Only one person in the group had read any Stephen King before and the others had always avoided the “horror” genre so approached this book with some trepidation. The first surprise was how different the novel was to the well-known film version. The film was a straightforward horror movie with no back-story for the characters whereas reading the novel we discovered a psychological drama.
We admitted that some of us were biased and thought the novel would be dreadful but we were pleased to encounter “real” characters. One reader commented on how she enjoyed Dick Halloran’s Florida story – a wonderful vignette of a man who is disdainful of his bosses yet able to get on with his job and life.
We agreed that the drama builds very well at first and the depiction of Jack’s deterioration is absorbing and credible. However this is not maintained throughout and we are forced to start suspending disbelief. We felt that the device of the scrap book was not enough to explain the rapid change in Jack. Too many mystical elements are introduced and not joined together well enough. There is a sudden and, to our mind, unnecessary change from Jack wrestling with his internal demons to “possession” by external demons. We are no longer witnessing the sad decline of a man, rather the malign influence of the hotel itself.
The story made more sense before Wendy heard and saw ghosts. Up until that point all the strangeness was in Jack’s mind with Danny able to see it because of his ability to read minds. Once this change of tone occurred the story became less gripping and started to drag. The endless repetition of “take your medicine” was irritating. The ending was not believable, how did a badly wounded man get Danny and a badly wounded Wendy out of the hotel? We definitely felt it was a novel of two halves.
There was concern over the depiction of Halloran and the constant reference to his colour. There was no justification for the stereotypical portrait of the single black character. If the intention was to expose racism it back-fired.
The group felt that the depiction of Jack was a very sympathetic portrait of alcoholism showing real respect for those on the wagon. His fall from grace was well handled and I was a nice touch having an educated man, an academic, go through this rather than the usual poor manual worker.
We also discussed how real a character Jack’s mother was; would anyone put up with all the abuse she suffered at her husband’s hand? We agreed that it was a disturbingly accurate portrayal of domestic violence. This led to discussion of whether Jack had chosen Wendy because she was like his mother and the issues that Wendy had with her own mother. These relationships, Jack and Wendy’s marriage and the jealousy she felt when looking at her son and husband’s interaction all rang true. In summary we found Stephen King a far more skilled writer than we had given him credit for even if we weren’t happy with where he took The Shining.
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