Chris Holmes Online

It’s been a while since I’ve read some Stephen King fiction. His non-fiction book, On Writing, has been a constant companion of mine this past year. In that book, one of the main tenets he offers is that in order to be a good writer one must “read a lot and write a lot”. Sound advice, I think, and because of it, I decided to spend more time this summer cracking open some previously unread literature.

Concerning this particular tale, the obvious first question everyone asks (even my wife) is: Is it like Christine? The answer is ‘no.’ It’s better.

From a Buick 8 is some of King’s best writing. He’s in total command of his style here, painting vivid pictures of the important things and leaving some of the rougher edges to the reader’s imagination. The dialog is well done and King puts a nifty spin on the flashback mechanism so often employed in fiction writing by splitting up the present day events between different character’s point of view. The chapters concerning the present are titled with the character’s name telling the story (and nearly every character gets a say at some point in time), such as “Now: Sandy”, while the flashback chapters are titled, “Then”, clearly setting the reader in the past. The constantly switching viewpoint gives the book a very conversational feel (and indeed, the setting for the book is a bench at the Pennsylvania State Patrol barracks where the characters have congregated to relay the story of the supernatural Buick to young Ned), and it also gives King an opportunity to have fun putting himself in the shoes of the different participants, making their mannerisms, motivations and speech patterns come alive.

As to the story, it reads a lot less like classic King horror (Carrie, Christine, Pet Cemetery) and a lot more like a really great episode of the Twilight Zone. I particularly like it when King goes down this road; he can do stuff that would have put a Cheshire’s cat grin on Rod Serling. From A Buick 8 reminded me a lot of The Tommyknockers, with its mysterious and inexplicable events, only better.

The car is, naturally, the central figure in the story. It is a mystery to the members of Troop D; some become rather obessed with it while others have a greater sense of fear about the vehicle and it’s strange ways. It fell into the Pennsylvania State Patrol’s hands quite by accident, and it is extremely pecular. It seems to almost be alive and capable of healing/protecting itself: scratch it and the cut is gone the next day; throw dirt on the tires and they clean themselves; throw a tarp over it and somehow the car shrugs it off. Even more bizarre: the car doesn’t actually work. No one can figure out how the original owner managed to drive it to it’s final destination when the battery isn’t connected to anything and none of the dials actually function. And then there’s the light shows…

I won’t give away the really good stuff. You’ll have to read it to find out. But I totally recommend the book. It’s a neat story with a very good setting (King got some nice help from the folks at the PSP; the entire book feels very authentic) and very interesting events. I’m a sucker for tales of the supernatural; things you just can’t completely wrap your head around, and From A Buick 8 falls into that category. There’s also a bit of a social statement in the story, but I’ll leave that for you to discover as well.