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A review by richardrbecker
Christine by Stephen King
4.0
Revisiting Christine with my daughter was an easy one. It's a love triangle of a story, but not in the way you might think because it's really five love triangles superimposed on each other.
This is two boys meet car, meet girl, meet spook story. And the relationships they have with one another go around and around and around.
It starts simple enough. Two lifelong friends, Dennis and Arnie, meet a car that the owner affectionately calls Christine. The first triangle is forged: Dennis, Arnie, and Christine.
What we don't know right away is that another triangle is being formed at the same time: Dennis, Arnie, and Roland LeBay. LeBay is a nasty customer whose fury has literarily rubbed off on his red and white 1958 Plymouth Fury.
As the story develops, King then drops in his archetype for a nice girl. Her name is Leigh. Arnie, Christine, Leigh punctuates the Dennis, Arnie, and Christine triangle until we swing full circle and find ourselves Dennis and Leigh pitted against Christine and Lebay. Arnie, sadly for him is the link.
There are other parties involved too. School yard hoods, overprotective parents, police detectives, and small-time organized crime. All these extra players are important because they demonstrate to reader just how relentless horrible LeBay can be (or perhaps it is Christine, but I think so). What really makes it work, despite some structural issues, is that you can see King find his early strengths: characterization and relationships. Dennis, Arnie, Leigh, etc. are all fully formed characters as are many (but not all) of King's bit parts. These very believable (slightly typecast) characters are thrust into an unbelievable story.
Unbelievable is a good word because while there is a supernatural element to Christine, it's never really scary. Sure, it's billed as horror. But it's very doubtful you'll find yourself expecting to see a 1958 Fury driving down the street. Nope. You should, however, expect to find her driving down some of King's otheer novels. Although not by name, Christine rides again in It, 11.22.63, and The Stand.
This is two boys meet car, meet girl, meet spook story. And the relationships they have with one another go around and around and around.
It starts simple enough. Two lifelong friends, Dennis and Arnie, meet a car that the owner affectionately calls Christine. The first triangle is forged: Dennis, Arnie, and Christine.
What we don't know right away is that another triangle is being formed at the same time: Dennis, Arnie, and Roland LeBay. LeBay is a nasty customer whose fury has literarily rubbed off on his red and white 1958 Plymouth Fury.
As the story develops, King then drops in his archetype for a nice girl. Her name is Leigh. Arnie, Christine, Leigh punctuates the Dennis, Arnie, and Christine triangle until we swing full circle and find ourselves Dennis and Leigh pitted against Christine and Lebay. Arnie, sadly for him is the link.
There are other parties involved too. School yard hoods, overprotective parents, police detectives, and small-time organized crime. All these extra players are important because they demonstrate to reader just how relentless horrible LeBay can be (or perhaps it is Christine, but I think so). What really makes it work, despite some structural issues, is that you can see King find his early strengths: characterization and relationships. Dennis, Arnie, Leigh, etc. are all fully formed characters as are many (but not all) of King's bit parts. These very believable (slightly typecast) characters are thrust into an unbelievable story.
Unbelievable is a good word because while there is a supernatural element to Christine, it's never really scary. Sure, it's billed as horror. But it's very doubtful you'll find yourself expecting to see a 1958 Fury driving down the street. Nope. You should, however, expect to find her driving down some of King's otheer novels. Although not by name, Christine rides again in It, 11.22.63, and The Stand.