As I noted on a recent episode of Shooting The Poo, The Shining genuinely scared the shit out of me. Maybe not as much as Joey in Friends who hides the book in the freezer, but it left an impression on my teenage mind. Being that scared by words on the page is a happy memory, and my greatest hope was that Doctor Sleep wouldn’t diminish it.
And it doesn’t. While it’s a definite sequel, it’s very much it’s own book. Danny Torrance has gone the way of his father turning to the bottle to rub out the effects of his particular gift. In what turns out to be the most powerful scene in the novel, Danny’s rock bottom moment is where he steals $70 from a single mother whom he’s had a one night stand with. What makes the scene genuinely upsetting is the moment where an 18 month comes toddling in the room just as Danny is stealing the money. The kid – a complete surprise to Danny who wasn’t aware in his drunken haze that the women he we stealing from was in fact a mother – grabs for some left over cocaine on the table thinking it’s candy. Danny stops the kid but takes the money anyway.
The rawness and despair of this moment is pivotal. It’s what drives Danny in his search for redemption and forgiveness.
For Danny that search involves settling down in small New Hampshire town, joining AA, using his talents in a hospice to make the final moments for those on the verge of death bearable (it’s where he gets the name Doctor Sleep), and meeting a young girl called Abra who’s ‘shining’ is so powerful she’s attracted the interest of a group of psychic vampires called the True Knot.
According to King, Doctor Sleep is an attempt to go back to his balls to the wall days when he tried to horrify and shock. In that sense the book never gets out of first gear. The gore is light on, there’s very few scares, and for a King novel the death toll is low.
But then it’s easy to forget that The Shining was King’s third published novel. King’s colloquial writing style and writerly
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were fresh and exciting back then. His knack to make us love his characters – even the flawed ones – only heightened the horror. Doctor Sleep is his 50 something book. Us, the Constant Reader, are used to his colloquial style his writerly
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and the cast of very similar characters he draws from. The precocious teen, the salt of the earth country folk, the damaged – usually alcohol or drug fuelled – protagonist. If you’re a fan like me Doctor Sleep is more a comfort read than something that’s going to frighten the bejesus out of you.
But that doesn’t mean it’s bad or a disappointment. Danny Torrance’s character arc is the heart of the novel, which is a good thing because he’s one of King’s more successful characters. Through his relationship with Abra, with the folk of the town where he lives, with other AA members and with those dying patients at the hospice, you want Danny to succeed in his search for redemption and forgiveness and happiness.
Unlike it’s grandpa, Doctor Sleep is unlikely to be remembered as a modern horror classic. But as an example of King’s gifts at telling a good story with interesting characters it meets the brief perfectly.
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