Somehow I hadn’t read this one before, and like last year when I read Firestarter, and others in more recent years reading the first handful of Stephen King novels, I am reminded how sharp he was for the first dozen years or so, with only the middling period in the mid to late 90s, before coming back from his injuries to begin anew.
This one does something that he does from time to time…invent a supernatural plane or set of abilities etc in order to play out a small plot as opposed to a big one. So like The Shining or Rose Madder. This is opposed to the books in which there’s an earth shattering force applied and an epic scope or broad scope to follow.
So while there’s psychic abilities, it’s played for small terms in this story. It’s about stopping some personal (even if serious or large) tragedies and stopping a would be evil politician.
Also this is a wonderful reminder that Stephen King invented Trump. Or more so, he reminds us that Trump and his buffoonish clowning and fascistic desires are nothing more that petit tyrant writ large. Stephen King does an immensely interesting thing here in predicting the rallies, the gaslighting, the fawning adulation, and all the other things that shock the more sentient beings out here to watch as otherwise rational people are completely taken and desire to be taken in.
There are some bizarre tone things going on here though. Weird cocaine references throughout.
(Photo: https://www.amazon.com/Dead-Zone-Stephen-King/dp/1501144502/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1556548124&sr=8-4)
