From a Buick 8
Published: 24, September 2002
Author: Stephen King
Genre: American, Fiction, Horror, Literary, Occult, Rural, Science Fiction, Small Town, Suspense, Thriller
Check the summary of this book here:
The Review
Stephen King's From a Buick 8 is a horror thriller. It is King's second novel to incorporate a supernatural vehicle, the first being Christine, which, like this story, is set in Western Pennsylvania. The title is a reference to Bob Dylan's song "From a Buick 6."
From a Buick 8 is a story about our obsession with fatal things, about our demand for answers when there are none, about horror and courage in the face of the unfathomable.
An adoption was expected, but there has been no word on it, and as always, I'll post the information here as soon as I find out anything or when the adoption becomes available.
An excellent Stephen King novel that employs science fiction and fantasy with equal skill as the horror that we frequently find in King's writing.
My only wonder about this book is why it hasn't been turned into a film yet. An enjoyable story that works in an interesting manner.
Making analogies is a tempting pleasure when evaluating a work by an author like Stephen King. From a Buick 8 has been compared to The Green Mile in several expert assessments.
Maybe, both works focus on a convoluted enigma akin to a legendary thread, as well as the characters who try to unravel it. That's when the resemblance takes a sharp left into a completely uncharted King realm.
Similar characters have appeared in other books by King, including one about a historic automobile that came off a Twilight Zone production line.
The piece that comes closest is perhaps King's classic short tale "The Mist," in which he exhibits a proclivity for strange universes and realms that are uncomfortably near to our own.
In painting the story of From a Buick 8, King uses the perspective of various points of views.
He spins a tight web of a story that pulls the reader by the neck into one of King's most gruesome and thrilling roller coaster journeys.
From a Buick 8 is as engrossing and hypnotizing as great literature can be. As a whispering mental tug brings the reader unwillingly in front of Shed B to take his or her own peep, one can almost hear Sandy Dearborn recounting Troop D's astounding story.
The arrival of a new Stephen King novel reminds me of discovering the value of a library card and all the possibilities it may open up.
From a Buick 8 is a gift from a seasoned writer who appears to have his own infinite worlds through which he unselfishly takes readers, much like an old-fashioned theater usher leading a willing ticket holder through the deep darkness of the theater to his or her seat with a flashlight.
This narrative confronts a small group of regular, imperfect, but fundamentally decent small-town residents against a cold, mindless, mechanical, and nearly random evil.
King's language is wonderfully poised here between his darkest worries that all our love and courage would not be enough to overcome the illogical darkness at the center of the cosmos and the ceaselessly clanking chains of fate.
Stephen King goes beyond what he's done in many previous works here while keeping the main dimension of his portrayal of that other world, let's say an alien planet, as threatening, as intending to attack us, as wanting to destroy or invade us in some manner.
Despite this, he discovers a formula that is both effective and symbolic. An antique automobile, a Buick 8, serves as the portal to another realm.
This is a recurrent motif in his writings, where vehicles are characterized as haunted, deadly, and as a portal to evil, to the uncontrollable evil of the psyche or of the world beyond the door of normalcy.
Of course, we think of Christine, but we also consider how frequently vehicles have been the source of evil. It's also true that in many other stories, automobiles are used to flee from evil.
In American society, the vehicle is ambiguous, maybe because it is both a new form of a horse and a weapon in the hands of people who use it as an aggressive instrument to damage or kill others.
But what is interesting in the book is not so much the magic of that evil car as it is the reactions of various State Troopers in the face of that danger, and here again, we find a very precise description of these attitudes, of these thought processes, even if there is a sensation of destiny that no one can break free, and that this destiny has roots in another world, in another level of reality, deeper perhaps, or just further than that.
And this other-worldly-ness is incorporated in the book's language by always going beyond ordinary words and seeking powerful expressions, extremely inventive phrases that combine the color of common familiar language with the intensity of poetry. This is a significant accomplishment.
Final Thoughts
You have to credit it to King for writing works that, even at their most incompetent, display his grasp of characterization and the fear we discover in commonplace settings and locations across his prolific, heralded/bashed career.
It's not so much the horror aspect of From a Buick 8 that makes it so compelling to read. It's all about the characters - the troopers who have maintained a dreadful secret for over three decades, and whose lives are played out in many of the troopers' reminiscences.
All for the sake of Ned Wilcox, whose father died in a horrible accident barely a year before our narrative begins.
The characters are all-engrossing, realistic, and communicate in a language that has earned both acclaim and criticism from scathing reviewers.
In any case, if you appreciate Stephen King's writings as much as I have, this one will not disappoint. It's sluggish at times, but never dull.
Shirley Pasternak's character is one of the greatest female characters he has written since Dolores Claiborne. She is full of compassion and humor, and she is the type of lady that any man would enjoy coming home to.
Although King goes a little beyond with Brian Lippy (read the book to find out what I mean,) but it does aid in the full realization of the fantastic character, Eddie, whose fate is unavoidable.
Many people claim that he has lost his touch, yet King hasn't lost his ability to create frightening, terrifying scenarios.
Just pay attention to his great manner; even his own experience of being struck by a car is intertwined into the narrative, and it's as terrifying as the Buick 8.
Synopsis
“The #1 New York Times bestseller from Stephen King—a novel about the fascination deadly things have for us and about our insistence on answers when there are none…
Since 1979, the state police of Troop D in rural Pennsylvania have kept a secret in the shed out behind the barracks. Ennis Rafferty and Curtis Wilcox had answered a strange call just down the road and came back with an abandoned 1953 Buick Roadmaster. Curt Wilcox knew old cars, and this one was…just wrong. As it turned out, the Buick 8 was worse than dangerous—and the members of Troop D decided that it would be better if the public never found out about it. Now, more than twenty years later, Curt’s son Ned starts hanging around the barracks and is allowed into the Troop D family. And one day he discovers the family secret—a mystery that begins to stir once more, not only in the minds and hearts of these veteran troopers, but out in the shed as well, for there’s more power under the hood than anyone can handle….”
Useful Search Related Words & Keywords
Curtis Wilcox, Dark Tower, Gas Station, Hearts In Atlantis, Looks Like, Ned Wilcox, Pennsylvania State, Sandy Dearborn, Short Story, State Police, Tower Series
Rating: 85/100
Recommended: 90/100 Yes.
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