Yesterday evening I chanced upon an audiobook reading of Stephen King's Rage (the first of the series he wrote as Richard Bachman.) I listened to the first three chapters and was reminded of just how powerful this early novel is - and just how tightly written. Not a note out of place in the narrative voice of what we'd now call a school shooter. It struck me that when I first read the book there were no such things as such shootings, not that I was aware of then. I was also sort of surprised to learn that now the novel has been withdrawn from publication, by the writer himself, I believe.
Spurred on by a quite possibly unhealthy interest in this disturbing intersection of fiction and reality I went on to read the whole book this morning. Funnily enough I'd retained enough of the details of the plot from when I first read the novel back in the 70s not to be surprised by its contents, except perhaps for a small sense of astonishment at just how accomplished a writer King was right from the start. But I was surprised at just how weirdly prescient the work is. I can imagine that the writer might even feel guilty about this product of his imagination; I actually felt guilty reading it.
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