Talk us through it
As the name might suggest this volume is a dedicated overview of Maine author Stephen King's comprehensive catalogue of Non-Fiction writing. No it's not a collected works, but it does cover so many King pieces that you can be pretty safe in the knowledge that where possible every non-fiction essay, review, or even letter to the editor of various newspapers has been covered. About the only thing missing is Stephen King's shopping list! Ready to tackle one of the more overlooked aspects of the Kingdom?
ReviewIronically when I received my review copy of The Non-Fiction, and thanks to Cemetery Dance's Brian Freeman and author Rocky Wood for the privilege of tackling this one, I also received a copy of the television mini series Kingdom Hospital. On the one hand I hand an in-depth view of Stephen King's Non-Fiction by noted Kingologists, (is that a word), Rocky Wood and Justin Brooks, on the other I had a fictional work written by King himself based on Lars Von Trier's The Kingdom. For anyone remotely interested I will post up a link to my review of Kingdom Hospital, it's for another site, at some later time. For now lets get down and funky with The Non-Fiction. I guess the first thing that will strike the reader is how densely written The Non-Fiction actual is. Clearly the book has been incredibly well researched and is simply teeming with background detail, pointers to the most important of King's non-fiction writings, and extensive coverage of where some of the hard to get pieces of the Author's back catalogue were discovered. In fact Rocky Wood would supply a piece of King's writing to King's own office who didn't at that stage have a copy. You get the feeling that Wood and Brooks left no stone unturned as they blew the dust off various archives and tracked down pieces that had been thought lost. As a statement of dedication to their subject matter and share persistence in getting to their goal of writing the most comprehensive study of King's Non-Fiction to date the Authors are to be congratulated on a job well done. The scope of The Non-Fiction is simply epic. I guess for King's legend of fans Down Under the major question is, what's covered in the book and is it worth my while to invest in it? For starters there are well over 500 individual non-fiction pieces covered in the book, including a full reproduction of a King essay. Sorry I lost count of the number of items the Authors have covered. And if that's not enough there are nine un-published pieces seeing the light of day for the first time. Wood and Brooks go indepth and leave no stone unturned as they completely cover their subject matter. The books is arguably the best Stephen King resource currently on the market. The non-fiction pieces are grouped together in a series of chapters that offer a convincing overview while covering each individual piece in depth. Well the Authors had to provide some order to the chaos here, we're taking full coverage of a major writer's Non-Fiction output from about 1959 to mid-2006. "Early Columns - Garbage Truck" covers King's surprisingly mature College columns and such, "Danse Macabre, On Writing" approaches the Author's major books covering his chosen genre and writing style, and "Baseball - Faithful; Heads Down and the Red Sox Obsession" presents King's views and writing on America's national pastime, baseball. There's plenty of other chapters, but hey let's not tie ourselves down here, as opposed to Messers Wood and Brooks I have limited space. Needless to say it's all pretty comprehensive and a well thought out progression through King's non-fiction writing. Each individual piece is discussed within the context of when it was written and why it would be of interest to the King fan base. So you get a critique of the piece, an indication of where to go if interested in reading the original article, and if it is of importance in the overall context of King's body of work. This is pretty intense and extensive stuff. What is striking about Wood and Brooks' prose is they make what could have been a very dry subject infinitely readable. Yes The Non-Fiction can hold it's head up as a scholarly work but it never devolves into being a chore to read. How you approach the book in terms of reading it is up to the individual. Since I was reading with the aim of writing this review I started on page one and went sequentially through till the final pages, though admittedly I did skip the impressive amount of annotations that round the book out. But feel free to leap in at any stage of the book and hit off with the stuff that interests you. King researchers are clearly going to zero in on information that talks directly to their current projects. The Non-Fiction does not require you to read any chapter in specific order, knock yourself out there, dive on in at any given page, the water after all is deep enough. If you are not a King fan, surprisingly there's a few out there, wading through 600 odd pages of essays, reviews, and musings probably sounds a bit like watching paint dry on a Sunday afternoon in Hobart. Who after all cares about a random e-mail Stephen King may have sent out on a whim. However King's style is simply easy to read, say what you like about the Author he has a very naturalistic way of putting things and talks directly to the reader, with Wood and Brooks' chiming in with their own prose to make for a solid reading experience. The Non-Fiction proves that King is as entertaining in this aspect of his writing as he is in his fiction. If you have ever been remotely entertained by a King short story or novel then don't deny yourself the opportunity of delving deeper into the Author's world. Clearly The Non-Fiction is going to go on the wish list of every serious King fan on the planet. The book therefore drops into the review-proof category, much to the gnashing of teeth from the book Critics out there. Suck it up guys, this one delivers on the promise so you would have come to praise it anyway. If you are serious about your King library it's a most have book folks, all the cool kids already have a copy. Rocky Wood and Justin Brooks deserve a Stoker, do a google people, for their effort and the results of their labour in bringing us Stephen King: The Non-Fiction. If they are not at least nominated then there's something very flawed in the selection process. Unfortunately our equivalent awards, the Ditmars, do not have a non-fiction category else I would have my nomination already signed off. Yes it should be an award winning book and The Non-Fiction deserves every accolade sent in it's direction. Stephen King: The Non-Fiction is available from the good folk at Cemetery Dance, click through. The book is limited to 2,000 copies, is perfectly bound in hard back, and arrives with a solid slip cover to keep it pristine down the years. At $75 USD that's worth your while as The Non-Fiction is going to become a valuable collectors item in due course. I have a few books from Cemetery Dance and the word there is the Publisher doesn't hold back on the quality of their product, you can purchase in complete confidence you are getting value for money.
ScaryMinds Rates this read as ... One of the best books I've read on Stephen King's writing and a very solid addition to the Kingdom.
A must have release, go order one today.
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