Blaze by Richard Bachman
A Review of an Early Stephen King Novel, Just Released
By Stephen King's own admission, "Blaze" is a "trunk novel," an early work rediscovered decades later, revised, and published.
But, Mr. King is too modest in dismissing "Blaze's" good points. The short novel excels at what Stephen King is best at--storytelling.
Richard Bachman
For those unfamiliar with Richard Bachman, he is an early pseudonym of Stephen King's. Several novels have been published earlier solely under that name, before King was "outed" by an astute book critic. As King tells it, Bachman died in 1985 of pseudonym cancer.
Blaze
Blaze is the story of Clayton Blaisdell, Jr., called "Blaze." Blaze, now in his 30s has had more than his share of bad luck and bad knocks. As a bright young boy, he almost died when his father threw him down their apartment steps, not once but three times. The incident left him "slow-witted," with a dent in his forehead, and a ward of Hetton House, a Dickensian orphanage.
Baby Joe
The reader learns gradually about Blaze's miserable childhood in flashes back from the present to the past. The present finds Blaze living alone in a barely-heated shack in Central Maine. His partner in crime (literally) George has recently died, but still visits on a regular basis. Blaze and George used to run cons and rob small stores to get by, George always dreaming of "the big one."
The Big One that George had planned was to kidnap a local business tycoon's infant son and hold him for ransom. Blaze remembers just enough of the plan to consider giving it a try. Through trial and often error, he ends up home with Baby Joe Gerald IV. Now what is he going to do? Can he avoid the FBI? If so, what's he going to do with the baby that he's growing to love (much to George's distain)?
Early, Poignant King
Blaze, is a master story from a master storyteller. Not as intricate and subtle as later King works, Blaze has an "in-your-face" rawness and starkness to it that draws the reader in. So well drawn is the character of Blaze that the reader is still moved to empathy even in light of his heinous crime. Unlike Carrie, which was published shortly after Blaze was written and catapulted King into world reknown, Blaze is more subtle and more richly-layered.
If you, like me, tend to avoid reading a foreward, wanting instead to jump right into the novel, this is a time to make an exception. The foreward by Stephen King is a intimate look into a writer's world. Here, the more mature, King, is reviewing the work of his much younger and innocent writer self, Richard Bachman. King has a knack for breaking down the writing process into easy to understand snippets, as he does in his memoir/writing tutorial, On Writing.
If you need one more reason to pick up this book, it's the fact that King is donating all of his royalties to The Haven Foundation, an organization he started after his near-fatal accident and long recovery led him to realize that mid-range writers and freelancers have little cushion on which to fall in the event of illness, an accident, or a natural disaster. The Haven Foundation assists writers and artists in those situations.
About Stephen King
Stephen King is one of the best known horror and suspense novelists of our time. He has penned over 200 stories and over 50 novels. He has won numerous awards, including the National Book Awards Lifetime Achievement award. Many of his books have been made into movies, including Misery, Carrie, Christine, and The Shining. He lives in Maine with his wife, Tabitha King, who is also a writer.
