Book Review

Title: Blaze

RATING: 5 Scarab

Author: Stephen King

Reviewer: Dayna Winters

Pages: 384

Publisher: Pocket; Reprint

Blaze, a 384-page novel by Stephen King, is a must read for every bibliophile. It is inconceivable that this novel became a trunk novel; it should have been dusted off and published years ago. In fact, many readers that take up Blaze will agree that the text should have never been stashed away in the first place. Blaze is truly a remarkable piece of work: one that a reader has come to expect from King. To think that this book remained hidden away for so many years before Stephen King even thought about publishing the text: the notion seems almost criminal.

Written when King was using the pseudonym Richard Bachman, Blaze is a fast read, and like everything King creates, the novel draws the reader into the text immediately. The reader will have no difficulty when it comes time to suspend disbelief and enter into the fictive dream state; and if the reader pays close attention, they can see what seems like the early beginnings of some of King’s novels following the creation of Blaze. Blaze was written before the novel Carrie, the novel that ultimately launched the writer’s career: a fact revealed in King’s On Writing. King himself confesses that he has edited the text extensively before publishing it, so the fragments of King’s work may be inserted as hindsight, or the recognizable elements may be the first seeds of what King would eventually write. Either way, Blaze becomes a work that is easily weaved into the broad and mystifying fictional universe that King has spent his entire career creating.

Stephen King sensitizes the reader to the trials and tribulations endured by Clayton Blaisdell Jr., a.k.a Blaze, by humanizing him despite his criminal undertakings. The reader is therefore forced to struggle with his or her moral compass when attempting to identify with Blaze’s character. Blaze, a not-so-wise small time criminal with a Goliath-sized physique (which far outweighs his mental abilities: big body, little brains), attempts to retire from his criminal career by taking one last big gig: he kidnaps a child with the attempt to get enough ransom money so that he can live out his days in peace. King aptly establishes an illustrative background for Blaze’s character: the ill-fated and abused childhood, and the struggles of daily existence all make the reader sympathetic for the character. In contrast, Blazes actions contradict the reader’s induced sympathies – the reader begins to develop an empathic attitude toward the protagonist while simultaneously viewing him with immense disapproval. Despite the fact that the reader can understand how Blaze grows up to become the individual he becomes, the reader cannot bring him or her self to comprehend his illicit activities.

King’s talent for portraying round characters is evident in this novel; Blaze possesses amazing psychological complexities. Blaze is unquestionably a page turning novel; one that keeps the reader thoroughly engaged in the plot. While it is not necessarily written in the usual creep-me-out style that many of King’s fans welcome and appreciate, Blaze is not a novel that should be passed up. In fact, for those readers that may stray from reading King’s more terrifying works, Blaze offers such readers an opportunity to enjoy his masterful writing abilities. More tragic than terrifying, more poignant than uncanny, Blaze is a tale that will become permanently etched in the mind of the reader.