I had to get myself something for my birthday, so I decided to try The Outsider by Stephen King. I kind of break King’s career, cross-referenced with my tastes, down like this:

1970s-1980s King: Amazing

1990s King: Things start to calm down with some occasional high points, like Wizard and Glass

2000s King – Present: Proceed with moderated expectations

After I wrote that, it now occurs to me that is a great way to break down The Outsider, as well. It starts off pretty solid. King’s prose is magical in its accessibility. The characters are nicely drawn. The setup is wonderfully mysterious (I could have done without some graphic violence, though).

A character from another book then enters the story. Said character has all of the answers and explains everything, which makes things calm down quite a bit. We realize we are not reading a mystery, after all, even though King dropped Agathe Christie references.

From then on, proceed with moderated expectations. If reading about characters having conversations about what is happening, and how neat they are despite their foibles, is your cup of tea, you will be a happy camper. Also, if you are a big fan of that other character, that is also a plus. I personally found that character a bit too infallible. Sure, said character had some self-doubt, but it doesn’t really create any challenges to overcome.

Finally, a quick resolution. The end.

Some additional little tidbits: King tossed in a few throwaway sentences about politics, which kind of make one stop reading and think about King’s politics rather than the story. That’s not unusual, I guess. Lots of writers do that. I also get the sense King was trying to make some point about guns, what with one character’s refusal to use them and how guns couldn’t be the answer in the end. It was pretty subtle, though, not soapbox stuff. Reading between the lines, it also seems like King is still trying to make sense of God and the universe. Just go to whataboutjesus.com and be done with it, Mr. King!

What did I like about The Outsider? I liked the mystery that was set up. At first, it made me think that King was going to go the Dark Tower route again, but he did not. He went more conventional, which was nice. I wonder if bringing in the character from another book was always part of King’s plan, though. It almost seemed like he had a Hispanic character in the book to fill that role and then decided to use his other character halfway through. Who knows? I just like to speculate about such things. If King wanted to take a short cut, bringing in that other character was the way to do it. Like I said, that character came in and explained a lot of the story for the characters so they didn’t have to go and figure it out themselves. Watching them figure it out for themselves probably would have been more satisfying, though.

All in all, The Outsider is The Outsider, and 1970s-1980s King is still amazing. What else can one say about it?