The Stand - Stephen King

I’m a little surprised at myself when I say this, but I don’t think I really have anything in particular to say about The Stand. I’m surprised because I found it to be a good book (I would definitely recommend it to others), and it was engrossing (once I picked it up I wouldn’t put it down again for hours). But, other than that, I have nothing much to say about it. I guess those two things should be enough, really, but what I mean is nothing really hit home that much, not the characters, or the ending, or the supernatural elements. They were all just all right, good, nothing to get overly excited about. In any case, I don’t think as highly of it as I do of Wizard and Glass. But the review must get written, so here it is.

The book is divided into three books. In the first book, King provides an awesome story and the best part of the entire book, in my opinion. A superflu epidemic (oftentimes compared to the swine flu, and let me tell you how enjoyable it was for the hypochondriac in me to read about a massive deadly flu right in the middle of our very own swine flu panic) has been accidentally released from a U.S. research facility, wiping out something like 99.9% of the world’s population. King’s narrative throughout this whole first part is phenomenal: suspenseful, tragic, scary (terrifying even), believable (to me, at any rate), and even funny sometimes, as he describes the outbreak, the spread, the reactions, society’s downfall, the panic, basically the meat of any apocalyptic story. The main characters are setup and you start to really care about their different storylines and personalities.

The second part of the book introduces the supernatural elements of the story, where the remaining survivors begin to have dreams in which they are either drawn to Mother Abigail (the archetypal good force) or to Randall Flagg (the archetypal devil). The rest of the story plays out as a battle between good and evil (the spiritual, religious kinds, with God, hell, demons, etc.) as the remaining survivors either build up a democracy along with Mother Abigail or succumb to Flagg’s domination. The last book recounts the final stand and the resolution of this good vs. evil battle.

The supernatural elements, well they’re fine…possibly a bit silly if you stop to think about it but this is King after all. Supernatural stuff is part of the deal when you read his books, silly or not. But I thought the pace of the story gets a big bogged down, things get dragged out a bit more, characters get lost in the shuffle of too many characters, and so on. I’m not saying parts 2 and 3 are bad. They’re still engrossing and interesting, but the high point of the book was part 1 and everything else leaves you with a feeling of “well I guess I gotta keep going here just to find out what happens,” and sometimes it even leaves you with a feeling of "oh come on, the Hand of God, really, THE God? phhht." Parts 2 and 3 also take on a Lord of the Rings type feeling, which King has acknowledged is intentional. I didn’t realize it was intentional until I read the wiki site to refresh for this review, but I did notice a Lord of the Rings quality to it as I read it. I couldn’t describe it to you but if you’ve read Lord of the Rings, and if you read The Stand afterwards, you’d probably feel it too.

One other thing, which I’ve talked about before, is how I both love and hate King’s foreshadowing. For example, he’ll write something like “And that’s the last time they saw each other.” I hate it because I don’t want to know that’s the last time they see each other, I want to hang on to some hope that maybe later on they will see each other even if they don’t. At the same time, I love it because now I no longer have to wonder if they will see each other, I can just wait to find out why they won’t get to see each other. That makes no sense, I suppose, but in my own tortured way, I quite enjoy when those passages pop up.

At the end of it, I’m left in neutral territory because it was an outstanding opening with a tepid ending. But I would still recommend.

Don't Nobody Do Anything Crazy

I hadn’t been home to Honduras since 2007, which is a really long time for me. I hadn’t been able to go because of graduation and starting a job and then, in 2009, some jackass got it into his head that he would violate the Honduran Constitution repeatedly and create a huge media frenzy when he re-entered Honduras and barricaded himself in the Brazilian embassy. He was still in there when I was deciding to go. He’s been in there since October of 2009 and it’s anybody’s guess when he’s getting out…most likely in handcuffs.

Anyway, that stressed me out whenever I thought of going home for Christmas because how absolutely wonderful would it be for me to go home and then have that same jackass make a huge scene, which would then lead to airports shutting down or the U.S. closing borders to Hondurans? But I finally decided to go, especially since things had been very calm for the last month. The first few days I was expecting stuff to go down at any moment, but after a while you start to realize that the situation in Honduras is nothing more than a sociopath sitting in an Embassy while life is going on outside much as it always has. After a while, you forget he’s even there. You can drive by the Embassy where he’s locked in and see the police barricade and soldiers standing guard (how I regret not taking a picture), but that’s it. I’m glad to say the crazy stayed inside and the trip went very well. And he’s still in there…

Besides stressing out over fears of political insubordination and riots, I also had a chance to reflect on some cultural aspects of Honduras that I’ve (naturally) always taken for granted, but which now jump out at me and make me pause…here’s a list of things you may notice when traveling to Honduras that might strike you as…odd…

1. Most of the year, days are sunny to partly cloudy, temperatures range from 74 to 86 degrees F, humidity is a pleasant 55-65%, and nights get as cold as 60 degrees F….it is ridiculous how awesome the weather is every day.

Perfect weather every day...no wonder I complain about New England winters and summers

2. Nearly every meal, regardless of what it is, will also feature rice and corn tortillas…even pasta dishes.

3. Residential houses can be turned into anything: restaurants, bars, salons, boutiques, grocery stores, offices, you name it.

4. Pulperias are ubiquitous. These are your poor-man’s versions of a CVS on every corner. Home owners will often set aside a piece of their house (usually a small brick house adjacent to the main house) and set it up as a mini-convenience store. You can get food, beer, soda, cigarettes, bathroom supplies, medicine, and so on. Damn, I should have taken a picture of the one right next to my house…(not mine)

5. Any social gathering is a good excuse to throw up a piñata; this is not reserved just for birthdays, as I learned when I went with my parents to my dad’s office holiday barbecue.

Yep, that's a snowman piñata for a holiday office party :)

6. This one is odd only because it’s so eerily similar to the U.S.: there are coffee shops on every street block, some even across the street from each other.

7. The only other store more popular than coffee shops are pharmacies. There is one on every other street block.

8. Fireworks may be illegal, but there has never been a Christmas or New Year’s Eve where it didn’t sound like a war was going on in the entire city for 10 min before and after midnight on those days.

9. Hondurans will go out and drink like it’s the weekend even on Mondays, Tuesdays or Wednesdays.

10. I’ve talked before about every house having a 6 to 10 ft wall completely surrounding it (some of the wealthier mansions can get even higher), but I didn’t remember that most houses will ALSO put up bars on every window and door. Who said fire hazard?

These houses don't completely show what I'm saying because the house can also be completely removed from the wall...but, as you can see, bars everywhere

11. Any security guard, police officer, or soldier that you see will be carrying a shotgun. I think it’s a shotgun anyway, it looks like one of the weapons you can pick up in Left 4 Dead. This includes bouncers outside some bars and clubs (though those only carry a gun, not a shotgun), guards outside banks (any bank, all banks, every single one, will have armed guards at all times), vehicle patrols, and I know I’ve seen more but I can’t remember where else. Basically, don’t be shocked if you walk to a gas station or a store and someone is standing around with a bulletproof vest, a Security hat, and a shotgun.

12. During Christmas, anywhere you go, any restaurant, store, or house, will have at least three nativity scenes on display…at least.

That’s all I can remember for now. I had a longer list but I knew I would forget half of it by the time I got back. Despite all I know about myself and my horrible memory, I can never get into the habit of writing things down constantly :(