Summer Reading Series: Fiction
The Long Walk by Stephen King (as Richard Bachman)
I am a lazy reader – if I don’t like a book within the first ten pages, I won’t flip to the eleventh. This was most certainly not the case for The Long Walk, as I turned to the last page the same day I turned the first.
The visceral elegance of King’s prose leaves the reader feeling as if they are a fly on the wall, observing every horrifying detail of each character. Set in a dystopian future in Maine, 100 teenage boys embark on a walk down Route 1; if they walk too slow or stop, they are gruesomely removed from the contest.
The last walker standing wins a considerable amount of money and a prize of his choice. Sure, the premise of the walk itself is compelling, but the real story lies in the interactions of the boys. Though a perhaps on-the-nose metaphor for the true cost of sacrifice to get ahead in an ever-competitive world, The Long Walk is an intriguing read.
-Greg