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From a
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...when there's a hole in a person's life, it doesn't fill up all at once...
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From a
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Much of Stephen King’s career has focused on the basic premise of “extraordinary things happening to ordinary people.” “Wild talents” like telekinesis and psychic ability come to those who don’t want it, and often don’t know how to use it. Weak-willed people are called upon by dark echoes of the past and used and tossed aside. And sometimes darkness comes to town, and it is up to the locals to either band together … or be destroyed.
In general, that’s how things have been in the Stephen King universe since the early short stories were published in men’s magazines way back when; the trend has continued all the way up to and including King’s most recent novel Dreamcatcher. But From a Buick 8 is a little different than those past successes. Indeed, darkness comes to town in Buick 8; in this case, the “town” happens to be Troop D House, just off of Pennsylvania State Road 32. The monster – the darkness – if that works better, arrives on the scene early and departs fairly quickly. What he leaves behind becomes the core of this strange and arresting book: a Buick 8 Roadmaster, the likes of which Troop D has never seen before.
One could run down a checklist of what’s wrong with the Buick: for starters, the ignition key is nothing more than a blunt metal stick. Then there’s the fact that the engine’s sparkplug wires go nowhere but back to the engine. And, of course, the fact that the Buick likes to eat people is pretty darn strange, too.
Okay, maybe it doesn’t precisely eat people; why folks sometimes disappear when in the vicinity of the Buick remains a mystery. The fact is that the State Troopers who bring the Buick back to the barracks and park it in Shed B don’t really know what the Buick does. The interesting thing is, neither do the readers. This is the element that sets From a Buick 8 apart from almost every other Stephen King novel: we are never given answers, or even hints, as to why the strange events surrounding the Buick are happening. Like a jury, we’re called upon to listen to the testimony, view the evidence … and make the final verdict ourselves.
As for the testimony? Well, there you’ve got Classic King. This book is packed with what I like to call “shock scenes” – scenes found in nearly all of King’s books that raise the excitement level just a peak higher. The psychic sequences in The Shining, the manifestations in Bag of Bones, the dog attacks in Cujo, and the pyrokinetic displays in Firestarter have a worthy follow-up: the Buick’s lightning shows. Picture it: the temperature in Shed B drops. Light starts to pour out of the Buick’s windows. And sometimes something comes through.
I won’t go any further than that. One of the biggest joys in reading From a Buick 8 is discovering (along with the personnel of Troop D) the strange and sometimes terrifying treasures the Roadmaster unleashes. These oddities become the focus of Curtis Wilcox, a Trooper who becomes obsessed with the vehicle. Wilcox’s story – told in the extended flashback THEN chapters – eerily parallels that of another of King’s creations obsessed with a car: Arnie Cunningham, of Christine. The major difference is, Wilcox’s fascination with the Buick doesn’t isolate him from his friends. To be sure, From a Buick 8 could be read as the tale of an Arnie Cunningham who hadn’t been ostracized, and who hadn’t made the rolling stock in his life the only thing in his life. Still didn’t prevent the poor guy from being killed, though. That’s the thing with King: no matter who you are, no matter what set of circumstances you come from, you can be cut down in your prime for any reason at all.
Picking up the pieces in the wake of his father’s death, Ned Wilcox – the featured player in the extended NOW chapters – is eager to hear about the Buick which had so captivated his father’s interest. As the men (and lady) of Troop D swap their tales (the shifting viewpoints which make up the NOW and THEN cycles are quite effective, like a bunch of campers sitting around telling ghost stories), Ned becomes more and more convinced that something must be done about the Buick. Something drastic. Something final. Something to avenge the senseless death of his father. The parallel plots of father and son cycle up to a conclusion which, while gripping and tense, is far more subdued than most of King’s slam-bang finales. In From a Buick 8, it’s the right choice. This quiet novel of subtle horror wouldn’t have fit well with an apocalyptic ending. As with The Green Mile, King wisely downplays the terror of the unknown, and focuses instead on the quiet fear of those suffering loss.
One nitpick: near the end of the book, King decided to employ a device which actually worked against the quiet, subdued conclusion King was striving for. The device – a strange, almost sitcommy “trick” on the reader – is obvious and cheap, and I wonder why King decided to leave it in. As far as I can see, it’s the only flaw in a remarkable novel, but it’s a glaring flaw. Take my advice: you’ll know it when you see it, and after you see it, it’s best to put it out of your head. Also, a lingering question: a couple of Troopers bear names very similar to ones we’ve read about in the Dark Tower series. Coincidence? I can’t wait to find out.
I suspect many readers of From a Buick 8 will be disappointed by the lack of a firm resolution. Is the Buick from another world? Maybe. Where did its driver run off to? We don’t know. Why do things come out of it, and why do things sometimes disappear? There’s really no telling. As I’ve stated, most of King’s stories – especially the longer ones – feature ordinary people in extraordinary situations … but there’s usually a reason behind the inexplicable. Here, you’ll find no such thing. Nothing to calm the reader into thinking, This can’t happen to me, because I’ve avoided all the bad stuff. No, Buick 8 reiterates that even if you don’t invite the bad stuff in, chances are it may come and find you. Personally, I loved the open ending. (Later novels like The Dark Tower and The Colorado Kid also played with this concept, to uniformly interesting results.) The vague clues I was given about its origin – or at least where the people who vanish in its presence go to – was chilling enough for me. Sometimes, creating your own scenario behind the up-front creepshow is scarier than being shown the whys and hows. I thank King for trusting his readers enough to fill in the blanks.
Ever since 1979, the state police of Troop D in rural western Pennsylvania have kept a vintage Buick Roadmaster-or what looks almost just like one-caged in Shed B out back of the barracks. That's when Troopers Ennis Rafferty and Curtis Wilcox answered a call about its driver gone missing from a gas station just down the road. Wilcox knew old cars, and he knew this one was suspect. When Rafferty vanished a few hours later, Wilcox and his fellow troopers knew it was worse than dangerous-and that it would be better if John Q. Public never found out about it. Mostly the car sleeps (that's one way of putting it, anyway), but even as it sleeps it breathes-inhaling a little bit of this world, exhaling a little bit of whatever world it came from.
In the fall of 2001, Wilcox's eighteen-year-old boy Ned starts coming by the barracks, mowing the lawn, washing windows, shoveling snow. Sergeant Commanding Sandy Dearborn knows it's the boy's way of holding on to his father, killed in the line of duty in a gruesome auto accident. Missing his father, Ned is allowed to become part of the Troop D family, and one day he looks through a window of Shed B and discovers the family secret. Just like his father, he wants answers. And the secret begins to stir.
From a Buick 8 is a novel about the fascination deadly things have for us and about our insistence on answers when there are none. Like The Green Mile, it is set in a close knit and isolated community and exploits King's unparalleled ability to describe the often sinister interaction of men in small groups. King completed a draft of From a Buick 8 before his own near-fatal auto accident just two years ago, and he addresses the coincidences between his life and the novel in a fascinating afterword.
WAY COOL!!!! I, for one, can't wait for this book. AND, when the paperback of Dreamcatcher comes out (also March 2002), there will be a short excerpt from the new book in it. YEY! Life is good for King fans.
Stephen King Spotted in Pa.
BUTLER, Pa. (AP) - Maybe there's nothing eerie about western Pennsylvania, but folks keep seeing Stephen King in a seafood restaurant around here.
Some residents of Butler and Lawrence counties spotted the horror author Sunday and Monday at a state police barracks and at a Red Lobster restaurant. Apparently, King visited the area, about 35 miles north of Pittsburgh, to research rural life for a new book.
Trooper Rob Lagoon said King toured the state police offices while keeping tightlipped about the story. The author did say it should be out in 2003 and would be set in an area like western Pennsylvania.
Tina Slupe, the general manager of the restaurant where King ate, said employees recognized King and asked for his autograph.
"He told them he would give the autograph and he wouldn't bite, but if 20 people approached him seeking an autograph, he would bite," Slupe said.
King, a resident of Maine, is the best selling author of "Misery," "Carrie," "The Shining", "Pet Sematary" and "The Green Mile" among others.
A recently completed King manuscript called From a Buick Eight was mentioned in a recent Bangor Daily News article. It is ironic, it seems, that a character in the new book gets hit by a car on the side of the road.
King's agent, Chuck Veril, talked about the book:
A car striking a person on the side of the road is part of King's newly completed manuscript, tentatively titled "From A Buick 8,'' Veril said. The book is not under contract, so no release date is set, he said.
"There's a reference early on to a patrolman stopping a car on the side of the road,'' Veril said. "When he approaches the car, he is hit by a passing car.''
-- From The Bangor Daily News
Enough to be tantalizing, that's what we strive for at Charnel House.
We can guess from the title, King's book is at least in some way influenced by the Bob Dylan song, "From a Buick 6." I do not yet know the relevance.
You can find the lyrics to "From a Buick 6" at http://bobdylan.com/songs/buick.html.
