Was Stephen King’s First Book His Best? Long Walk, A Review

Written when Stephen King was eighteen, The Long Walk was published under King’s pseudonym Richard Bachman over 10 years after it was penned. After revisiting the book, I’d have to say it’s among his best, if not his very best work. His usual verbosity is pared down to the bone. There is hardly a sentence, or even a word, to spare. King leaves plenty up to the reader’s interpretation and offers very few hints at what’s to come. Even the end leaves the reader wondering and holds a surprise or two. It’s as dark and psychological as King gets.

There is hardly anything at all to the plot (which I won’t get into here in case someone reading this has yet to read the book), but what the reader does get from it is fascinating. Are we looking at an alternate world in which WWII had different outcomes/events? Was this meant to be a futuristic American society or contemporary under an alternate timeline? What happens to those who’ve been “Squaded”? Did the boys volunteer for the Long Walk, or was there a tv lottery which one could back out of if so inclined? The evidence implies they did apply by choice, but I wondered if the choice part was in the potential to back out/disqualify oneself and if that added to the pressure to go through with it.

The near constant dread/fear of the narrative is palpable, as is the physical stress of the characters. The comedic breaks and camaraderie between the walkers only serves to further the horror of the plot. I couldn’t help but see an allegory for war, in particular the Vietnam War which was in full force at the time of the writing. The spectators were one collective massive character with a personality/psyche of its own. The crowd’s character changes along with the participants of the Long Walk. The only characters we’re given zero insight of are the flinty soldiers. Even the elusive “Major” has more personality and depth than they.

Gore and death runs throughout, for those who gravitate to horror for this, but the psychological depth of this book is what appealed so much to me.

The fact that King wrote this when he was 18/19 and still a freshman in college and life tells me that, no matter how much flack he gets from book snobs (such as myself, just not in this case) Stephen King is a national treasure.

Have you read this Bachman book, and if so, what are your thoughts?

I just finished "Fairy Tale" and loved it, really brings you into the world he created.

Going to have to read your recommendation now, thank you!

originally posted by: zosimov
Written when Stephen King was eighteen, The Long Walk was published under King’s pseudonym Richard Bachman over 10 years after it was penned. After revisiting the book, I’d have to say it’s among his best, if not his very best work. His usual bombast is pared down to the bone. There is hardly a sentence, or even a word, to spare. King leaves plenty up to the reader’s interpretation and offers very few hints at what’s to come. Even the end leaves the reader wondering and holds a surprise or two. It’s as dark and psychological as King gets.

There is hardly anything at all to the plot (which I won’t get into here in case someone reading this has yet to read the book), but what the reader does get from it is fascinating. Are we looking at an alternate world in which WWII had different outcomes/events? Was this meant to be a futuristic American society or contemporary under an alternate timeline? What happens to those who’ve been “Squaded”? Did the boys volunteer for the Long Walk, or was there a tv lottery which one could back out of if so inclined? The evidence implies they did apply by choice, but I wondered if the choice part was in the potential to back out/disqualify oneself and if that added to the pressure to go through with it.

The near constant dread/fear of the narrative is palpable, as is the physical stress of the characters. The comedic breaks and camaraderie between the walkers only serves to further the horror of the plot. I couldn’t help but see an allegory for war, in particular the Vietnam War which was in full force at the time of the writing. The spectators were one collective massive character with a personality/psyche of its own. The crowd’s character changes along with the participants of the Long Walk. The only characters we’re given zero insight of are the flinty soldiers. Even the elusive “Major” has more personality and depth than they.

Gore and death runs throughout, for those who gravitate to horror for this, but the psychological depth of this book is what appealed so much to me.

The fact that King wrote this when he was 18/19 and still a freshman in college and life tells me that, no matter how much flack he gets from book snobs (such as myself, just not in this case)

Stephen King is a national treasure.

Have you read this Bachman book, and if so, what are your thoughts?

I'm about to start with a Long Walk it will be interesting though because I'm about to finish Fairy Tale, so I can see the differences etc. FWIW I seem to prefer his older works but haven't read much of his Bachman Books except Thinner which was okay but wasn't as fleshed out as some of his other writings, he is indeed a treasure though. Heard good things about the Long Walk in the Stephen King subreddit.

That said I'm even more intrigued since you have said his best work ever, Ive read over 50 of his novels and most of his short story collections. I still find the Stand, It, Misery, Pet Sematary, the Shining, etc in my top 5. I did enjoy 11/22/63 but enjoyed or liked is different than his "best" works.

FWIW Fairy Tale is OK for me it started off great then it kind of waned a bit, it's good mind you but I don't think it is even top 20.

you might want to check here a load of his fans and usually good discussions about his books

www.reddit.com...

a reply to: LoneWolfMT

I hadn't even heard of that one!



I hope you like it, and if you're so inclined I'd be interested to hear what your impressions were.

Now I might have to find Fairy Tale and read it too.

a reply to: putnam6

I think my other top 5 would be Pet Semetary, Misery, The Shining, Cujo, and an honorable mention for the short story Crouch End.

Pet Semetary is a close for first though. That was one I really did not want to end, and the psychological horror was absolute.

Thanks for the link! Hope you enjoy the read as much as I did!

a reply to: zosimov
I would not describe it as his best work but I definitely enjoyed the read, and it kept me engrossed the entire time. For sure helps if you are a dog person (you will know what I mean when/if you start it). My take away was that it was a welcome break from the # show of a world we are in, love the imagination and attention to detail that he used to weave a fantastical world.

a reply to: zosimov

Pet Sematary freaked me out so bad, but I should revisit it because now I think I might have a different opinion of it.

a reply to: JAGStorm

I'd read it as a teen, but had a totally different perspective reading it as a parent. If you do give it another read, let me know and I can share some of the more interesting critique I've seen on it.

It has been a long, long time since I read "The long walk".
For me, The Boogyman, and The lawnmower man scared the bejesus out of me.

I haven't read but maybe 1 or 2 of his post accident books, but I read everything previous.
I may have to back and read that one again.
Between his (old) writing, and my imagination, I've had many, many scared nights.
Anyone remember his short story, The raft? I think that was the name. I made the mistake of telling my sister about that, as we were sitting on a raft in a lake. We ended up sitting out there for two hours, until an older woman swam out to ask us if we were ok. I'm sure she thought we were crazy. But we had convinced each other that the "oil creature" from that story, was just waiting for us under the cement block the raft (floating dock) was anchored to.

My favorite has always been Firestarter.

I read Pet Semetary at eight and was hooked.

The Long Walk in my teens, and it really stuck with me.

Gritty.

I thought I heard a while back that there was going to be a movie or TV mini-series adaptation?

a reply to: GENERAL EYES

Misery was my first King book, then It and I was off. I'm happy I read the latter when I was still in elementary school; I used to walk through these huge sewer pipes to get to school, not so much after that.

Agreed that this one (the Long Walk) really stuck with me all these years. Funny how the impact it had on me was even stronger this time around, while a recent re-read of It was the total opposite. I couldn't even make it through after reading 96%. I just got so mad at the long-winded writing, the turtle, and the kid orgy I quit at about pg 900

a reply to: Ilikesecrets

I just saw that today (I usually go trawling the net for critique/commentary or videos about books which really interest me). Looks like there were some articles from 2018 about it, and I might have seen an allusion to a movie to be released this year?

It would be a difficult story to adapt, imo. What do you think? It would be so interesting to direct/cast the crowd as well. So much went on in Garraty's internal monologue that it would be hard to carry out.

a reply to: chiefsmom

The Raft is another great story

originally posted by: zosimov
a reply to: GENERAL EYES

Misery was my first King book, then It and I was off. I'm happy I read the latter when I was still in elementary school; I used to walk through these huge sewer pipes to get to school, not so much after that.

Agreed that this one (the Long Walk) really stuck with me all these years. Funny how the impact it had on me was even stronger this time around, while a recent re-read of It was the total opposite. I couldn't even make it through after reading 96%. I just got so mad at the long-winded writing, the turtle, and the kid orgy I quit at about pg 900

Misery is so well done, how Sheldon was addicted to Novril and how she tortured him keeping it from him, it's subtlety woven in with Annie's more severe punishments it's claustrophobic at times it's done excellent read or audiobook.

Got it in my queue on Scribd with the Long Walk and somebody told me about "Stationary Bike" so he is still pumping out books

but I got hooked on Night Shift first WBW and then Cujo and the Stand

but I haven't checked any of Joe's or Owen's stuff yet, hell I'll never finish all of King's works especially if I go back and reread them as much as I do.

think this was posted here before but it's pretty cool it has 200 references to King's stories short stories included

a reply to: putnam6

I love the opening lines of that book, how the reader is only privy to Sheldon's fading consciousness and fuzzy awareness.

Thanks for the cool illustration! Can't find the Long Walk reference.. yet

ETA: found it

Spam

a reply to: zosimov

Now I have to read it, thanks




I want to give honorable mention to an unexpected book of his.

Tommyknockers.

Between that book and the Lives of the Mayfair Witches by Ann Rice I read in my teens there is a type of uneasy feeling that pervades through the pages, hard to describe.

It's a sense of weariness and yet, it's utterly addictive.

I'm not even sure I'm describing it accurately but if you've forced yourself to wade through some pages of those books perhaps you know what I mean.

a reply to: zosimov


Just finished it.

It felt like I had an elevated heartbeat throughout and wanted to get it over with as much as the protagonist, even though it was a very good read.

It's hard to believe an 18 year old boy wrote this book.

His talent is almost Faustian when you think about it.

a reply to: 19Bones79

Thanks for checking back in with your impression! Interesting that we had similar reading experiences with it; I felt involved with both the physical stress and the urge to hurry along till the end as well. It really is incredible to think King wrote this when he was still a kid himself.

Glad you thought it was worth the read.