Richard Bachman's Blaze

Cafe Society
1

Anyone else read this yet? This is one of Stephen King’s trunk novels, mostly written in the early seventies. It’s an homage to Of Mice and Men.

Anyway, I got it Friday afternoon and finished it Friday night. It was not really as good as I was hoping it would be (Steve never “wows” me anymore :frowning: ), but it was about a million times better than Lisey’s Story. Also, it included the first chapter of Steve’s next book, which seems promising.

Although SK calls it a tearjerker in the foreword, there was very little in this story that grabbed me emotionally. Steve’s definitely written stuff that grabbed me in the past, but…well, I expected bad things to happen to the characters and they did. Nothing that really broke my heart, though.

I also had a problem with how Blaze, a retarded man, was actually able to pull off this crime so easily.

One part that I liked very much was the letter he recieved from his father. It rang very true to me that it came with no return address, leaving Blaze and the reader to forever wonder. Was it done on purpose? Was it just an oversight, and Blaze’s father waited in vain for a reply? It seemed to me that things like this happen in everyone’s life: questions with no answers.

2

I’m glad you posted this. I had not even heard of it. I’ll have to brush off Of Mice and Men first since it’s been so long, but right now I’m re-reading the Dark Tower series and just started #1 again so I’ll need some non-roland time in my head.

3

If the book had been really good, King would have published it under his own name back when he wrote it back in the seventies. If it had been mostly good, he would have published it with his other Bachman books in the eighties.

4

An aside-something which has already bugged me: did King come up with that nom de plume as a compliment to that other American author, Richard Bach? Or was the similarity in names just an odd coincidence?

5

King has said it’s a tribute to Bachman-Turner Overdrive.