Roadwork

Rating:
Summary: A tale of the first energy crisis...
Review: Roadwork starts off suspensefully, as a crazed man with a knack for carrying on conversations with himself buys a high-caliber rifle and a .44 Magnum revolver. However, the explosive result of this purchase, which you might expect to be soon coming, doesn't arrive until the very end of the book. To get there, we must wade through some very dense, overly-detailed (but very well written) exposition.

Bart Dawes has finally been pushed too far; at age 40, he's lost his only son to a brain tumor, and now the public works commission has decided to build a new highway system, which will not only go through (and thereby erase) the building Bart's worked in for the past twenty years, but also his home. Bart must move, but he refuses to. In the process, Bart will lose his job, his friends, his wife, and his sanity, but he stands strong in his refusal to leave his home, reminiscent in a way of Hank Stamper in Ken Kesey's 'Sometimes a Great Notion.'

Roadwork is different than anything Stephen King (well, Richard Bachman, to be precise) has written; it's more a character study than anything else. As King himself wrote in his 'Why I Was Bachman' introduction to the first edition of The Bachman Books, 'Roadwork is probably the worst of the lot, because it tries so hard to be good.' And that's the whole of it: Roadwork reads like it's been written by a young writer who's trying hard to appeal to the literary crowd. It's verbose, packed with introspection, and moves along at a snail's pace; the total opposite of the Bachman/King extravaganza The Running Man.

It's no surprise that King relates that Roadwork was written at a time when he was trying to impress those elitists whom would ask him at cocktail parties if he'd ever write 'something important.' (Interestingly, in the second edition of the Bachman Books, in a foreword titled 'The Importance of Being Bachman,' King states that Roadwork is now his favorite of the Bachman bunch.)

This is not to say Roadwork is a bad book, or even a boring book. It takes dedication to keep turning those pages when you begin reading it, but in time you adjust to the casual pace of the narrative, you begin to learn (and respect) who Bart Dawes is, and you root for him, no matter how nuts he's become.

The ending finally picks up the pace, as Dawes accepts his fate and brings those guns into play, as well as a generous supply of explosives. In that regard, Roadwork packs the suspenseful punch you'd normally associate with the books under Richard Bachman's name. But with its slow pace, grim view on the world (the Bachman view is generally that life sucks, and terrible things happen for no reason), combined with its firm rooting in the 1970s (which might make it inaccessible to those who weren't around in that decade), Roadwork might not appeal to the average King/Bachman fan. However, for those looking for an intense character study that slowly builds to an explosive climax, it comes recommended.

Rating:
Summary: GOOD BOOK
Review: So far "Roadwork" is my favorite King book. It descriibes the story of Bart Dawes, a man working for a laundrymat whose house and job are in the way of a new highway. Unlike the normal civilian however, Bart has BIG issues with this and does everything he can to stop it. It shows how King can really write a nonhoror story that still grips you til you turn the last page. A great stroy...no...A MUST READ!

Rating:
Summary: Lengthier than Necessary, and Fragile Plot
Review: Somehow King keeps this novel going because there is not that much plot to makes things terribly interesting. His characters go from vivid and well portrayed to somewhat cardboard-ish, unreal. I kept reading, however, because King does a fine job showing how one's world can crumble quickly, and I couldn't wait to see what the main character would do about it.

Rating:
Summary: There was bound to be a split decision on this one
Review: There are really two classes of King readers. The first are the early-career lovers. These are people who like suspense (though I have yet to learn how you get that from a forum where the subject controls the pace) and raw plot motion, and there's nothing wrong with that, but it's definitely not a very rich or complete approach to take. The second group are the late-career fans of work like Hearts in Atlantis and Desperation, who generally give a more deep and introspective read to the work and aren't as concerned with things moving along at a brisk clip. For those who may be wondering, I am probably best classified as one of the latter.

The first group will hate this novel. Rather than being a continuously moving story about a collection of things happening to people, Roadwork is essentially an examination of the destruction of one man. And let me tell you, that character examination is SUBLIME. The only character that I have read in a King work who was clearly better defined was Johnny Smith from The Dead Zone, and this book would best be compared to that earlier work.

There is very little to be bored with in this book if you're not worried about things always happening. If you are, you might be better advised to move on and leave this one alone--there aren't a lot of bodies or explosions. The atmosphere and characterization, however, are superb. I read this as part of the Bachman Books, which have regrettably been taken off the market as a set, and I was impressed by the depth and expression that King managed in this side-project (not reflected in his other work under the pseudonym).

There are problems with this book, though. For one thing, it is absolutely mired in the seventies. Younger readers may get lost trying to relate to such a thing as an oil embargo. To some extent, that intrinsic association holds back the novel by keeping the contemporary reader from truly getting a feel for the environment, but it didn't hurt me too much (and I was born after the whole embargo thing was resolved).

I find nothing more refreshing than seeing an author liberating himself from a genre where he had previously been caged up, and King does that in this book. Instead of incorporating elements of fantasy, as he is so often wont to do, he stuck with reality in this story, and it pays off. You can see the faces of some characters you encounter further down the line, as well, particularly in the mobster (who later became a character in Thinner, after a name change and some tweaking, I imagine). This is a masterpiece of TRUE Stephen King writing, and I don't miss the usual fantastic elements at all. I'd recommend this for anybody looking for a good read.

Rating:
Summary: Average by just about all standards
Review: This book had some serious potential, the problem is, the first 2/3rds of this book were setting up the story. Unlike other Bachman stories, this one just takes to long to get moving. Once it does, it's a great story, much like the movie falling down. Had this book been 100 pages longer, it probably would've gotten the other 2 stars... but alas, it just ends to quickly

Rating:
Summary: Not what I expected, but good nonetheless
Review: This early Bachman novel is a far cry from the normal Stephen King novel (but that was part of the point, wasn't it?). It is the story of one man's response to the news that a new freeway is being built through where his house stands. To be short, he doesn't like it; and after a while, he decides to do something about it. I won't say anymore about the story, but this is in many ways a character study. It is not plot driven; a lot of it is just watching him go about his day and what he is thinking and doing. Things happen, but they are not important things. This is much more low-key than the other Bachman books, but still satisfying.

Rating:
Summary: Not what I expected, but good nonetheless
Review: This early Bachman novel is a far cry from the normal Stephen King novel (but that was part of the point, wasn't it?). It is the story of one man's response to the news that a new freeway is being built through where his house stands. To be short, he doesn't like it; and after a while, he decides to do something about it. I won't say anymore about the story, but this is in many ways a character study. It is not plot driven; a lot of it is just watching him go about his day and what he is thinking and doing. Things happen, but they are not important things. This is much more low-key than the other Bachman books, but still satisfying.

Rating:
Summary: Our global consumer's society leads to violence!!
Review: This is a Richard Bachman book. Here one male individual, due to some roadwork around his home, blows his top and gets destructive against this consumer's society that does not provide individuals with peace and quiet, security and a healthful and healthy future. he becomes berserk and he starts destroying anything that comes from there, from out there, from this society, and then symbolically this society itself. And he does that to celebrate Christmas and New Year. His solution is final and has no return. This book reveals that a society that does not provide people with an outlet for their desire for change, a procedure for them to change their society in a way or another, they have to turn violent one way or another, either violent against other people or violent against themselves. The development of globalization is a perfect demonstration of this phenomenon. The global process is not under the control of the people, so they become discontented and they may become violent : violent in demonstrations, violent in their everyday life, violent against other people or themselves, even suicidary. Their aim becomes the pure and simple destruction of everything they can lay their hands on and that represents, in their eyes, this global society. Here it will be a McDonald restaurant. There it will be a confrontation with the police. Overthere it will be the destruction and looting of stores. And so on without any limits. This book is a call for a society where every individual will be associate with the decisions and will be able to air their ideas, opposition or agreement, a society where the opinions of individuals will be absolutely crucial, asked for and respected. And this starts at the local level. This book is very pessimistic about our society, but maybe our society deserves this pessimism. Dr Jacques COULARDEAU

Rating:
Summary: does not work
Review: this is perhaps my least favorite of SK's horror/thriller. a guy lives where a road is planned. he has to move. his job and marriage gets endangered to, and he decides he wants the roadwork stopped. so he begins taking matters into his own hands. this book doesn't deliver. i got the feeling that the guy was an idiot who deserved what was coming to him, and very little the feeling that the road was to blame. the guy has just sort of given up. i don't feel taht much sympathy for him. i mean: his job is not that great and he endagers it himself, as an example. in the end it all was too little tied up with the roadwork. no great descriptions or psychology either.

Rating:
Summary: Deserves More Credit
Review: This, my 12th King novel, definitly ranks up there in the top 5.
If anyone dares say that Stephen King cannot write serious literature, then he has not read "Roadwork."
While not horror in the vein of Pet Semetary or Salem's Lot, Roadwork focuses on the unthreading of an average middle-class man, who becomes victim to progression. A man who has to relocate his work and home to another side of town because of a highway project, begins acting strange, and slowly loses his grip, and becomes "unplanted."
The character development is so rich that it is scary. Those who are strict adhereers to the horror genre may not get much out of this, but those who enjoy fiction in general, and who have an appreciation for the subtle details which make for a complete literary experience, will want to indulge in this poignant world of anti-progression.