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A review by bbrassfield
Under the Dome by Stephen King
5.0
Holy shit. I mean HOLY SHIT!
In the afterward Stephen King talks about how he wrote this novel to be intentionally fast paced and when he would write a passage that disrupted this flow, his editor would remind him to keep his foot on the pedal. The result is a very long novel that reads like a story that is much shorter. This is mostly owing to how difficult it is to put down the heavy tome that is Under the Dome. King's foot to the pedal works. He doesn't always write like this but the pace sets the tone, which is impressive when you consider that the expansive cast of characters trapped under the dome requires a lot of deft plotting to pull of a novel of this scope. Under the Dome succeeds greatly on several levels, but I think the one that hits the hardest is the lessons in empathy and the roundabout way the architects of the Dome factor into this part of the story. Under the Dome also features one of King's great villains in Big Jim Rennie. Big Jim encapsulates several characteristcs of modern America so well that his brand of evil has proven somewhat prophetic for our own time fifteen years later. Ultimately I think this novel is about the need for more empathy in our little lives, at least in the grand scheme of the things that is the larger universe in which we exist.
In the afterward Stephen King talks about how he wrote this novel to be intentionally fast paced and when he would write a passage that disrupted this flow, his editor would remind him to keep his foot on the pedal. The result is a very long novel that reads like a story that is much shorter. This is mostly owing to how difficult it is to put down the heavy tome that is Under the Dome. King's foot to the pedal works. He doesn't always write like this but the pace sets the tone, which is impressive when you consider that the expansive cast of characters trapped under the dome requires a lot of deft plotting to pull of a novel of this scope. Under the Dome succeeds greatly on several levels, but I think the one that hits the hardest is the lessons in empathy and the roundabout way the architects of the Dome factor into this part of the story. Under the Dome also features one of King's great villains in Big Jim Rennie. Big Jim encapsulates several characteristcs of modern America so well that his brand of evil has proven somewhat prophetic for our own time fifteen years later. Ultimately I think this novel is about the need for more empathy in our little lives, at least in the grand scheme of the things that is the larger universe in which we exist.