Stephen King: "Fairy Tale"

Stephen King:

Fairy Tale

 The most important thing first: I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book!

It is already speculated if "Fairy Tale" signals the beginning of a new writing style era for The King. Could be, but I truly don't care.

This book, I can imagine, was something he needed to write at the beginning of the COVID19 pandemic. A "feel good" book so to speak.

When normal people huddle in front of the fire and and eat comfort food, a person like Stephen King seems to write a "comfort book".

And I thank him for that.

I started the pandemic reading through Murakami's "19Q4", a book that reflected the strange stages that I was going through while confined to my Paris apartment. At the end of that book, I wouldn't have been surprised to see actually two moons appear in the sky above.

In "Fairy Tale", the hero also enters another world, and there, too, two moons circle above the sky. The parallels between King and Murakami end here, though. The other world in 19Q4 is a parallel version of our world, whereas Empis, the Fairy Tale world Charles (Sharly?) enters is a real "Other".

The book is firmly divided into two parts - the beginning is in the US state of Illinois and introduces the reader to the protagonist. The hero is a 17 year old boy named Charlie Reade and he is a bit like Luke Skywalker or Harry Potter a bit of a blank canvass, too.

Yes, King goes through great length to add some back story to Charlies life - like he loss of the mother when still a child and having had to deal with an alcoholic father (King probably hands out first-hand knowledge here) and that's all fine, but in the end the I-perspective of that "template young man with a great love for a dog and a tendency to serve others" fulfills the perfect task of allowing a broad spectrum of readers to jump on his back like the Snab and see the adventure through his or her own eyes.

The influence of Baum and Lovecraft is very strong in this book, and probably of a couple of other authors that I am not familiar with.

Be that as it may - the story is captivating, a real "page turner" and the "Master of Horror" plays nice in this book. Yes, there are tough moments and also some gruesome ones, but overall this book is as wholesome as a King novel can get.

And I loved it.

I also loved the many references to the "Stephen King Expanded Universe" aka "The Dark Tower" series strewn in here and there. And the references, openly stated, to many pop culture trophies. This is not a "The Walking Dead" setting where no one knows the word "Zombie".

Mr. King - thank you for that one. It was the perfect read through a challenging autumn that had me stressed out and then getting unexpectedly fired from my job just at the beginning of Christmas season.

From Paris with Love,

Hakim aks "Elric"