Finished Bag of Bones...

[Rigel]

My Goodreads review: 3 Stars out of 5
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1400756419

[wayfriend]

I know I read it, and I cannot remember a thing. So: spot on.
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* I occasionally post things on KevinsWatch because I am a fan of Stephen R. Donaldson; this should not be considered as condonation of the white nationalist propaganda which is posted far too frequently on this website.

[Zarathustra]

I mostly agree. I like King when he handles characters well (e.g. It, Dark Tower, Gerald's Game), rather than using them as props to talk about supernatural stuff (e.g. Needful Things) or a meandering plot (e.g. The Stand). The ghosts annoyed me in this story at first, but then I found their own stories interesting, especially Sara's. Her rape scene was unforgettable. I read this a year ago on my journey toward the DT, and it's still with me. Mostly I remember the main character's pain and the community where the story happens, the people who had this dark secret they didn't want outsiders knowing. I like how King makes a community come to life with its inhabitants and their history. It feels "lived in." He does this well in It, too.

I disagree with your last line about this book merely being an excuse to have creepy situations. I enjoyed how King let this story breathe, how he was in no hurry for the first 100 pages or so, just exploring the main character. The ghost stuff was just a metaphor for his loss of his wife and how that, well, haunted him. I think it was much less gimmicky than the vampires in Salem's Lot, for instance. Once the vampires started doing their thing, Salem's Lot lost its appeal for me. It was like when Dusk til Dawn becomes a vampire movie and stops being a story about characters. This book was just the opposite, making the ghosts seem more interesting and vital to the plot as the book progressed, rather than jumping the shark (or "gangbanging the 11 year old girl in a sewer," if we want to use an exclusively King reference ... See It).
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Meaning is created internally by each individual in each specific life: any attempt at *meaning* which relies on some kind of external superstructure (God, Satan, the Creator, the Worm, whatever) for its substance misses the point (I mean the point of my story). -SRD

Remain faithful to the earth, my brothers, with the power of your virtue. Let your gift-giving love and your knowledge serve the meaning of the earth ... Do not let them fly away from earthly things and beat with their wings against eternal walls. Alas, there has always been so much virtue that has flown away. Lead back to the earth the virtue that flew away, as I do-back to the body, back to life, that it may give the earth a meaning, a human meaning. -Nietzsche

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[Zarathustra]

NT had a broad cast of characters, but the sense of geography and history in It was deeper. Derry itself felt like another character in It. Not only do we get to see the town from the perspective of children who return as adults, but also in the historical passages between sections. BoB also had this sense of history that NT didn't have (though I believe there were other books set in the same town that I hadn't read).
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Meaning is created internally by each individual in each specific life: any attempt at *meaning* which relies on some kind of external superstructure (God, Satan, the Creator, the Worm, whatever) for its substance misses the point (I mean the point of my story). -SRD

Remain faithful to the earth, my brothers, with the power of your virtue. Let your gift-giving love and your knowledge serve the meaning of the earth ... Do not let them fly away from earthly things and beat with their wings against eternal walls. Alas, there has always been so much virtue that has flown away. Lead back to the earth the virtue that flew away, as I do-back to the body, back to life, that it may give the earth a meaning, a human meaning. -Nietzsche

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