The Long Walk (1979)

Not your typical Stephen King, but then again this was originally published under a pseudonym. In this story there's a competition to see who can outlast the others in a long walk that ends when there's only one walker left. The twist is that as soon as you quit walking the guards kill you. This was a gripping read that's also an interesting psychological study of competition with some likeable -- and not so likeable -- characters. ( )

read this as a short story and this is one of my favourite if not my favourite short stories by Stephen king. I think I've read it at least 3 times if not more and I highly recommend reading this. Try to avoid spoilers! ( )

I didn't like Stephen King back when he was pretending he wasn't Richard Bachman, so I don't know if I'd have recognised his writing if I'd read this then, but I think I probably would've. There's something about it. The main difference is the theme -- it's horribly human, much less supernatural. He always has something of the human in his books, I've found, something true, something that'll make sense to your ordinary sceptical reader, no matter who they are -- something about family bonds, or just the familiarity of the creeping horror, or a fear that sort of floats around, like a flu pandemic or the death of a child...

This book is much closer, because it's all about humans. It's a cruel book. You know from the beginning that the end isn't going to be a release, because you start off with one hundred characters and it's going to narrow down to one. That's cruel. I felt bad, rooting for Garraty, 'cause weren't the others deserving, too? There isn't a real winner, in The Long Walk, I think. The ending is interesting -- I can see why people call it weak, but it fits with the rest, I think, and if you find it an anticlimax, well, consider: maybe you were supposed to.

For something in which so little happens -- one hundred boys walk through Maine, and if they go slower than four miles per hour they get shot, and the winner is the one left standing at the end -- this is oddly compelling.

And my feet feel just a little sympathetically sore right now. ( )

Read this when I was a kid and always can't remember what it's called whenever "Running Man" comes up...

I was expecting to enjoy this book so much more than I did. The premise sounded good, and the book was highly recommended to me. Unfortunately, I was left with far more questions than answers, so I can't say I have any closure at all. This is one of King's earlier works. I have read three of his other books, and all of those are more recent, having been written in the 2000s. It is fairly clear in this book that King had not yet hit his writing stride; the book's most glaring problem is the dialogue--and this is an extremely dialogue-heavy, character-driven book. Conversation is occurring among a group of teenage boys. Anyone who has spent even twenty minutes with a group of teenage boys knows no boys this age talk like this; instead, the book's dialogue mimics the speech of grown men. This flaw grated on me from beginning to end, try as I might to overlook it.

Also problematic is the fact that King has presented some kind of dystopian society, yet has not established how this society operates. We simply have no idea whatsoever. The ultimate question--WHY are these 100 boys walking continuously until only one is left alive?--is never answered or even hinted at, and I found that extremely unsatisfying. Additionally, I desperately wanted to know: What does it mean that the main character's dad was taken by the Squads? What are the Squads anyway? Why are only boys on this walk? Why are all the boys teenagers? What is the winner's prize? So many, many questions. So few answers.

I don't mind books that expect the reader to figure things out for himself or that leave things up to interpretation, but so little is answered or even constructed (e.g., the dystopian society that would have a Long Walk in the first place) that the whole thing feels more like lazy story-telling than anything else. It's as if King thought up this cool idea, then sat down to type it all up over the course of a week or less, when in reality, this kind of story requires LOTS of fleshing out and a real, solid dystopian construct for it to be the incredible story it has the potential to be. It's a real shame King didn't do more with it.
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