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3.55 AVERAGE
3.55 AVERAGE
Very slow in the beginning and kind of boring, but picks up and moves swiftly in the second half.
adventurous
dark
reflective
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I did not expect to enjoy this book as much as I did so it was a very welcome surprise on my journey to read every King book ever!
This is another fine example of how well King fleshes out his characters and also shows he doesn't always need 700 plus pages in order to do this really well.
The story takes place over two timelines experienced by Clayton 'Blaze' Blaisdell. We follow his past through a really tough schooling system to his current situation of kidnapping a child in order to score one final big pay out.
King really pulls the heartstrings here and gives us a character that has been dealt every bad hand imaginable but is so innocent and misguided that it's impossible not to root for him till the end.
One of King's better works by far and certainly not one that needs to start with an apology from him. Really good stuff.
This is another fine example of how well King fleshes out his characters and also shows he doesn't always need 700 plus pages in order to do this really well.
The story takes place over two timelines experienced by Clayton 'Blaze' Blaisdell. We follow his past through a really tough schooling system to his current situation of kidnapping a child in order to score one final big pay out.
King really pulls the heartstrings here and gives us a character that has been dealt every bad hand imaginable but is so innocent and misguided that it's impossible not to root for him till the end.
One of King's better works by far and certainly not one that needs to start with an apology from him. Really good stuff.
Just not for me.
For my enjoyment, this would have been better as a novella of 150 pages. Just enough to have a few flashback scenes and funny situations with the baby and then wrapping it up quicker.
For my enjoyment, this would have been better as a novella of 150 pages. Just enough to have a few flashback scenes and funny situations with the baby and then wrapping it up quicker.
emotional
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
http://www.thewellreadredhead.com/2014/02/book-review-blaze-by-richard-bachman.html
dark
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Goes along at a pretty good clip. I don't care much for King.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gun violence
Moderate: Child abuse
Pseudonyms are nothing new. Way back when before Stephen King's writing career had taken off he also wrote as Richard Bachman. One of the books he wrote back then (1972-3 per the introduction) was Blaze which mashes together Of Mice and Men and Ransom of Red Chief into a modern day kidnapping tale with a supernatural twist.
Clayton Blaisdell, Jr., (aka "Blaze") the stand-in for Lennie Small kidnaps the six month old son of a local millionaire. He does it with the help of his much smarter friend, George Thomas Rackley. There's just one problem: George is dead but that doesn't stop him from bossing Blaze around.
Blaze flip flips between the present and the past. The present focuses on the plan and execution of the kidnapping and the aftermath of it. The past starts with Blaze's childhood and works its way forward to the point where George dies. These glimpses into Clayton's past help make him a more sympathetic character in the present even if what he does puts the infant in danger.
For the most part, Blaze manages to be a present day or "America, Not All That Long Ago" novel as King puts it (p. 6). There are a few exceptions to this timelessness. The baby formula descriptions are the first big giveaway that the story was first written when I was an infant. Then there is the lack of modern technology: no cell phones, no computers, no ATMs and an abundance of pay phones. While King makes it sound like a bad thing that the book might still have evidence of having been written in the early 1970s, it doesn't bother me at all. If anything, it made the story feel more real to me.
Reminds me of so many different books: Of Mice and Men, A Jolly Good Fellow, Miracle Life of Edgar Mint but all with King's creepy horror stylings.
Clayton Blaisdell, Jr., (aka "Blaze") the stand-in for Lennie Small kidnaps the six month old son of a local millionaire. He does it with the help of his much smarter friend, George Thomas Rackley. There's just one problem: George is dead but that doesn't stop him from bossing Blaze around.
Blaze flip flips between the present and the past. The present focuses on the plan and execution of the kidnapping and the aftermath of it. The past starts with Blaze's childhood and works its way forward to the point where George dies. These glimpses into Clayton's past help make him a more sympathetic character in the present even if what he does puts the infant in danger.
For the most part, Blaze manages to be a present day or "America, Not All That Long Ago" novel as King puts it (p. 6). There are a few exceptions to this timelessness. The baby formula descriptions are the first big giveaway that the story was first written when I was an infant. Then there is the lack of modern technology: no cell phones, no computers, no ATMs and an abundance of pay phones. While King makes it sound like a bad thing that the book might still have evidence of having been written in the early 1970s, it doesn't bother me at all. If anything, it made the story feel more real to me.
Reminds me of so many different books: Of Mice and Men, A Jolly Good Fellow, Miracle Life of Edgar Mint but all with King's creepy horror stylings.
This was my last unread Bachman book, and it's got an interesting history: For one, all royalties from the sale of Blaze are donated to The Haven Foundation, which supports freelance artists—because Stephen King never forgot where he came from. Written in 1973, it was rejected by the publisher in favor of 'Salem's Lot as King's second novel, so it ended up becoming a "trunk novel" he wasn't very fond of and more or less forgot about for decades. In the intervening years, Bachman was discovered and died of "cancer of the pseudonym"; this was the second (and likely last) "posthumously" released Bachman book, following The Regulators in the mid-90s, the mirror-novel to Desperation.
King rewrote the manuscript to edit out what he considered "over-sentimentality" and some references that dated it, and the book begins with an author's note that's essentially an apology and warning of sorts, which I don't understand. This novel was perfectly enjoyable, and I don't understand where King's need to justify himself comes from when he's published books like Roadwork, the aforementioned The Regulators, or even novels in his own name like Dreamcatcher or The Tommyknockers that were... pretty lacking. My point being: He's written and willingly released far worse things, under cover of the pseudonym or without it.
Blaze is the nickname of Clayton Blaisdell, Jr., a mentally disabled (thanks to repeatedly being thrown down the stairs by his father in a drunken rage) behemoth and small-time con artist who is alone in the world after the death of his partner in crime, George—the brains of their operation. Before dying, George had worked out a plan for one last big con to set them up for the rest of their lives (lives that would then preferably be lived out somewhere with sandy beaches and lots of sun): Kidnapping an extremely wealthy couple's only baby son for ransom... and Blaze now decides to go through with it on his own.
I've seen it likened to Of Mice And Men, which I still haven't read, shame on me, but from what I know of the premise, I'd agree—it's essentially a story about two men, a clever and a mentally challenged one, who are both down on their luck and trying to make ends meet. In Blaze, the smart one just so happens to be dead, but Blaze imagines him by his side providing helpful advice on how to pull off the kidnapping anyway (the story seemed free of any supernatural element until one tiny instance in a flashback towards the very end that made me wonder). What the novel does extremely well is take its time to wrap the reader around its finger, but without turning into one of King's signature door-stoppers; it's a quick read, but the kidnapping doesn't even happen until almost halfway through. Instead, the chapters alternate between Blaze starting to put George's plan into action, and flashbacks to his childhood in a state home which explain how he slid into a life of crime despite his sweet nature... I'll come right out and say it, in a heart-tugging way, he manages to kinda-sorta-maybe make you root for the kidnapper. Blaze is a victim of circumstance who does reprehensible things, but it's incredibly easy to feel sympathetic towards this dim-witted gentle giant—all the cards he's been dealt in life are stacked against him, and the reader knows from the onset that this can't possibly end well, but King draws you into the story despite the obvious futility of hoping for a happy ending.
The story I got wasn't at all what I'd expected when I started reading this book. I didn't read the blurb, and the nondescript cover of my paperback edition didn't offer any clues—from the title, and based on past experience with the darkness of Bachman's stories, I'd assumed it would be about an arsonist or something in that vein. Instead, Blaze is a short and fast-paced crime novel with some great characterization, and despite what Mr. King seems to think, it's undoubtedly one of the better Bachman books—possibly second best behind The Long Walk, the undisputed crown jewel of the works released under the pseudonym.
King rewrote the manuscript to edit out what he considered "over-sentimentality" and some references that dated it, and the book begins with an author's note that's essentially an apology and warning of sorts, which I don't understand. This novel was perfectly enjoyable, and I don't understand where King's need to justify himself comes from when he's published books like Roadwork, the aforementioned The Regulators, or even novels in his own name like Dreamcatcher or The Tommyknockers that were... pretty lacking. My point being: He's written and willingly released far worse things, under cover of the pseudonym or without it.
Blaze is the nickname of Clayton Blaisdell, Jr., a mentally disabled (thanks to repeatedly being thrown down the stairs by his father in a drunken rage) behemoth and small-time con artist who is alone in the world after the death of his partner in crime, George—the brains of their operation. Before dying, George had worked out a plan for one last big con to set them up for the rest of their lives (lives that would then preferably be lived out somewhere with sandy beaches and lots of sun): Kidnapping an extremely wealthy couple's only baby son for ransom... and Blaze now decides to go through with it on his own.
I've seen it likened to Of Mice And Men, which I still haven't read, shame on me, but from what I know of the premise, I'd agree—it's essentially a story about two men, a clever and a mentally challenged one, who are both down on their luck and trying to make ends meet. In Blaze, the smart one just so happens to be dead, but Blaze imagines him by his side providing helpful advice on how to pull off the kidnapping anyway (the story seemed free of any supernatural element until one tiny instance in a flashback towards the very end that made me wonder). What the novel does extremely well is take its time to wrap the reader around its finger, but without turning into one of King's signature door-stoppers; it's a quick read, but the kidnapping doesn't even happen until almost halfway through. Instead, the chapters alternate between Blaze starting to put George's plan into action, and flashbacks to his childhood in a state home which explain how he slid into a life of crime despite his sweet nature... I'll come right out and say it, in a heart-tugging way, he manages to kinda-sorta-maybe make you root for the kidnapper. Blaze is a victim of circumstance who does reprehensible things, but it's incredibly easy to feel sympathetic towards this dim-witted gentle giant—all the cards he's been dealt in life are stacked against him, and the reader knows from the onset that this can't possibly end well, but King draws you into the story despite the obvious futility of hoping for a happy ending.
"It was a dirty world, and the longer you lived, the dirtier you got."
The story I got wasn't at all what I'd expected when I started reading this book. I didn't read the blurb, and the nondescript cover of my paperback edition didn't offer any clues—from the title, and based on past experience with the darkness of Bachman's stories, I'd assumed it would be about an arsonist or something in that vein. Instead, Blaze is a short and fast-paced crime novel with some great characterization, and despite what Mr. King seems to think, it's undoubtedly one of the better Bachman books—possibly second best behind The Long Walk, the undisputed crown jewel of the works released under the pseudonym.
I cannot understand the low reviews of this book. I went into it expecting not to like it, but I was seriously blown away. Maybe people's dislike comes from the fact that it is not 'typical' Stephen King fare, but that's why it's Bachman ;)
It is more of a character study, I'd say. Blaze is a mentally retarded man who has just taken a lot of crap shots in his life & his friend George is dead now & he decides to pull the 'big con' they'd be planning before he died- to kidnap & get money for a baby of a rich family.
This is the story happening in present time. I'd say the more interesting story is Blaze's back story. It's sad & at times hard to read. You just want things to go right for this guy.
I really enjoyed this story & I devoured it in just a day. Yum.
It is more of a character study, I'd say. Blaze is a mentally retarded man who has just taken a lot of crap shots in his life & his friend George is dead now & he decides to pull the 'big con' they'd be planning before he died- to kidnap & get money for a baby of a rich family.
This is the story happening in present time. I'd say the more interesting story is Blaze's back story. It's sad & at times hard to read. You just want things to go right for this guy.
I really enjoyed this story & I devoured it in just a day. Yum.