Thoughts on “Needful Things”
Finished this last night. To be totally objective, while I didn’t dislike the novel, I felt it to be the least compelling of his stories. I think there may be this awkward transition from his 80s darkness to the 90s “lightness” that definitely leaked into the writing. There is a clunkiness in the prose in my opinion, a sort of awkward way to get to the end of the sentence. I didn’t not like it, I just would say that it wasn’t his most enthralling read, and I think most would agree. Random thoughts:
-I have never met a selectman. But according to SK there is a though-line in all of his novels that they are all royal pieces of shit
-This novel continues the idea, and he shares this with David Lynch, that small towns are utter nightmares
-Slopey Dodd may be the one of the most offensively named characters that is equally
disabled
-I did appreciate his self referencing, “You bet your fur,” (pg 392); literally saying “Four Past Midnight” (pg 79; “…way off the beam” (pg 167) along with all of the Castle Rock books
-I have never heard women’s chests this much and this repeatedly
As is the common theme with his books, they end with a deus ex machina and everything being destroyed. Sometimes it works (It, The Stand, Under the Dome) and sometimes it doesn’t. I think it just ended too abruptly with too little concern for the characters.