# "From A Buick 8"
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-a-buick-8/164123
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [March 25, 2003, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-a-buick-8/164123 "2003-03-25T21:20:03Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Batsinma\_Belfry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Batsinma_Belfry)
#### Post date: [March 25, 2003, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-a-buick-8/164123/1 "2003-03-25T21:20:03Z")
What a waste of time and money. It wasn’t the worse story I’ve read, but it didn’t leave me with the satisfied feeling I get from reading a good book. The story was like the Buick 8, something was not quite right about it. It would’ve been better as a short story.
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### Author:  [@tarragon918](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tarragon918)
#### Post date: [March 25, 2003, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-a-buick-8/164123/2 "2003-03-25T22:29:47Z")
I’ve got to agree with you, hillbilly queen. King’s last several books have seemed weird – well, more weird than is his norm, that is! What I really didn’t like and ended up skimming through were the grotesque descriptions. Between the descriptions in there and the ones in “Dreamcatcher,” I’m just about to be finished with King, except that I’m awaiting the publication of the next volume of the “Dark Tower” series. For some reason, his really vivid descriptions have just gone -too- far, too over the top, at least for me.
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### Author:  [@Greywolf73](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greywolf73)
#### Post date: [March 25, 2003, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-a-buick-8/164123/3 "2003-03-25T23:54:04Z")
I had the same feeling about it, **Hillbilly queen**. Overall, it was a good read but it really felt like a short story painfully stretched out to novel length.
With the exception of “Bag of Bones” I’ve been pretty disappointed with his last few novels. “Everything Eventual” was alright–but then again, I think SK is more a master at the short story anyway.
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### Author:  [@Avalonian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Avalonian)
#### Post date: [March 26, 2003, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-a-buick-8/164123/4 "2003-03-26T00:04:40Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by tarragon918 \*
> \*\*What I really didn’t like and ended up skimming through were the grotesque descriptions. Between the descriptions in there and the ones in “Dreamcatcher,” I’m just about to be finished with King, except that I’m awaiting the publication of the next volume of the “Dark Tower” series. For some reason, his really vivid descriptions have just gone -too- far, too over the top, at least for me. \*\*
Grotesque descriptions of _what?_ Are you sure you’re thinking of the right King book?
I’ll agree about _Dreamcatcher_; it’s King’s worst book since _The Tommyknockers_, and the “shit-weasel” thing was completely unnecessary.
However, _From a Buick 8_ was a remarkably subtle novel, especially for King. I would say that, for the most part, it was a book almost completely _devoid_ of the “grotesque descriptions” of his earlier books, such as _Christine_ or _Cujo_. It’s a very different sort of book for King, but it’s also probably one of the best, most elegant books he’s written in a long time.
I wrote a review of _Buick 8_ about a week after I had read it, and it’s impressions remain:
> [@](#):
>
> OK, it’s a Stephen King book and it’s about a car. I suppose comparisons to _Christine_ are inevitable.
>
> As far as I’m concerned, _From a Buick 8_ couldn’t be more different from _Christine_, despite the spooky car angle they both share. _Christine_ isn’t one of my favorite King books, really, though it’s not one of his worst either.
>
> _From a Buick 8_ has very little in common with _Christine_, though, other than an old car with supernatural overtones. _Buick 8_ is so much more about buildup and characterization. It’s a story about people, and as a story which is told from the perspective of five or six different narrators (very convincingly, I might add), it’s also a story about storytelling.
>
> It’s a story in which very little actually happens. There are very few cataclysmic events or shocking revelations. The spooky car in _Buick 8_ never goes on a rampage or kills a bunch of people in increasingly nasty ways (at least, you’re never sure that it does). It spends the vast majority of the story in a shed behind a rural police station, throwing off the occasional light show and spitting out the occasional oddity… and at least one monster. But the car itself does very little, and even the “monster” is more of a matter of perspective and interpretation than a gibbering, howling Creature of Evil.
>
> _Buick 8_ is a mystery, but not in the Agatha Christie sense of the word, because it’s not all wrapped up in a neat little bow at the end. It’s a mystery whose final answer is never really discovered, which seems to be the point. It’s a book that observes that there are very few concrete answers in life, especially for the big questions. It’s a story about how even the strangest events get incorporated into our everyday lives. We deal with them, we do what we have to, and we move on. It’s not always the most dramatic or the most satisfying, but it’s the way things are.
>
> The message of the book seemed (to me) to be encapsulated near the end, when Sandy observes this: “The world rarely finishes its conversations.” It’s a truth that King himself seemed to understand when writing the book, something absent from much of his earlier work.
>
> _From a Buick 8_ is worlds different from _Christine_, literally and figuratively. It’s a far more mature book, and it shows King’s growth as a writer more clearly than anything other the the _Dark Tower_ series. It deserves to be noticed as the work of a mature writer, independent of his previous work. I find it unfortunate that King is planning to retire from writing (or at least publishing) in the near future, but at least he’s leaving behind some of his best work before he does.
Which reminds me… I have to see if the copy I lent to my old boss still exists… it seems to have been sucked into another dimension. 😉
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### Author:  [@Lissa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissa)
#### Post date: [March 26, 2003, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-a-buick-8/164123/5 "2003-03-26T00:06:18Z")
I really haven’t enjoyed King since . . . well, probably since \*The Stand. \* What happened to the richness of his writing? There was a distinctive King “flavor” that has been sadly lacking in all of his later novels.
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### Author:  [@j\_kat\_251](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/j_kat_251)
#### Post date: [March 26, 2003, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-a-buick-8/164123/6 "2003-03-26T00:48:00Z")
What, like how he does this
- (stupid crappy annoying) \*
thing every other paragraph? I’m glad he stopped doing those
- (driving me mad) \*
crazy things.
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### Author:  [@Silentgoldfish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silentgoldfish)
#### Post date: [March 26, 2003, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-a-buick-8/164123/7 "2003-03-26T00:56:41Z")
At all the bookstores here it’s been cut from ~ 50 dollars to just over 10. I guess I know why now :).
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### Author:  [@Avalonian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Avalonian)
#### Post date: [March 26, 2003, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-a-buick-8/164123/8 "2003-03-26T01:05:42Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by j\_kat\_251 \*
> \*\*What, like how he does this
>
> - (stupid crappy annoying) \*
>
> thing every other paragraph? I’m glad he stopped doing those
>
> - (driving me mad) \*
>
> crazy things. \*\*
Ugh. Same here.
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### Author:  [@sleestak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sleestak)
#### Post date: [March 26, 2003, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-a-buick-8/164123/9 "2003-03-26T01:07:58Z")
I actually rather liked “From a Buick 8”. A good plot with a great cast of characters.
I think King is much more precise in his later work. In his earlier work he tended to go off on tangents that were not really needed to further the plot. These tangents, while fun to read, made for some really _long_ books. “It” and “The Stand” come to mind.
Slee
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### Author:  [@koeeoaddi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/koeeoaddi)
#### Post date: [March 26, 2003, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-a-buick-8/164123/10 "2003-03-26T01:44:47Z")
I agree with the OP. I chucked it after about 100 pages. It was just dull. The last novel of his I liked was _Hearts in Atlantis_, though not nearly as much as _The Shining_ or _Dolores Claiborne_. Does it bother anyone else that he uses and reuses the same Stephen King Stock Characters™ who all speak in the same predictable idiomatic slang?
Having said that, I know how ironic it is that my favorite book of his is _On Writing_. 🙂
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### Author:  [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)
#### Post date: [March 26, 2003, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-a-buick-8/164123/11 "2003-03-26T03:12:18Z")
Well, keep in mind that King himself has implied that he doesn’t think some of his writing is up to his own standards. I know he was contractually obligated to crank out x number of books for a grillion or so dollars, but now that he’s fulfilled that obligation and finished writing the “Dark Tower” series, he’s going to really scale back on what he publishes. I’m hoping he’ll pop out an astounding novel every 4 or 5 years.
I liked “Buick 8” but I thought the gimmick at the end, about the character that died in the car crash, was just jerking the reader’s chain.
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### Author:  [@cleops](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cleops)
#### Post date: [March 26, 2003, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-a-buick-8/164123/12 "2003-03-26T03:30:16Z")
Shucks, I thought this thread was going to be about THE king’s _song_, “From a Buick 8.”
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### Author:  [@tarragon918](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tarragon918)
#### Post date: [March 26, 2003, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-a-buick-8/164123/13 "2003-03-26T04:01:05Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Avalonian \*
> **Grotesque descriptions of _what?_ Are you sure you’re thinking of the right King book?**
Yeah, I’m thinking of the right book. The descriptions of the … items that came from/through the Buick. They totally reminded me of the descriptions in “Dreamcatcher.” Those awful shit-weasels–there were parts of that book I just couldn’t read. ☹ The strange thing is, the descriptions from the “Dark Tower” series don’t seem to bother me–and there are some really bizarre ones in there!
My take on the Buick was that it was some sort of transporter. Wish King had revealed something about the guy who “left” the Buick, though! Perhaps it was Randall Flagg…? 😉
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### Author:  [@Batsinma\_Belfry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Batsinma_Belfry)
#### Post date: [March 26, 2003, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-a-buick-8/164123/14 "2003-03-26T05:24:54Z")
I don’t mind King changing his style of writing, I just wish I’d been more prepared for it.
And am I the only one who thinks the smell of cabbage and peppermint doesn’t sound too bad? 🙂
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### Author:  [@Quasimodem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quasimodem)
#### Post date: [March 26, 2003, 6:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-a-buick-8/164123/15 "2003-03-26T06:00:55Z")
He’s writing sober, dammit! **That’s** the friggin’ problem! 😉
Q
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### Author:  [@Manatee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Manatee)
#### Post date: [March 26, 2003, 7:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-a-buick-8/164123/16 "2003-03-26T07:57:46Z")
I just finished this the other day and didn’t care much for it either. In his “Note” at the end of the book, King says that he was trying for something different, a mystery where we never get any defiinite answers. His point, he says, is that not everything is knowable. So why then have Sandy’s glimpse into the vortex where he sees Lippy’s necklace and Ennis’s hat? It’s like King couldn’t trust us to follow along, so he violates his own intentions.
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### Author:  [@tavalla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tavalla)
#### Post date: [March 26, 2003, 8:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-a-buick-8/164123/17 "2003-03-26T08:54:53Z")
**Avalonian** ’s review pretty much said it for me. I enjoyed it, and I’ll enjoy re-reading it when its time comes around again. Weird things happen in life; not everything gets wrapped up in a neat little bundle, all satisfactorily explained. I enjoyed the switches in narrative character too - each had their own ‘voice’. One of the King books I prefer, actually.
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### Author:  [@Wicked\_Blue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wicked_Blue)
#### Post date: [March 26, 2003, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-a-buick-8/164123/18 "2003-03-26T12:48:53Z")
I really liked it and I’m surprised to see so many people didn’t. It reminded me of “Mrs Todd’s Shortcut” a bit, and I thought he was maybe revisiting that idea.
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### Author:  [@cichlidiot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cichlidiot)
#### Post date: [March 26, 2003, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-a-buick-8/164123/19 "2003-03-26T18:22:11Z")
I really enjoyed the tension and mystery in the beginning of the book. I felt the end fizzled out and probably began to when items started coming out of the car. Not because items came out of the car necessarily, just the descriptions of them. As far as the grotesqueness of the dissection and other visuals, I felt it was more of a cheap ploy at grosssing out the reader, rather than adding much to the story. Didn’t King even say something about authors going for the gross-out?
Overall, I didn’t feel grossed out, but disappointed. I don’t consider the book a waste of time, because I felt the beginning of the book was pretty enthralling and I liked the whole idea behind the story. As **Manatee** said, parts of the ending, when not trying to be grisly, reminded me of an episode of Scooby Doo. Having things spelled out rather than giving the reader/observer some credit. I’m also tired of the faithful Fido getting killed in his books. Count me in as another reader looking forward to Wolves Of The Calla. I also plan on buying the rewritten version of The Gunslinger when it comes out.
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### Author:  [@Dr.Cobweb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Cobweb)
#### Post date: [March 26, 2003, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-a-buick-8/164123/20 "2003-03-26T21:16:26Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by cleops \*
> \*\*Shucks, I thought this thread was going to be about THE king’s _song_, “From a Buick 8.” \*\*
I think the song you are probably referring to is actually [_From A Buick **6** _](http://www.bobdylan.com/songs/buick.html). Perhaps.
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