When I was in the sixth grade, I picked up Cell by Stephen King off the library shelves at my school. A book of that kind ought not to have populated a school library, let alone be read by an eleven-year-old.
However, read it I did, and I was hooked.
When speaking of the books I’ve read, I often name Cell as the first adult novel I ever read, even though I had voraciously read a lot of Agatha Christie and even attempted my hand at George Eliot’s The Mill On the Floss. However, those did not seem as adult as King did and so I stuck with the line.
Reading Later reminded me of just what I enjoyed about King.
The Child Narrator
There is something particularly readable about an adult writing back about their childhood but through the lens of confusion of their younger selves and not the false clarity of adulthood.
My masters’ dissertation dealt with a similar thematic concern and while reading this book as well that feature stood out. Children make for powerful narrators and it is truly a work of good craftsmanship for an adult to write well as a child.
King does so in impeccable fashion.
More so, this book, being published in 2021, does not fall into the typical categories that make some of King’s works a tad bit annoying and problematic. A good chunk of the same can be found in the r/menwritingwomen subreddit. This book spared one that particular sexist trope.
Storytelling
What has always stood out to me about King’s writing is the manner in which he is able to spin a tale and tell a story. This novel is yet another example of the same and it always surprises me as to how he does it this well even now after all these decades of writing.
Make no mistake, the usual tropes of telepathy and talking to the dead are still there. But what also remains is the persistent knack for sneaking in profoundness within the seemingly mundane. That is another facet of fiction, particularly speculative fiction like fantasy and horror.
It is through such an interface that the liminal- or the space between boundaries, can be best explored.
Childhood is one such liminal space and through the narrator of Later, King has a lot of fun playing around with a simple story.
Do read the book in any form you can find. I can assure you that it will be a quick read. Let me know if you agree with my appraisal- let us initiate some dialogue in that manner. Do follow and share so that you may later receive my thoughts the next time I finish reading a book.