Book Review: Blaze by Stephen King (as Richard Bachman)

Allow me to present two crucial lessons I learned from Blaze by Stephen King, which I only read because it's the "last" of the Bachman books.

1) I learned what stropping was, both in the context of sharpening a knife and beating an orphan/foster child.

2) I learned that writers should never place disclaimers before their work, even if they are intentionally self-effacing. I know for a fact that I have a soft spot in my heart for the tear-jerker, overly emotional style of the Victorian Era, where everything goes wrong. In fact,The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens is one of my favorite novels; the same cannot be said for King's take on it (as represented by references to Oscar Wilde's take on it).

To wrap this thought up: Stephen King says Blaze is a trunk novel he never wanted to see the light of day. He only published it to donate all proceeds to charity. He also claims it's overly sentimental drivel that originally went so over the top you couldn't help but laugh at it (like he claims people do over The Old Curiosity Shop). Therefore, even after saying he removed the overwrought emotions, it felt so manipulative, overworked, and downright absurd that I, too, was crying "Bring on the cancer! Bring on the blindness! We haven't had those yet!"

Blaze by Stephen King (writing as Richard Bachman) is the most Stephen King of all the Bachman novels. Gone is the darkly satirical stance on society ills, replaced with an almost defeatist tone that comes as a big surprise. While it goes into heavier material based in real life relationships and situations like most Bachman books, it might as well be about a killer object or deadly secret with the writing style as it is.

Blaze could not exist without Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men. Blaze, the main character, is slow and big. He's mostly a gentle creature, a gigantic man-child, incapable of taking care of himself. The only caveat is that George died during their last heist and Blaze still believes he is there.

His best friend is George, an admitted tribute to Of Mice and Men. George controls Blaze's life, keeping him out of (more) trouble, though George is the man that leads to Blaze committing more and more serious crimes. Sadly, those few details are where the merit of this story ends.

I feel King should have scrapped everything but Chapter 18 and published Blaze as the feature in his next short story collection. That chapter is his most moving work since "All That You Love Will Be Carried Away" printed in 2002's Everything's Eventual. It has the deepest character descriptions and most engaging plot of the entire novel. Too bad it's an isolated flashback of Blaze spending one summer working at a blueberry farm. It's also the closest he comes to a the Bachman style, as the social interactions are steeped in the darker side of humanity, with a heightened and at times darkly humorous sensibility about the events. I would go so far as to say you should read Blaze just to get to Chapter 18 and bawl your eyes out. Perhaps this is the sentimental claptrap King was trying to avoid; perhaps he should have stifled his inner Oscar Wilde and offered more moving glimpses into the life of Blaze.

Blaze by Stephen King could have been a truly great novel. I believe that in trying to fit it to the noir mold, something is lost. It didn't need to be a hard-boiled crime caper. The saddest thing about the book is that we will never see what the novel originally was.