From a Buick 8

Rating:
Summary: There is more than one kind of story
Review: From a Buick 8 takes place in a police barracks. Ned, the son a of slain police officer, hangs around the barracks to hang onto all that his father was, to get to know him better, and possibly become all his father had become. Ned, stumbles upon the shed where Troop D of the Penssylvania state police keep a mysterious Buick 8 cylinder vehicle. Ned's curiousity prompts Troop D to tell Ned all about the Buick and what it has meant for the troop for the past twenty years.
This novel is a little unconventional in the way that it does not follow the guideline that we are accustomed to when reading a novel. Stephen King alludes to this literary convention in the novel itself by having the police officers excplain to Ned that he should not excpecxt any definite answers about the nature of the Buick; likewise it is not neccessary to have a story with definitive answers. Sandy tells Ned throughout the novel that he is naive to think that everything has to be clear cut. Life isn't always so clear cut (we don't always know where we have been, and we do not neccessarily know what we are going to do in the future--we don't even know for sure whether we will live to see tomorrow). I think this is King's attempt to break the wall--albeit a little unconventionally--between fiction and reality.

Rating:
Summary: too many low reviews ought to tell you something
Review: I do not see where the 4 and 5 star reviews are coming from. This wasn't a bad book-just not a really good one. Mr. King has been slipping in the quality department recently. This book doesn't really seem to go anywhere. It was a fairly quick read, but not terribly filling.

Rating:
Summary: Yawn!
Review: This book was interesting enough to keep me reading it, but only just. It was a little slow. When something did happen, it ended up being a big build up to something boring. There was never anything that seemed particularly exciting or interesting that happened. And none of the characters was all that interesting either. I was disappointed. Unless youu're just a die-hard Stephen King fan, I can't see any reason to read this. There are plenty of better books to be read, and also plenty of better King books.

Rating:
Summary: It's tough being state trooper
Review: I love Stephen King's work. Not all of it: he himself has admitted that he has written some uninspiring stories, but this is not one of those. No, this story is tuff and very emotional from its powerful begining right up to its sad ending. It's a slow story--a sad story. It's the story of a family; not a regular family, but the family of highway patrol troop D; and its the story of the love and the anger that family members evoke from each other--King describes this with incredible sorrow. As i read this book i felt heavy hearted, down right sad--in a beautiful way, though. Imagine that. Told with unique perspective, there are six narrators--and each voice is strong save for Shirley's (it's with her where i find the only problem with the book--cliche female narration.)

Buick 8 has its fantasy elements, and they are fun, damn creepy at times; but the story shines brightest when Sandy Dearborne narrates--his anger with the young Ned Wilcox who is trying to deal with the greef of a fallen father (another State trooper named Curt) is painful. Sandy sees so much of Curt in Ned that it frustrates him to hell through high water because he sees the kid making the same mistakes that the father struggled with, and he's angry at Ned, and with Ned's father, but only because he loved Curt like a brother, and because he loves Ned like a nephew. And it is this conflict where we see King at his best, mirroring the emotion that we saw in Hearts in Atlantis and in The Green Mile. A beautiful story showing us that King is like a fine wine: gets better with age. Pick it up--it is well worth the price.

Rating:
Summary: My Favorite of King's Works
Review: As a reader, I tend to run hot and cold with Steven King's work. Some of his novels really grab me and pull me in, like Pet Sematary, The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, The Green Mile, Bag of Bones, and Hearts in Atlantis. Others just didn't interest me at all, such as Black House, Four Past Midnight and Insomnia. This book was one that I just couldn't put down. His absolute best so far. It was suspenseful, realistic to the extent that it needed to be, extremely graphic when it needed to be as well, and full of characters that you really learned to like. I think of it as analagous to an extremely well-developed and carefully crafted "Twilight Zone" episode. This is not a book with horrifically deviant human characters that depress you because you know there are real people like that, and it is not a novel filled with gore and buckets of blood getting splashed around. It's subtle, well-written, and is proof-positive that King has evolved into one of the most creative and powerful fiction writers of modern times. If you enjoyed any of the King novels I mentioned above, then get your hands on From a Buick 8!

Rating:
Summary: Not exactly a rousing finale for King
Review: According to Stephen King, this is his last original novel, (although there are two more installments of his Dark Tower series on the way.) With this book, he's really not leaving with much of a bang. There are a few problems with this work.
One, the structure of the book slows down the pace of the plot. The narritive is told by different characters. The plot moves at a frustrating pace because the story is stopped so frequently to change narrators.
Two, the setting is boring. This story might have been a creepy tale had it been set in Maine. However King chose the location to be a state police barracks in upstate Pennsylvania. The story suffers because of this. It's not scary, it's just dull. Mr King is out of his element.
Finally, there's just not enough action. It is about 3/4 through the book before there's genuine horror thrills. Up until that point, it's just waiting for the really good stuff.
That said, there were some good qualities. The theme was well conceived, the ending is smartly written. However this work is not in the same league with classic novels like BAG OF BONES, IT or MISERY. It's an ok read for fans but not a reccomended choice for new King readers. Also, it's not a great final novel. Sorry Stephen.

Rating:
Summary: Hearts of Atlantis, Christine, Buick 8...
Review: Stephen King has written some of the best literary works I have ever had the priviledge to enjoy...The Stand, It, and yes...even Pet cemetary.
"From a Buick 8", is nothing but a recollection of memories from the point of many individuals.
It lacks the mind games, which King is so good at playing.
King has reduced his talent to protraying the twisted personalities of inanimate objects, and Buick 8 is the ultimate low point. It has no plot...no intrigue...no Heart...nothing to capture the imagination, and send us off on one of the imaginary journeys he is so capable of creating.
A word of advice to Mr. King. Go back to your roots and stretch your imagination, rather than dredging up the same old bad car...good car stories, such as this...They are becoming very boring.
I look forward to the next creative masterpiece Mr. King is so very capable of producing.

Rating:
Summary: Don't waste your time!
Review: All that I can say is that this was the worst Stephen King book that I have ever read. I only skimmed through the last third of the book because it just did not seem like it was going anywhere. I felt that it was a waste of my time. I know that he can do better than this.

Rating:
Summary: A cuddly King
Review: The troopers of Troop D, Pennsylvania State Patrol, have picked up a strange car. At first glance it looks like a Buick, except it won't run, and tests soon prove it's anything but a normal car. Then it starts chucking things out its doors and trunk, flashing brilliant lights, changing the temperature in its shed, and committing a variety of other Stephen King shinanigans. Rumor has it, it's even eaten a man. Add to this mix a teenager obsessed with his father's death in the line of duty, and thus obsessed with this car.

After dabbling through portions of THE STAND and THE DARK HALF, FROM A BUICK 8 felt like stepping off an airplane in Florida -- warm and pleasant and safe. Yes, icky things materialize from this car and the poor dog doesn't have a fighting chance, but King spent so much time detailing life as a trooper that he seemed to have forgetten he was supposed to be writing horror. What I found here was only strange.

If you love King, FROM A BUICK 8 may be one of his last freestanding novels, so by all means grab it. The writing is good, the details impeccable, the boy's hero worship touching. But the horror? Well, suffice to say, dear reader, you can curl up in bed with this one. It won't bite.

Rating:
Summary: Great read, left me with the chills
Review: I haven't read a Stephen King novel in over a year, and it's been about 7 since I first started reading his books, but the look of that Buick Roadmaster on the cover, it's headlamp looking like some psychotic alien eye, and it's grille looking like spiked and hot gleaming fangs made me pick it up.

Ned Wilcox is the young man of our story. His father was hit by a drunk driver (in a Buick no less, but not the same as the one in the title). Ned has been struggling for a year to figure out what his direction in life is, and soon finds himself joining the officers who his Dad worked with, in their station aptly named 'The Barracks.'

One day out back, Ned finds shed B, and inside, he finds the vintage Buick 8, sitting there like some odd display piece. when he inquires to his Dad's friends and co-workers about it, they begin to tell Ned that this Buick is not what it seems.

King then begins to go into flashback mode, which almost killed 'Dreamcatcher,' and was used sparingly but well in 'The Green Mile.'

..The pace of the book starts at a very leisurely, almost languid pace, but once the Buick 8 arrives on the scene, I was hooked. I don't know what it is about strange automobiles ('Christine' had meup for 20 minutes before I dared to turn off the lights) and the pulse-pounding storylines that were told about what this Buick 8 was doing had me read it entirely in one day, which was not easy.

this book is best to be read with only one light on and not normally in teh vicinity of lots of people. There is an intimacy about it that can bring out some of the terror in the book and make certain items even more clarified.