Shining

Like many, I came to this book already very familiar with Kubrick's film adaptation, which I regard as a masterpiece. It always troubled me that [a:Stephen King|3389|Stephen King|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1362814142p2/3389.jpg] was not a fan of the film himself, so I finally decided to read the book in hopes of understanding why this was the case. Admittedly, while I have enjoyed much of King's work in the past, I expected to conclude that the Kubrick film is superior to the source material.

Having finished the book, however, I am unable to say that I prefer one version over the other. Both are excellent works, perfectly rendered for their respective media.

The book is nearly flawless--what I mistook for a dragging pace in the beginning was merely my own impatience, driven by expectations set by the film's slightly different story arc. The film is more loyal to the book than I expected, but it's ultimately a subset of the details and imagery in the book, distilling the key elements of terror into a visual work that goes as far as it needs to, and no further. In the book, King had carte blanche to create whatever he wanted--as well as the room to fully develop family and hotel history--without the limitations of the screen, and the result is a brilliant story that is legitimately terrifying.

Kubrick was wise to pare down imagery that worked brilliantly on paper, leaving much up to the reader's imagination instead of recreating the book scene for scene, but perhaps some of the liberties he took were what chafed King? After all, his book was already a finished story and didn't need any further editorial revision. I can see this point of view, and I can respect it. But a perfectly true film adaptation of this story would not be as satisfying, and ultimately would not do the book justice.

And that would be far, far less than a masterful book like this one deserves.

I thought I read this book in my teens but the farther I got into it, the more certain I became that I hadn't. I would have remembered how well done Jack's descent into madness was. For me, that was the best part of the book. I did enjoy Danny's parts of the book, and Wendy's to a lesser extent, but the star of the show was Jack's changes and his growing connection to the hotel.

I think my biggest shock was just how different Kubrick's film is to the novel. I need to watch the movie again since I don't remember a lot of the details. That and the insane number of times the N-word was used. I wasn't expecting it and it really put me off.

I listened to the audio book and initially Campbell Scott's calm tone made me wonder if I wouldn't fall asleep while reading. Luckily, he got down to business when the dialogue and more intense narration called for it. He did a really good job.

I don't know if it was just the audio book and there were clearer demarcations in the physical book, but I was throw off regularly which POV switches. There were a few times when I had to rewind to see if I either missed something or to figure out who was sharing info.

I'm glad I read this one. It won't end up on my all-time favorite Stephen King list but I enjoyed the story. 3.5 stars for me.