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3.5 AVERAGE
3.5 AVERAGE
It's kinda hard to talk about this book without getting a little bit into the history of Stephen King's 'Richard Bachman' pseudonym and what he was attempting to do with it. The story goes that King's publisher at the time, Signet, was weary of letting authors release more than one book per year, but King's notoriously quick and extensive output was making that a difficult arrangement. A couple extra books began to pile up, and at the same time, King (who at this point was already a massive commercial success) began to get curious how much of his success was due to skill, and how much was due to sheer luck. With these things in mind, King convinced Signet to let him publish some books under the pseudonym "Richard Bachman".
I'm not sure if Stephen King ended up coming to any conclusions regarding the luck vs. skill debate, but on the surface, it was never an experimentally sound test anyway because the content of the Bachman books is noticeably distinct from the regular old 'Stephen King' books he was releasing at the time. Rage, The Long Walk, Roadwork, and The Running Man are all characteristically different from King's other work in my opinion. They're bleaker, they have darker endings, their protagonists (for the most part) are worse people, and King just seems to take on a more pessimistic attitude with them. Thinner is the 5th "Bachman Book", and it's the last one that was released before his identity was revealed. He would go on to release two more books under the Bachman pseudonym (The Regulators and Blaze) but, to me, those don't have the ethos of a true Bachman book because the jig was already up at that point, the alternate name was just a schtick. I think Thinner is the best Bachman book, both in terms of its representation of ‘what makes a Bachman book’, but I also think it's just the most interesting and best written story of the group.
It’s about a lawyer named Billy Halleck who carelessly runs over a Romani woman with his car and is let off without any consequences due to his legal connections. As a result, Billy is cursed by this woman’s father who gently touches his cheek and utters the word “thinner” which causes Billy to start uncontrollably losing weight. It’s a pretty simple premise, but with it King is able to dive fairly deep into themes of revenge and justice and consequence, all the while maintaining this pretty horrific story about a man falling further and further into complete emaciation. It’s a great Bachman premise, fronted by perhaps the most complete Bachman lead character of all, Billy Halleck. Like many Bachman “protagonists” he’s not necessarily an ‘evil’ guy or anything, but he’s just kind of an asshole, and he refuses to take any responsibility for the initial accident throughout the entire book. The whole reason he hit the woman in the first place is because his wife, Heidi, was jerking him off in the car while he was driving, and he got distracted. He constantly blames Heidi throughout the book, growing more and more resentful of her good health as his body deteriorates to the point that at the end of the story, he basically regards her with vitriolic hatred. He also blames the Romani woman herself, constantly alluding to the fact that she was jaywalking and not paying attention to her surroundings.
This very lack of accountability is why he gets cursed in the first place, and this is where King gets very deep into the themes of justice and revenge. The Romani people are a marginalized ethnic group who have been historically mistreated and discriminated against, and I think their resorting to a supernatural curse in this story is kind of a metaphor for their powerlessness and their seeking of justice that they would otherwise not be able to get. I think for a book written in the 80’s, King handles this racial component about as tactfully as you can ask for. He still writes the Romani people in a somewhat stereotypical way and he refers to them by the pejorative term that has fallen out of vogue in recent years, but he is also obviously empathetic towards their plight, and even though they are the ‘villains’ of the story, their point of view is always explained and it always makes logical sense.
Taduz Lemke is the name of the man who curses Billy, and he is one of the most fascinating King villains I’ve come across. He is over 100 years old, his nose has completely rotted off somehow, and he has access to a whole host of supernatural curses. Billy Halleck got the ‘thinner’ curse, but the judge who let Billy off started growing alligator scales all over his body, and the cop who drove them off the land they were staying at got covered in such severe acne that he literally killed himself. He’s the inverse of Billy in a lot of ways. Where Billy is not purely ‘evil’, Taduz is not purely “benevolent”. He’s a supremely powerful figure, he’s tough and mean and stubborn and borderline viscous, but he’s the leader of his community, and he is an intelligible and understandable figure who just wants to protect his people.
This book also contains one of my favorite side characters, Richie Ginelli, who is a former client of the law firm that Billy worked at and is essentially just a caricature mafia / mobster type. He is hell-bent on getting the curse taken off of Billy in equal parts because he considers Billy a friend whose well-being he cares about, but also because he is crazy and blood-thirsty and with his background in organized crime, just enjoys this sort of thing. The last act of the book involves Ginelli scouting and infiltrating the Romani camp and basically blackmailing and threatening them with extreme violence to take off the curse. He’s such an entertaining character in the story that I sort of found myself rooting for him even though his justifications are pretty cloudy.
Finally, I want to talk about the ending which I think is perfectly grim for the story that precedes it. Taduz finally agrees to take the curse off of Billy, but on the condition that he has to pass it on to someone else. Cosmic justice doesn’t care about who pays for what, who’s guilty of what, or why, but someone has to pay. Taduz presents Billy with a strawberry pie, which Billy then puts some of his own literal blood into. The curse is transferred into the pie, and Billy has a limited amount of time to have someone else eat it, thus transferring the curse to them instead. Billy intends to feed it to his wife who he still has deep feelings of (unjustified) hatred towards, because he still hasn’t learned to take any responsibility. Unfortunately, the pie ends up getting eaten by both Billy’s wife, and his innocent daughter while Billy was sleeping. When he realizes this upon waking up, he is racked with such guilt and turmoil that he takes another slice for himself, annihilating him and his entire family in the process. It’s such a dismal and morbid end to the story, but I kind of love it. It’s merciless, it offers no concessions, and it does not waver in its assertion that bad things will happen to bad people. Sometimes King has a tendency to see the good in people, to draw a silver lining, to discover some sort of light at the end of the tunnel, but in Thinner his conviction is clear: you can’t escape the consequences of your own actions, and attempting to do so will lead to your ultimate demise.
I'm not sure if Stephen King ended up coming to any conclusions regarding the luck vs. skill debate, but on the surface, it was never an experimentally sound test anyway because the content of the Bachman books is noticeably distinct from the regular old 'Stephen King' books he was releasing at the time. Rage, The Long Walk, Roadwork, and The Running Man are all characteristically different from King's other work in my opinion. They're bleaker, they have darker endings, their protagonists (for the most part) are worse people, and King just seems to take on a more pessimistic attitude with them. Thinner is the 5th "Bachman Book", and it's the last one that was released before his identity was revealed. He would go on to release two more books under the Bachman pseudonym (The Regulators and Blaze) but, to me, those don't have the ethos of a true Bachman book because the jig was already up at that point, the alternate name was just a schtick. I think Thinner is the best Bachman book, both in terms of its representation of ‘what makes a Bachman book’, but I also think it's just the most interesting and best written story of the group.
It’s about a lawyer named Billy Halleck who carelessly runs over a Romani woman with his car and is let off without any consequences due to his legal connections. As a result, Billy is cursed by this woman’s father who gently touches his cheek and utters the word “thinner” which causes Billy to start uncontrollably losing weight. It’s a pretty simple premise, but with it King is able to dive fairly deep into themes of revenge and justice and consequence, all the while maintaining this pretty horrific story about a man falling further and further into complete emaciation. It’s a great Bachman premise, fronted by perhaps the most complete Bachman lead character of all, Billy Halleck. Like many Bachman “protagonists” he’s not necessarily an ‘evil’ guy or anything, but he’s just kind of an asshole, and he refuses to take any responsibility for the initial accident throughout the entire book. The whole reason he hit the woman in the first place is because his wife, Heidi, was jerking him off in the car while he was driving, and he got distracted. He constantly blames Heidi throughout the book, growing more and more resentful of her good health as his body deteriorates to the point that at the end of the story, he basically regards her with vitriolic hatred. He also blames the Romani woman herself, constantly alluding to the fact that she was jaywalking and not paying attention to her surroundings.
This very lack of accountability is why he gets cursed in the first place, and this is where King gets very deep into the themes of justice and revenge. The Romani people are a marginalized ethnic group who have been historically mistreated and discriminated against, and I think their resorting to a supernatural curse in this story is kind of a metaphor for their powerlessness and their seeking of justice that they would otherwise not be able to get. I think for a book written in the 80’s, King handles this racial component about as tactfully as you can ask for. He still writes the Romani people in a somewhat stereotypical way and he refers to them by the pejorative term that has fallen out of vogue in recent years, but he is also obviously empathetic towards their plight, and even though they are the ‘villains’ of the story, their point of view is always explained and it always makes logical sense.
Taduz Lemke is the name of the man who curses Billy, and he is one of the most fascinating King villains I’ve come across. He is over 100 years old, his nose has completely rotted off somehow, and he has access to a whole host of supernatural curses. Billy Halleck got the ‘thinner’ curse, but the judge who let Billy off started growing alligator scales all over his body, and the cop who drove them off the land they were staying at got covered in such severe acne that he literally killed himself. He’s the inverse of Billy in a lot of ways. Where Billy is not purely ‘evil’, Taduz is not purely “benevolent”. He’s a supremely powerful figure, he’s tough and mean and stubborn and borderline viscous, but he’s the leader of his community, and he is an intelligible and understandable figure who just wants to protect his people.
This book also contains one of my favorite side characters, Richie Ginelli, who is a former client of the law firm that Billy worked at and is essentially just a caricature mafia / mobster type. He is hell-bent on getting the curse taken off of Billy in equal parts because he considers Billy a friend whose well-being he cares about, but also because he is crazy and blood-thirsty and with his background in organized crime, just enjoys this sort of thing. The last act of the book involves Ginelli scouting and infiltrating the Romani camp and basically blackmailing and threatening them with extreme violence to take off the curse. He’s such an entertaining character in the story that I sort of found myself rooting for him even though his justifications are pretty cloudy.
Finally, I want to talk about the ending which I think is perfectly grim for the story that precedes it. Taduz finally agrees to take the curse off of Billy, but on the condition that he has to pass it on to someone else. Cosmic justice doesn’t care about who pays for what, who’s guilty of what, or why, but someone has to pay. Taduz presents Billy with a strawberry pie, which Billy then puts some of his own literal blood into. The curse is transferred into the pie, and Billy has a limited amount of time to have someone else eat it, thus transferring the curse to them instead. Billy intends to feed it to his wife who he still has deep feelings of (unjustified) hatred towards, because he still hasn’t learned to take any responsibility. Unfortunately, the pie ends up getting eaten by both Billy’s wife, and his innocent daughter while Billy was sleeping. When he realizes this upon waking up, he is racked with such guilt and turmoil that he takes another slice for himself, annihilating him and his entire family in the process. It’s such a dismal and morbid end to the story, but I kind of love it. It’s merciless, it offers no concessions, and it does not waver in its assertion that bad things will happen to bad people. Sometimes King has a tendency to see the good in people, to draw a silver lining, to discover some sort of light at the end of the tunnel, but in Thinner his conviction is clear: you can’t escape the consequences of your own actions, and attempting to do so will lead to your ultimate demise.
so first let me just say this books is ~problematic~ in its very nature, specifically its characterization of Romani people. Like yikes its not good folks. The book tries to be somewhat progressive in how it tries to depict the plight and systematic suffering of the Romani, however the books main premise is a "G*psy" Curse, so it really can't be that progressive of a book. However, if we put that aside (which it really shouldn't be) I liked the writing style, I thought Billy as a character was really complex and interesting. Did not care for the mobster aspects of the book. Thought the books inclusion of societal issues was well done, however they were undercut by what is mentioned above. Liked the ending! Its kinda a goofy book that does not take itself too seriously, and if it had better more nuanced characterization of Romani people and did not have the mobster plot lines probably would have given it a solid 4 stars
3.5
“Some guys-- a lot of guys---don't believe what they are seeing, especially if it gets in the way of what they eat or drink or think or believe. Me, I don't believe in God. But if I saw him, I would. I wouldn't just go around saying 'Jesus, that was a great special effect.' The definition of an asshole is a guy who doesn't believe what he's seeing. And you can quote me.”
what prompted me to read this as opposed to doing anything else on new years day?
a) king wrote it
b) gypsies and curses (aka Purpurfargade ansiktet)
c) a fat guy can't stop losing weight- how would it feel to die that way?!
d) king wrote it
i have been gobbling up king's books like there's no tomorrow recently. i found this one at my local bookstore for $2 and was sold immediately (fyi- the guy on the jacket cover, "Richard Bachman," is king's agent's insurance agent- weird!) because i knew that was king's pen name. score!
although this was a fast read, the essential king elements weren't all there. i usually get so disgusted by some parts in his novels that i have to put it down and step away for a bit. this book got so close to getting to that point, but never reached it. also, if you haven't read it yet but want to, just skip chapter 18. seriously- it's almost 30 pages of the same repetitive shit and i would probably give this book a 4 if i'd never read that chapter.
i refuse to be discouraged, however! i foresee many other bachman books in my future :)
“Some guys-- a lot of guys---don't believe what they are seeing, especially if it gets in the way of what they eat or drink or think or believe. Me, I don't believe in God. But if I saw him, I would. I wouldn't just go around saying 'Jesus, that was a great special effect.' The definition of an asshole is a guy who doesn't believe what he's seeing. And you can quote me.”
what prompted me to read this as opposed to doing anything else on new years day?
a) king wrote it
b) gypsies and curses (aka Purpurfargade ansiktet)
c) a fat guy can't stop losing weight- how would it feel to die that way?!
d) king wrote it
i have been gobbling up king's books like there's no tomorrow recently. i found this one at my local bookstore for $2 and was sold immediately (fyi- the guy on the jacket cover, "Richard Bachman," is king's agent's insurance agent- weird!) because i knew that was king's pen name. score!
although this was a fast read, the essential king elements weren't all there. i usually get so disgusted by some parts in his novels that i have to put it down and step away for a bit. this book got so close to getting to that point, but never reached it. also, if you haven't read it yet but want to, just skip chapter 18. seriously- it's almost 30 pages of the same repetitive shit and i would probably give this book a 4 if i'd never read that chapter.
i refuse to be discouraged, however! i foresee many other bachman books in my future :)
3.5 started out creepy and the ending was great but when the perspective changed about half way through I lost the rhythm of the tale.
Be aware the slur of g*psy will never really be addressed even while discussing racism and class. There are interesting discussions of justice and responsibility within these pages. It isn't the most creative concept. But it did stay with me and I rounded up from my 3.5 stars.
The audiobook has a good reader but is unfortunately given music between breaks and random points. It takes away so much and was so annoying I almost didn't make it through the first few hours. I suppose this was meant to add suspense or make it creepy but it failed. It wasn't even well balanced so at times you could not hear the reader who did a great job.
The audiobook has a good reader but is unfortunately given music between breaks and random points. It takes away so much and was so annoying I almost didn't make it through the first few hours. I suppose this was meant to add suspense or make it creepy but it failed. It wasn't even well balanced so at times you could not hear the reader who did a great job.
I think it's a pretty ok Tales From the Crypt style story, weighed down by a bunch of racism and a mysoginist piece of crap for a main character. The movie was remarkably faithful to the book. Some fatphobia too. wooooo
3.5ish maybe a 4. Idk. Man do bad thing to stupid woman. Man get thin. idk. My feelings are still deciding.
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes