Incidentally, Tabitha King is a writer too. In one of the most romantic things I've heard, Stephen King has said that Tabitha is one of his favourite writers. I have her first novel, Small World, which was published in 1981. I might slip that into my experiment, between Roadwork and Danse Macabre. It would actually be pretty interesting to read both Stephen and Tabitha King's work in published order together, to see if they were thinking on similar themes, if they inspired each other, if they both worked out the same issue through writing, etc.
Carrie was published in 1974, at which point Stephen and Tabitha had been married for three years and had two children, Naomi and Joe. Joe is also a writer, under the monicker of Joe Hill. He and his father have collaborated on a few recent short stories. One is available on the Kindle store, and I gather that the others are available as eBooks, but haven't researched where yet. Joe Hill has published three novels and a collection of short stories; I've read Heart-Shaped Box and intend to read NOS4A2. So including him is also a possibility. I don't need to commit to that right now, since his collection of short stories, 20th Century Ghosts, wasn't published till 2005.
Owen Phillips King, who was born quite a bit after Carrie, in 1977, is also a writer. He's published a collection of three short stories and a novella and one novel, starting in 2005. He's also married to a writer, Kelly Braffet, and they are cute together, but, honestly, this is getting absurd. According to Goodreads, Kelly Braffet has published four novels, starting in 2005. I wonder what happened in 2005; did the King family propose a writing competition in 2004 or something?
I'm kidding, I'm sure that year is a coincidence.
Naomi King is not a writer, doesn't even have her own wikipedia page, and probably enjoys her privacy. And if she or Joe turns out to be married to a writer, I am throwing in the towel right now.
Anyway, Carrie. In short, it's about a telekinetic teenage girl, who has horrible things done to her, and makes things explode in return. Apparently, King was inspired to start writing it because someone had told him he couldn't write women, and he wanted to prove them wrong. So, he began with menarche, and the theme of menstruation and blood continues throughout the novel. It's a lot more apparent in the book than the film (I saw the film at thirteen, and it scared the bejeesus out of me).
I first read Carrie at fifteen, possibly sixteen, and since I experienced menarche at the age of eleven, it was old news to me by that point. My grandmother experienced it at eight. That was a terrifying experience for her. Her 1950s father conducted himself well; he was the only one in the house, so he tootled off down to the shops to buy her some towels.
The book is semi-epistolary, with newspaper clippings and excerpts from books within the fictional universe discussing the event. There are also third person segments which offer a more unbiased viewpoint. It's pretty short, especially for Stephen King. In my paperback edition, only 242 pages in total. Purely based on wrist strength, it's a lot easier to read than the brick that is the illustrated edition of 'Salem's Lot, which I'm working through now.
I like Carrie, and I think that Stephen King does write quite good women. I don't like Carrie as much as Rose Madder or Dolores Claibourne, but it's pretty good. The film is a pretty faithful adaptation, too.
Part of what inspired me to do this in the first place was this flow chart, which lists the links each of Stephen King's books has with the others. In Carrie's case, it references Castle Rock. Later, Johnny Smith in The Dead Zone mentions the prom night fire, and Ray Bower, the infamous body of The Body (filmed as Stand By Me) was from Chamberlain, where Carrie is set. Finally, Dinky Earnshaw of the Dark Tower #7 says he doesn't want to be like Carrie.
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