I thought about doing some clever riff on this, maybe describing how it feels to swim 500 yards in a competition (so stuck in my head), or, in light of events this week, how it feels to have a migraine on and off for the last four days. I felt like I could tap into the structure of the telling rather easily, but honestly, it sounded tedious to write.

And that's about where I am with "The Long Walk." Technically, it is written well although it goes to obvious lengths in the beginning to conceal the consequences of the Walk. Written from the perspective of a rather naive teenager, it basically taps into a window of teen life. Garraty's thoughts range back and forth through his history, speculates momentarily on the future, but mostly concentrates on getting through the present with the group of young men he finds are accompanying him.

It's a microcosm of a whole life within the story, so I can understand why some people think it's genius. Honestly, though, I was mostly bored, partially because it centered around so much of what I had already read, themes done rather ad nauseaum by King himself, along with Robert McCannon. I get it guys, I really do. The magical time you got to feel a girl's underwear as you had your hand around her butt. That time you wanted to ostracize the funny-looking skinny kid but didn't, and the time you saw the All-American football boy brought low. The time your mom was overprotective, but you wanted to protect her, and what it was like when your dad wasn't there. How it felt to come up against uncaring authority.

Yeah, yeah, parallels and allusions.

The most interesting thing about this was the 1996 Introduction by Stephen King in which he shares his feelings about his Bachman alter ego and what it was like to have it exposed. Bachman was his chance to play with negative outcomes, the darker, depressing side of humanity. It's pretty clear when you contrast the experience behind this to "Stand By Me," a more hopeful interpretation of older boys on a walk meeting Death. I felt like I would have enjoyed this more when I was fifteen, but I'm reasonably sure I read it then, back when I was in a King phase. He's just not my type. ( )

A quick read but also somehow still felt a little too long. A long walk indeed...

But overall it's pretty gripping and some of the side conversations are hilariously on point for a bunch of teenage boys. King always gets teenagers right, in my opinion.

And if this book doesn't make you feel pain...it's brutal. ( )

The ending was such a let down. I just did not get it. The "winner" was so mentally broken and hallucinating at the end that he saw a "black figure" and ran. The whole way I was hoping something would happen to "stop" the long walk or break the status quo for the better, but it stopped any of that potentially interesting angles. I can see why King did not want his name on this. ( )

Erstaunlich, was King aus einigen gehenden Jungs macht. Gelesen von David Nathan macht das Buch nochmal so viel Spaß. (Wobei Spaß hier vielleicht der falsche Ausdruck ist.) Jedenfalls ein großartiges Buch, und wirklich sehr gut gelesen! ( )

I had not read a King for more than thrity years. I stuck with this one against my better judgement to give it a chance. My reaction to the ending was "So What"?

I regret having not cut my losses very early in this book. ( )