The Dead Zone
Stephen King’s Vision and John Smith’s Fate
Do you believe that you are born for a purpose in this world; that we all have some sort of fate that awaits us, no matter what other plans we have in mind? The joke is if you want to make g*d laugh, tell him your plans. I wonder about that sometimes, especially after reading another Stephen King novel.
Believe me when I say this: this is not a review that I wanted to write. I have avoided King’s work for most of a year. “Pet Sematary” and “Doctor Sleep” ended up on my desk because I found them in a book box, and I also discovered that King felt that the former book was one of the most disturbing things he had ever written. I think I understand why, and it had nothing to do with monsters stepping out of the woods when they feel their territory has been disturbed, or the vengeful ghosts of an old and abandoned hotel. Any novel that hinges on a child’s death by a runaway car, or watching his father lose his mind, was obviously written by someone who knows how easily reality can impinge on the imagination. And reality is a pretty terrifying place sometimes. It is the reason why I have so many doubts about writing this piece.
John Smith, a small town schoolteacher, finds himself in the hospital after recovering from a collision between his ride home in a taxi and some drag-racing kids on a deadly quiet road. He awakens from a four-and-a-half year coma and develops an ability to see things that others cannot envision, an ability that takes him back to an accident in his childhood when the signs were there and he could not understand them. Of course, using his “second sight” or “psychic abilities” makes him both a pariah and a celebrity throughout the story…right up until that final set of chapters when he has to make a decision that will change the lives over everyone around him.
Please forgive me. Some of you have already read the book, or seen the David Cronenberg adaptation, and may note the huge jumps over plot and incident that I am making (the solving of a murder case; the premonition of a prom night disaster – another one, Mr. King?). I am giving a schematic without diving too deeply into key moments for a reason: King seems to have had his own vision of what was to come in this book; his own personal Dead Zone.
I kept jumping back to the beginning of the book to check something. It was not the number of sections (only three this time; four-hundred pages in total); it was the year it was published: 1979.
Some of you too young to know or remember specifics should know the following: John Lennon would be killed by a gunman in 1980; the Pope would be shot in an attempted killing in 1981; President Ronald Reagan survived a killer’s ultimate gesture to Jodie Foster in the same year. Up to that point, there had been attempts on President Ford and other mass killings (Jonestown is referenced in the book), but seems very disturbing to me that King knew something about the zeitgeist that others could not name. Maybe it is a little dated and provokes a smile to predict Ford beating Carter into the 1980s, but there is nothing funny about just how close events in the book seemed to find their echo just a few years later…and even up to today. How can anyone read about a president facing another indictment and not wonder if anyone could have seen such a thing coming? Does King’s book still have lessons for us today? Is it the most terrifying thing he has ever written?
Well, no, not the most terrifying (I still find the short stories to be the best way to take him on, one dry shot of literary adrenaline at a time). But I wonder about what we should take from a book like this. As I said, some us might want to know and question their role in life. Certain artists work as dowser wands pointing us towards the source of certain things that we may not want to discover. Others simply cull the facts and tell us what could be (science fiction is brilliant at that: Octavia E. Butler; John Brunner). King seems to have written a novel both dated by the context of the material and far too ahead of itself in examining American culture.
Please read it for yourself and then join the Stephen King Book Club on YouTube. They will be going through the entire novel from the Prologue to the first three chapters tonight.
I have a vision that you might enjoy it...
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About the Creator
Kendall Defoe
Teacher, reader, writer, dreamer... I am a college instructor who cannot stop letting his thoughts end up on the page.
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Comments (20)
Dead zoon was my favorites book
Congratulations 🎉
I'm not a King fan or reader, but I watched a few movies based on his novels. The Dead Zone or the twilight zone : )
The dead zone was one of the very first Stephen King books I read, I got into King in a big way. Had/have all the films, various prints of the same book. But it went off boil to me in the mid 90s because everything got too descriptive, I like to be able to imagine the environments the characters live in, but with It in particular, it just got too much. At one point a location is slowly described over 8 pages… I was gone. The first UK edition of the book in hardback, obviously had a lot of pages and was printed on the same tissue type paper we’d print the bible on. I lost my love of King. But this early stuff, so pure, so unique, so well told.
Great work I read this book years ago. Thanks for bringing back the memories of it
Great story, honestly. I could almost feel those thoughts going through your mind. A new look at Mr. King's novels for me. Interesting.
I've yet to read it. This, IT and The Stand have been on the list for years!
Thank you for sharing this . I have read this novel many years ago and i have never connected the future events to what was described by Stephen King in the novel. its giving me more to think about now.
Congratulations on top story!😊💕
This was really great. I never saw this, perhaps I will (horror) yikes. This was very interesting. TS ok.
Kendall, congratulations on Top Story. Loved your terrific review!!❤️❤️💕
Great review, Kendall. I've been a Stephen King fan since the school days. I think I've read them all, including the Bachman books.
Great review, although I don't read much Stephen King, I might give this one a try, thanks!
I have actually yet to read a single Stephen King book strangely, but now I might just start with this one.
Great review, Kendall! I remember the movie, particularly the end, quite vividly.
Excellent share, Kendall. Very well written review. And congrats on the Top Story!
I have to read it
This is one of the few Stephen King books I haven’t read yet. I love your review.
King has the kind of talent that can send shivers down anyone’s spine. Wish I was half as good.
Yes! I’ve been waiting on a book recommendation from you! 💗💗