Blaze

Clayton Blaisdell Jr, nicknamed Blaze, is a mentally disabled giant of a man; he’s 6ft 7in and “not quite” 300 lbs. His best – and only current – friend is George; a con man and bad influence on him. It’s George who urges Blaze into the life of crime that he’s living now, who, in fact, teaches Blaze how to live the life. Their dream is that one big score that will let them retire. That’s where the idea of kidnapping a baby comes in. But this will not be the Lindbergh kidnapping; Blaze never hurts anyone (unless provoked and defending himself) and he is not about to hurt a little baby.

The story takes place in “America, not all that long ago.” It’s not specifically post-war America, but there are no cell phones. The show more plot moves back and forth between the kidnapping caper and Blaze’s childhood. We learn about his alcoholic father who abused him, the orphanage where he grew up, the foster family that misused him, the petty thieves who “befriended” him so they could use his size and basic naiveté to their own purposes.

To King’s credit, he keeps these two plots moving, building tension and explaining the underlying pathology that results in the final tragedy. The language is rough and graphic. The scenes of abuse made me cringe and want to beat the &*%^ # out of those who used their power to create the adult Blaze. Once again, King has created a character who is not necessarily likeable, but who captures the reader’s sympathy.

It’s worthwhile to read the forward by Stephen King who explains this “trunk novel,” which is copyrighted in 2007. When King was first starting out he wrote different genres under different names. He had been very successful in the horror genre with his own name, so he used Richard Bachman for non-horror books from about 1966 to 1973. This was the last book “Bachman” wrote. But THIS book didn’t ever get published. Fast forward to 2005 when King, now an incredibly successful author, comes across this manuscript in a cardboard carton. He looks it over; it’s okay but not great. But he cannot forget this story. His original is too “weepy,” and not hard boiled enough; but, there is a kernel of a good book there. It is not horror; it’s not noir; so what is it? He reworks it, and what we have is a “minor tragedy of the underclass,” a sort of homage to Of Mice and Men.

McLarty is nothing short of wonderful as the performer of this audio book. His ability to give life to the various characters through use of different pitch and/or accent is remarkable. I was never confused when two characters had conversations because he gave each a unique voice. Bravo! show less

Un'opera minore (diversamente da altre targate Richard Bachman) e anche Zio Steve lo sa. Nonostante ciò, la finezza con la quale sono caratterizzati i personaggi, e soprattutto il povero Blaze, diminuito nella sua intelligenza e ridotto a un pupazzo che per muoversi deve ricorrere alla voce dell'amico morto, da un padre brutale, e il suo riscatto per amore del piccolo Joe, il neonato che lui rapito e che pure è arrivato ad amare sopra ogni cosa, lo rendono lo stesso una lettura che vale la pena. Blaze perderà la vita e il bambino, che tornerà alla sua ricca famiglia, eppure il finale lascia intendere che da qualche parte nella giovane mente del neonato resterà la memoria di una persona e di un momento della sua vita fuori show more dall'ordinario. La caratterizzazione sociale e la descrizione di una certa qual sistematica brutalità nel sistema nei confronti dei giovani svantaggiati sono l'ossatura costitutiva di questo romanzo.

A minor work (unlike other branded Richard Bachman) and even Uncle Steve knows. Nevertheless, the finesse with which the characters are characterized, and especially the poor Blaze, diminished in his intelligence and reduced to a puppet which to move resorts to the voice of his dead friend, by a brutal father, and his ransom for love of the little Joe, the baby that he kidnapped and who also came to love above all, make it the same worth reading. Blaze lose his life and the baby, who will return to his wealthy family, yet the ending suggests that somewhere in the young mind of the newborn will be the memory of a person and a moment of his life out of the ordinary. The social characterization and description of a certain system in which systematic brutality towards disadvantaged youth are the constitutive backbone of this novel. show less

Out of a sense of duty to be completely transparent, I feel that I should declare myself one of King's constant readers before I go further with this review.

For me, Blaze was a return for King to his roots in well-crafted characters and story-telling from a different angle. King is known for his characters and his ability to tell a stroy from an angle that is just different enough from the norm to shed light on darkened corners of both the mind and the world around us but close enough to norm to be frightening. This book delivers on that reputation.

Blaze, a slow witted and abused giant, is befriended by George, a con man. The two are shadows of Steinbecks main characters in Of Mice and Men, as the story is an homage of sorts. Blaze and show more George plan to kidnap the young son of a wealthy family but the George dies before they can carry out the plan. Blaze, in an effort to prove to himself and the world that he can do things on his own, goes through with the plan. Along the way he is both helped and hindered by
George's ghost.

This is one of my favorite stories King has ever told. Some of King's stories ring so true they transcend to a different level. Blaze is a character so well drawn in his thought process and in the details of his life, revealed slowly through the course of the book, that he seems bigger than the sum total of the book and the story. This is a character, for me, that has stayed with me long after finishing the book.

King says this was an old story, recently re-discovered, which he dusted off and shined up. I hope he finds some more of these.

Five bones!!!!! show less

This is Stephen King at his best. I can’t believe it was one of his trunk novels. I’m so please he re-worked it and had it published. The character of Blaze is so well written that although he is a ‘baddie’ I felt myself truly caring for him. There have been comments about the similarities between him and the character of Lenny in Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, and I have to say I agree with them. Both are hulking great men with gentle characteristics, who are led astray by friends and situations out of their control. When Blaze end up alone with the baby, but starts to ‘see’ his dead friend everywhere, things get really interesting. The whole story is very touching and the final pages are breathtaking.

Siempre que pienso que Stephen King ya no puede sorprenderme, viene y me deja atónita ante su enorme capacidad literaria.

Este libro es tan complejo en su fondo, en su forma, en estilo y en historia que no se ni como hacerle justicia.

Blaze es un disminuido intelectual, por un lado King nos cuenta la vida que ha tenido este hombre desde que es un niño y cómo es que termina donde está actualmente y es como un delincuente.

La soledad de Blaze, me ha llegado en lo más profundo del alma, por supuesto que no es justificable lo que hace, pero es que uno no puede evitar hacerlo cuando se lee toda su historia, es como inevitable que este personaje terminara como lo hizo.

Así pues, no pude evitar sentir una enorme compasión por este show more personaje, no pude evitar conmoverme con él, hacerme reflexionar sobre la verdadera maldad de algunos o la lealtad de otros o la compasión de la gente, de cómo hay quienes utilizan a la gente.

Al inicio del libro hay una comunicación de parte de King, entre otras cosas, dice que espera que el libro no haga llorar al lector, bueno, no me ha hecho llorar, pero si que se me ha encogido el corazón en más de un sentido y en más de una ocasión.

Es un libro que hay que leerse, a pesar de que fue publicado en el 2007, este libro fue escrito originalmente en los años 70’s que es, según mi opinión personal, la mejor época de escritura de este autor.

Realmente este libro me ha sorprendido mucho, he leído varios libros de este autor de diferentes géneros, para mí es difícil encasillar esta historia, precisamente porque me parece que incluso es diferente a todo lo que le había leído antes, si algo puedo decir de este libro es que no los dejará indiferentes. show less

In the introduction to this novel, King dismisses it as a trunk novel. Originally written in 1973 under his pen name, Richard Bachman, it sat forgotten for nearly thirty years. Thankfully it's been unearthed. This is an excellent, no-nonsense crime novel.

King mentions in the intro that when he wrote a second draft of Blaze thirty years later, he paired down the prose as much as he could, making it as lean as possible. In this regard it reads like a Donald Westlakee novel (or, more accurately, like Westlake's alter ego, Richard Stark).

The book clocks in at a relatively short (for King anyway) 260 pages. The story just screams along, and King's realization of the main character is surprisingly effective. Blaze is fantastic character, show more tragic and sympathetic.

this is probably the best King novel I've read since 1997's Desperation. Well worth the read. show less

Since I've been on a reading kick lately (getting ready for the big Harry P. release) I picked this one up at the Barnes & Noble, Stephen King's new thriller, rather Richard Bachman's (who we all know as Steve's nom de plume from back in the day), Blaze. I grabbed it because I read The Bachman Books back in high school and loved them all, despite what other people might say about them. I never read any of the other Bachman novels (Thinner or last decade's Regulators), although I have them on my shelf. When I saw this one in the store, I immediately grabbed it and read the introduction.

The set-up that Steve gives us is this: it's a novel he wrote 30 years ago that he thought was bad and never published until recently when he went looking show more for it and realized it wasn't so bad at all and with minimal re-work he could get up to passable snuff and dump it into the marketing machine. Oh, and all the proceeds go to some sort of starving artist's charity. So it's a philanthropy piece.

Well, it's not "bad," no, I wouldn't say that. However, fans of Steve's work (we, his Constant Readers) will recognize many of his recurring themes and devices, in particular: flashbacks to childhood where important (and often more interesting than the rest of the novel) scenes play out which explain why the adult characters are the way they are (see It, Dreamcatcher, etc). They will also recognize that it's not some of his better work. Even if he hadn't spilled the beans in the introduction, I think most of us would have wondered which drawer he'd pulled this from.

It's a fast read and one that Constant Readers like me will tear through and be done with in no time. And afterwards, we'll reflect on the fact that he's gotten better in the past 30 years and look forward to the next "real" Stephen King novel. show less