Sorry I didn't post this one earlier.

So for October it's Stephen King's (first) haunted car tale: Christine.

All I really remember about it now is that in the book (from what I remember) Christine is in part haunted by her former owner, but in the John Carpenter movie we are given the impression that the car itself is possessed.

Message edited by its author, Oct 3, 2009, 5:18pm.

Haunted care tale indeed. : )

Am looking forward to this one. A fave. Will take it down off the shelf soon, Buddy Repperton be damned.

I have to get on the ball. I haven't even dug it out yet!

Will be starting this one soon after reading about 60 pages of my current read. It's sitting on my shelf waiting to be cracked open.

I remember reading Carrie and Cujo as a teen and not enjoying them, so I ruled out reading Christine on the grounds that any King novel with a one-word title beginning with C would be crap! I wasn't convinced a haunted car would be scary either.

This time round I'm looking forward to reading it, mostly to see if it proves me wrong...

I'm 175 pages in and love it as I did the first couple of times I read it. Dennis is a bit of an unlikely teenager; thoughtful, modest, supportive, but I like him and his devotion to Arnie. The prologue is one of the best I've come across; it sets the tone and atmosphere perfectly.

I've started Christine.

Bookmarque is right that Dennis seems maybe a little too perfect. If he wasn't a first person narrator I'd probably be really annoyed with him.

I like the book quite a bit other than that.

I'm still early in it, but I have liked it quite a bit so far.

I didn't think I would like it so much because I have no interest in cars and I thought the idea for a haunted car or whatever (haven't got into Christine herself much yet) would be stupid. I've really dug it so far though, hopefully I can read a good chunk of it in the next two days.

I really need to get crackin' on Christine. I like it quite a bit, but I've only read up to Dennis 'visiting' Christine in the garage. I got a new laptop and am wasting too much time on it. I'm doing it right now!

Am I the only one grooving on the mentions of the Monroeville mall (where the original Dawn of the Dead was filmed)?

One thing I've noticed: Christine is where Stephen King's 'bloat' started. The story is a pretty simple one, but the book is five hundred pages long.

Now, I've never put much stock in the whole bloat thing. Just because he doesn't focus like a laser on his boogeyman tale doesn't mean the book is bloated. To me, all the detail and backstory he puts in are what give his books depth and make him more than a hack bestseller.

Message edited by its author, Oct 8, 2009, 11:33pm.

Well the focused like a laser parts would be dull indeed. Christine's killing spree is the least interesting part of the book for me. I'm 350 pages in or so and it's the indirect destruction that makes the story. Thinking about Dennis and Arnie and their friendship, now in its death throes. Arnie and his parents' somewhat unhealthy, but functioning, family unit is also in shambles. Then there's Arnie and Leigh; what could have been is more painful that what truly was. Lastly, Arnie and Christine, under a few layers of delusion Arnie knows what she's doing to him. He's not surprised when LeBay shows up to cruise. He wants out, but she won't let him. Some call it bloat, I call it thorough characterization, not just of the individuals, but of their stories and circumstances.

#10 - Curse you Bookmarque!

Your post was too good. It pretty neatly summed up my feelings about the book so far. Now I'm afraid that when I write my reveiw I will subconciously swipe from you.

As for the bloat thing, I was just bringing it up as a conversation topic. I never get the feeling that King's novels are bloated. Even It is just as long as it needed to be.

But, since there are folks out there that feel that early King is the best King, I do think Christine was the turning point.

I remember reading in the afterward of Different Seasons that he mentioned he had a new editor and that a tale about a haunted car was going to be his next book. I'm guessing that King was able to get a little more pull with his new editor based on the performance of his earlier books.

Sorry man, sometimes I'm in a groove, you know? And I've been reading King for decades and I know what works for me and why I continue to read him. Duma Key is an excellent example of it as is Christine. There's a poignancy to the what might have been in the latter and what the true cost of evil is (come to think of it, DK has a lot of this...most of his work is about this at its core though). Sometimes he over does it, but mostly he gets it right.

As for the bloat thing, I mostly agree with you. Sometimes there is too much within a story. He loses focus and goes down too many rat-holes on occasion, but the guy can make them so interesting that you hardly notice. I think if he changed to a stripped-down style he'd make a lot of people upset. His Constant Readers like to get hung up in those nooks and crannies. I know I do. So many times I'm chugging along with the hooks and bassline and then he nails me with some little riff and I just smile. The man's got a way.

Message edited by its author, Oct 10, 2009, 1:19pm.

I’ve just read Buddy Repperton’s run-in (you’ll pardon the pun) with Christine. Man, that is one of the single best pieces Stephen King has ever written. If you can put the book down midway through that section, I don’t know. You are stronger than me anyway.

It’s jut so well done. I honestly missed the first mention of headlights in the background. He managed to make Christine creep up not just on Buddy, but on me as a reader as well. Then when Christine attacks it is like something out of Jaws.

Interesting note about this chapter: When I last read Christine (20-some years ago) I was spending the night at a friend’s house. His sister wasn’t a reader at all (none of the family was, really). She asked me how I can just read words on a page and get entertainment out of it.

I had her read the Buddy Repperton and Christine chapter of this book. She was hooked. She borrowed Christine from me, then Misery, then The Tommyknockers. Then she started buying Stephen King’s books on her own.

Message edited by its author, Oct 15, 2009, 4:38pm.

Funny how King is a gateway drug like that for a lot of people.

Agreed at how the scene stalks you like the predator Christine is. The tension builds and the crescendo is beautiful to behold (from a distance, you wouldn't want to get any on ya).

Also building is dread over what is happening between Leigh and Dennis. By now we've seen Arnie get ugly, irrational and violent and what happens to those who cross him and his girl, Christine. He is deluded enough to think he and Leigh will get married. Dennis has felt the threat beneath the mask of friendship. Even though I know what happens, I've been putting off reading the scenes when all pretense falls away.

Am I reading too much into it to think the whole book can function as an allegory for addiction? (Execpt for the destruction of the enemies.) At first Christine is actually good for Arnie, though friends could see he is heading for trouble. Before long though he is devoting all his time and money on her. Well, you see where I'm going.

This book surprised me. I didn't think I would be that into it (I don't really care much at all about cars and I thought the idea of a haunted car seemed kind of lame). I assumed his character development would be as good as most his other books, but I thought the haunted car would end up being kind of stupid. As it turns out I actually liked the car vs. chapters quite a bit and really enjoyed the psyche of the car itself.

I didn't really like the Epilogue all that much though. Felt very unnecessary and tacked on. Like he tried to tie up a bunch of loose ends and then nail us with one more open-ended scenario.

Message edited by its author, Oct 16, 2009, 3:06am.

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Finished it today. Didn't remember every bit of the garage scene ending, so got a nice little jolt. Will try to put thoughts together for a review.

Just finished it.

I can see that the epilogue wasn't exactly needed, but I enjoyed the little twist to the ending.The ending was kind of a delayed wallop for me. I was racking my brain trying to remember who Sander Galton was. Five minutes after closing the book I was like 'Oh yeah!'

Still waiting for a mooched copy to arrive, so I'll be late with this one too!

Never fear, I still haven't picked a copy up from the library yet.

*makes note to go to the library after work*

At least I won't be catching up alone :)

Hope you two continue to post in the thread. I'm curious to see what you guys make of the book.

oh please do.
I cracked Pet Sematary last night.

Will do J.

Christine arrived today, so I hope to get it read this weekend.

Finished the book yesterday. It was a reread for me but it's been long enough that I really only remembered the gist of it. My favorite part was the New Year's Eve car ride with Arnie. The book didn't really scare me but that part was definitely creepy, probably my favorite bit of the book.

My favorite parts were the sections of Christine bringing the pain to buddy and his crew. But yeah, the New Years Eve ride was definitely the creepiest part of the book.

I'm halfway through, and really enjoying it. Interesting discussion, too.

The "bloat" factor - I don't have a problem with it either. King's books are about fully realised characters, which is why they work. The horror is only part of what is going on.

The metaphor for addiction - well, this is what I meant when I said that text and subtext didn't gel in Cujo. Here they do. There are all sorts of teenage/growing up issues going on under the surface. Addiction, bad influences, rebellion, what happens when teenagers try to break free of their usual roles, especially in small towns.

I'm loving the fact that, halfway through, I've only got to the first death. Up until that point, the supernatural elements boiled down to
1) an odomoter that runs backwards
2) Dennis thinking that the damage to the car was undoing itself
3) an irrational dislike of the car by Arnie's nearest and dearest.
The horror is more in what the car is doing to Arnie. I don't know how much the car's behaviour is going to be explained as the book goes on, but so far King isn't laying it on too thick.

I don't think Dennis is too good to be true. He is narrating the story in the first section as any teenager would, thinking about bigger issues for the first time in his life and sounding a bit naive and preachy due to youth. It also adds to the tension - how reliable a narrator is he? How much is due to his jealousy of Christine (and Arnie, where Leigh is concerned)? How realistic is he, blaming Christine? Has he just overlooked flaws in Arnie's personality all these years?

As a Brit, the book is so American, with it's combination of rock and roll, rebellious teenagers and cars. Even with King's distinct voice and referencing of pop culture, I've never thought of him as a particularly American writer before now.

Christine is the ultimate bunny boiler. More realistic than Glenn Close any day. I've seen a couple of male friends get into unhealthy, co-dependant relationships and it is the change in personality, the defensiveness, and the obsession that kills family ties and frienships. Always ends up crippling them financially too. And the woman doesn't seem to do much either - there's no rampaging around with knives and boiling pets - but they know how to pick their targets. The facade often drops when the victim is out of the way, too.

#29 - Very good post, Moomin. I hope you wind up reading Pet Sematary at the same time I do.

Finished last week, liked it a lot but wasn't as keen on the middle section, which slowed me down a bit. I did prefer the parts where Dennis was telling the story, I thought there was more tension in just hearing his side. Again I find King's weakness is not leaving anything to the reader's imagination, but overall it is one of his better books, and fittingly enough for the subjects (teens and cars) it's almost turbo-charged in terms of pace. It's also classic King in terms of unconventional horror - it shouldn't work but it does.

I have to agree with Moomin_Mama's posts. I finally finished Christine earlier this week. Now I have to go get Pet Sematary.

Jseger, just read your review of Christine and really enjoyed it. It did remind me that I didn't mention Buddy Reperton's death - how could I have forgotten about that? I couldn't put it down either, it was very gory!