In Which We Discuss Bag of Bones

Bag of Bones was first published in 1998, shortly before my 10th birthday. It has a lot in common with Rebecca, another book I read a few years ago, although it treats the core elements differently.

This is one of the many novels in which the main character is a writer. If I recall correctly, this was the book where I first found out that King’s novels weren’t published in written order, though it might have been Lisey's Story; sometimes, he wrote too prolifically and would stash a few, as the character Mike Noonan does. When I started this project I did consider making the effort to find out the order in which the novels were actually written and to read them in that order, but I came to the conclusion that that would be unreasonably difficult.

The other day I thought about the fact that Shakespeare’s plays begin to have happier, more optimistic endings as he got older. That was one of the reasons I wanted to read an author’s work in chronological order; to see how it changed as they aged. When I did this with Lisa Jewell a few years ago there were a number of changes. What stood out most was her concern about children, after she had her own.

King’s writing is so prolific that I actually find it harder to step back and see trends. It’s like trying to watch a plant growing by staring at it for every hour of the day. There are trends; for instance, Rage and Carrie, both about teenagers, were written when King was younger – although The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, which focuses on a young girl, was published in 1999, when King was 52 and presumably written when he was at least in his 40s. His children make a difference as well; many characters are openly based on King’s family, and he does have a gift for observation.

I remembered Bag of Bones wrong; the first time I read it, it felt like it was a lot more about Sara and a lot less about Maddie. This time, I was waiting for the whole bit with Maddie to get out of the way so we could get to the main story about Sara. I was about three hours from the end – audiobook – when I finally twigged that Maddie was part of the main story.

The audiobook includes an interview with King on the topic of audiobooks. When he first wanted to listen to them, very few unabridged recordings were available, so he would pay his children $18 for each ninety-minute tape recording of a book he wanted to have read. It really is no wonder that King’s two sons, Owen King and Joe Hill, both grew up to be authors.

What is interesting is that relatively few of King’s characters are LGBT, despite the fact that his daughter Naomi is openly gay. Naomi’s life is less open than her brothers’, as she is less of a public figure. Perhaps King also considers her life to be private. I didn't realise, until I read this article, that she's a wheelchair user.  I'm not sure at which point in her life she began using a wheelchair, but it would be interesting to see if King's characters start using them more after that point.  So far, I think it's only been Paul Sheldon in Misery.

The next work of King’s is The Storm of the Century, a TV series for which he wrote the script. I’ve decided that while I will try to watch the series, I won’t try to hunt down the script to read it. I’ll be moving on to The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon – another book I’ve read before.

In Which We Discuss MMORPGs

Something multiplayer online role-playing games.

I've read two books which focus on the subject, not counting the .Hack mangas. The first one, Love Online, is quite sweet, if very obviously written for teenagers. It's a loosely rewritten version of Twelfth Night (the Shakespeare play), only the confusion and disguises take place in the online world. It's actually really good, and very romantic.

The second, I read a few weeks ago. It's called Genesis Alpha, and is about a boy who was born only because his brother needed his stem cells. When his brother is accused of murder, the media (and the victim's sister) say that if he wasn't born, his brother would have died, and wouldn't have killed anyone.

About a fifth of the way through, and the victim's sister says that the proof is in the online world, Genesis Alpha. I'm intrigued, despite myself.

In style, the book seems very juvenile. You know, like a lot of books for 'young adults' where serious topics are dealt with, but in an exciting, safe way, not a difficult uncomfortable way? Those kinds of books always seem a little flimsy, a little lacking in depth. Unlike, say, Jodi Picoult's My Sister's Keeper which also focuses on some of the same issues in children being born in order to donate cells to their siblings. However, My Sister's Keeper seems like a much more realistic world, rather than just a simple story.

Anyway, the twist in Genesis Alpha, while good, was tragically underdeveloped. Right up until the end, I expected another twist - a better twist.

Well, it never happened. This book had so much potential, which was reigned in, possibly because it was thought too complicated for its predicted audience. Sad, really.

I'm tempted to rewrite the book the way I see it in my head, but that's called plagiarism, and is frowned on in most societies.:(