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3.41 AVERAGE
3.41 AVERAGE
When I originally added this book to my TBR list I didn't expect to find that this book is extremely hard to find copies of it. Luckily I was able to find a PDF file for me to read as it goes for about $300 on Amazon. This book was very dark and twisted as it provided an inside the mind of a school shooter. I thought that this book was good although it began to confuse me at parts. This was actually my first Bachman book and only my second King book. I can understand why King would remove this book from print as in recent years there are unfortunately a lot of stories similar to this one.
This is the book "Catcher in the Rye" should have been.
This book is super hard to find- I managed to find an epub PDF copy. It was written long before technology and school shootings were commonplace and can be triggering reading it in today’s sad reality of school violence. I feel like Stephen King stares directly into the wildly varying human psyche and pulls out articles so fascinating and thought provoking it takes you on several side journeys at once. As usual, I am thankful for the journey; this one was wandering and somber.
challenging
dark
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I finally caved and found an online copy. I’m choosing to believe typos are from that conversion, but who knows.
I enjoyed this story. It was like a modern twist on Lord of the Flies. It’s actually up there for one of my favorite Stephen King pieces as it ends with the mixed media that I love of his (and without his stereotypical once usage of the n word which was refreshing as all hell to not have to read). I thought this presented a very interesting approach on how parents affect us but also adults in general forgetting children have minds and bodies of their own that are developing. A theme this week of my reading habits has appeared to be Parents Suck. This just included all authoritative figures in the mix.
I enjoyed this story. It was like a modern twist on Lord of the Flies. It’s actually up there for one of my favorite Stephen King pieces as it ends with the mixed media that I love of his (and without his stereotypical once usage of the n word which was refreshing as all hell to not have to read). I thought this presented a very interesting approach on how parents affect us but also adults in general forgetting children have minds and bodies of their own that are developing. A theme this week of my reading habits has appeared to be Parents Suck. This just included all authoritative figures in the mix.
This was my first experience reading a banned book which means it's no longer printed and circulated.
The book itself was actually pretty good and if I'm honest not really sure why it was banned. It's more of a hostage story than anything and it was actually quite intriguing. I was fascinated with Charlie's character who was definitely borderline insane but like similar stories it stems from childhood and daddy issues |liked learning about the hostages and the main characters back stories and would still recommend this to any Stephen King fans. I'm glad I've read it but would probably never re-read it.
The book itself was actually pretty good and if I'm honest not really sure why it was banned. It's more of a hostage story than anything and it was actually quite intriguing. I was fascinated with Charlie's character who was definitely borderline insane but like similar stories it stems from childhood and daddy issues |liked learning about the hostages and the main characters back stories and would still recommend this to any Stephen King fans. I'm glad I've read it but would probably never re-read it.
More can be said about Richard Bachman than can be said about Rage, his secret and forbidden debut novel, pulled from the shelves during the early days of school shooting contagion. Written well before school shootings became so common that it is difficult to tell them apart, Rage is a Stephen King piece so early that he was in high school himself when he wrote it.
Richard Bachman is a pseudonym created by Stephen King for a variety of reasons depending on what King feels like telling the reader at the time: Bachman was a way for King to put out more books per year, separate from the King brand; he was a way to get rejected earlier works published after some retooling; he was a chance to see if, eventually, Bachman’s books were able to be read, sold, and appreciated separately to the King name; and, to quote 1996’s “The Importance of Being Bachman”, an imprint for books written “in a Bachman state of mind: low rage, sexual frustration, crazy good humor, and simmering despair.”
Rage is not a cry for help, but rather a bitter study of the powerlessness that teenagers can feel, and the most artificial power they can conjure to battle that: a warm gun.
High school senior Charlie Decker, already in trouble for assaulting his chemistry teacher, kills his algebra teacher and holds his class hostage for an impromptu group therapy session. He ruminates on why he’s like this, seeks input from his classmates, and hectors Ted Jones for not playing along.
Rage was originally called Getting It On, a hilariously dated piece of slang that holds more meaning and character than the bland single word that it ended up with. The title matches the content, however, because Rage is a one note book with dubious psychosexual analysis at play: Charlie once had difficulty maintaining an erection, so he feels he must be latently homosexual. You can pretty much put a lid on it here, because that’s all you’re going to get from Rage.
Even if most of Charlie’s classmates come to sympathise with him, it is difficult for us to: after all, he unambiguously killed two teachers with no provocation. King tries to make us understand Charlie, but nothing can justify his headspace. He’s a loathsome character and none of his classmates endear themselves to the reader, either. The mercy of Rage is that it is brief.
In his slightly rambling and occasionally equivocating essay “Guns”, King does not say that Rage is a cause of school shootings, but rather a potential accelerant, and so he went to the effort of ensuring it would go out of print. He doesn’t see this as censorship because he did it voluntarily, but realistically there’s no problem with withdrawing it because nothing of value is lost. It’s an inauspicious beginning to Richard Bachman’s career, no sweet to go with the bitter, and obscure even in the context of one of the most published authors of the last four decades.
“The Importance of Being Bachman” does not reference Rage in the slightest. It no longer exists. If you were unable to get your hands on a copy of Rage, you could happily skip it in the course of a tour of the King canon. This Constant Reader has only ever seen two completely intact copies of The Bachman Books, and one of those instances was such an extreme case of dark serendipity that it could never happen to anyone else.
It is best that Rage is only tangentially linked to the King name. Some of the Bachman Books are good, although King is less concerned about their artistry and more that he enjoyed writing them. Rage is a dark work, yes, but also a tacky piece of pop psychology that owes more to King’s lifelong fascination with Lord of the Flies than to entertaining audiences outside of teens who wish that they were disenfranchised.
Richard Bachman is a pseudonym created by Stephen King for a variety of reasons depending on what King feels like telling the reader at the time: Bachman was a way for King to put out more books per year, separate from the King brand; he was a way to get rejected earlier works published after some retooling; he was a chance to see if, eventually, Bachman’s books were able to be read, sold, and appreciated separately to the King name; and, to quote 1996’s “The Importance of Being Bachman”, an imprint for books written “in a Bachman state of mind: low rage, sexual frustration, crazy good humor, and simmering despair.”
Rage is not a cry for help, but rather a bitter study of the powerlessness that teenagers can feel, and the most artificial power they can conjure to battle that: a warm gun.
High school senior Charlie Decker, already in trouble for assaulting his chemistry teacher, kills his algebra teacher and holds his class hostage for an impromptu group therapy session. He ruminates on why he’s like this, seeks input from his classmates, and hectors Ted Jones for not playing along.
Rage was originally called Getting It On, a hilariously dated piece of slang that holds more meaning and character than the bland single word that it ended up with. The title matches the content, however, because Rage is a one note book with dubious psychosexual analysis at play: Charlie once had difficulty maintaining an erection, so he feels he must be latently homosexual. You can pretty much put a lid on it here, because that’s all you’re going to get from Rage.
Even if most of Charlie’s classmates come to sympathise with him, it is difficult for us to: after all, he unambiguously killed two teachers with no provocation. King tries to make us understand Charlie, but nothing can justify his headspace. He’s a loathsome character and none of his classmates endear themselves to the reader, either. The mercy of Rage is that it is brief.
In his slightly rambling and occasionally equivocating essay “Guns”, King does not say that Rage is a cause of school shootings, but rather a potential accelerant, and so he went to the effort of ensuring it would go out of print. He doesn’t see this as censorship because he did it voluntarily, but realistically there’s no problem with withdrawing it because nothing of value is lost. It’s an inauspicious beginning to Richard Bachman’s career, no sweet to go with the bitter, and obscure even in the context of one of the most published authors of the last four decades.
“The Importance of Being Bachman” does not reference Rage in the slightest. It no longer exists. If you were unable to get your hands on a copy of Rage, you could happily skip it in the course of a tour of the King canon. This Constant Reader has only ever seen two completely intact copies of The Bachman Books, and one of those instances was such an extreme case of dark serendipity that it could never happen to anyone else.
It is best that Rage is only tangentially linked to the King name. Some of the Bachman Books are good, although King is less concerned about their artistry and more that he enjoyed writing them. Rage is a dark work, yes, but also a tacky piece of pop psychology that owes more to King’s lifelong fascination with Lord of the Flies than to entertaining audiences outside of teens who wish that they were disenfranchised.
I was interested in this book primarily because King famously let it go out of print. His own website says “No future printings will be made of this novel at Stephen's request due to the sensitive nature of the content.” Apparently, real-life school shooters saw it as an inspiration.
That’s a perfectly good reason to stop printing it, but another is that it’s a terrible novel. Just really bad. The only reason to read it is to be a Stephen King completist (guilty!) and perhaps to see the seeds of what would later become his distinctive style.
I disliked just about every character in this book. Charlie is whiny and King provides him with superficial reasons for becoming so violent against authority, going back to such things as his mom making him wear a suit to a birthday party (and because of which, he was beat up). His classmates are unrealistically blasé about seeing their teacher shot to death, and how they respond to Ted is just plain bizarre and dumb. There is no plot and, really, no point.
King says that he started the novel in 1966 while he was in high school, and finished it in 1971. There are intestines, which appear in so many more over the years (though in this case it’s from a deer, not a human). There is also a lot about alcoholism. The term “shiteating grin” is used multiple times, and that also comes up in other early King novels.
The only good thing about it is that it’s very short.
That’s a perfectly good reason to stop printing it, but another is that it’s a terrible novel. Just really bad. The only reason to read it is to be a Stephen King completist (guilty!) and perhaps to see the seeds of what would later become his distinctive style.
I disliked just about every character in this book. Charlie is whiny and King provides him with superficial reasons for becoming so violent against authority, going back to such things as his mom making him wear a suit to a birthday party (and because of which, he was beat up). His classmates are unrealistically blasé about seeing their teacher shot to death, and how they respond to Ted is just plain bizarre and dumb. There is no plot and, really, no point.
King says that he started the novel in 1966 while he was in high school, and finished it in 1971. There are intestines, which appear in so many more over the years (though in this case it’s from a deer, not a human). There is also a lot about alcoholism. The term “shiteating grin” is used multiple times, and that also comes up in other early King novels.
The only good thing about it is that it’s very short.
i just found out this book was written by king when he was a senior in high school. overall it was pretty good , we all have a little rage in us whether we like to admit it or not and it shows the consequences that can be brought about if we don’t check in on people important to us. not a bad book but definitely not my favorite. 4/5.
I loved this book. Read it in 24hours. I didn’t want to put it down. I thought it was going to be more brutal, but showing the psyche of those involved and how it played out, I was wondering what would happen next. I’d read it, and I’m sad King pulled it from print. It’s a good book.