Storm of the Century - Stephen King

...people are calling it “the Storm of the Century”, and one of the characters refers to it as “one mother of a storm”. In fact, it’s actually two storms, converging in the area. Over the next couple of days, the island will be cut off from all external communication and have several feet of snow dumped on it.

Into these trying times comes an outsider, Andre Linoge. He introduces himself to one of the locals, Martha Clarendon, by beating ...
...to some of the town’s residents by knowing and telling some of the secrets they’d rather were kept hidden. And in time we hear of his reason for being there, and his demands for leaving them in peace once more: “Give me what I want and I’ll go away”. As for what that might be, we find out in time. There is a price that has to be paid, and paid in full.

“Storm of the Century” is a very visual and audio read. Knowing that the story will ... more

Having been a big fan of Stephen King for a number of years, I was pretty sure that I had a copy of everything he’d released for sale. In some cases, I had more than one version or more than one format of the same thing. There wasn’t anything a bookshop could throw at me with Stephen King’s name on it as the author that I would be interested in buying because I already had done.

Or so I thought. That lasted until I got to the US and wandered into Barnes & Noble on New York City’s 5th Avenue. Sitting on their sale table for the princely sum of $10 was a chance for a mad keen English Stephen King fan to own something never seen for sale in the UK. I didn’t even have to think about it. Out came the credit card and it was mine.

What makes “Storm of the Century” different to anything King has written before is that it’s written in script form. Although a number of his novels and stories have been filmed and although he’s written a number of those adaptations himself, this is the first time Stephen King has written a new story directly in this form. It’s a new challenge for King as a writer and it’s certainly a difference for the reader.

One thing is for sure, though. Although it might be a different way of writing the story down, when it comes to telling a story, King still knows how to tell them. And tell he does…

On the island of Little Tall, just off the coast of Maine, the locals are preparing for a storm. The weather people are calling it “the Storm of the Century”, and one of the characters refers to it as “one mother of a storm”. In fact, it’s actually two storms, converging in the area. Over the next couple of days, the island will be cut off from all external communication and have several feet of snow dumped on it.

Into these trying times comes an outsider, Andre Linoge. He introduces himself to one of the locals, Martha Clarendon, by beating her to death. He then fails to enamour himself to some of the town’s residents by knowing and telling some of the secrets they’d rather were kept hidden. And in time we hear of his reason for being there, and his demands for leaving them in peace once more: “Give me what I want and I’ll go away”. As for what that might be, we find out in time. There is a price that has to be paid, and paid in full.

“Storm of the Century” is a very visual and audio read. Knowing that the story will end up on screen, there is a much greater use of colour and visual imagery than normal in King’s work and the wind is forever howling and screaming and driving the heavy snow before it. Whilst this can have its advantages, in that you are much more able to visualise what’s happening, in much the same way as it would on screen, this way of writing changes you from being a reader to almost being the director. Worst of all is that it takes away the imagination part of reading – although you’re not entirely sure what the faces of the characters look like, you can see much of the scenery and clothing far too clearly, because it’s all spelled out for you. There is not room to let your imagination flesh out the people or the town.

It’s quite a difficult read, too. This has nothing to do with the story, which is as gripping and, at times, as terrifying, as a normal Stephen King story. Again, it’s the method of writing as a script that is at fault. The formatting is such that descriptions of the places and people and the situations they find themselves in are written as direction notes, rather than as a part of the story, which breaks up the flow of the writing. It becomes easier to read the second time through, as you get used to the style a little more, but it remains a little distracting.

If you can get over these minor quibbles, which are really only matters of style rather than of substance, you are left with a fine story, which I should imagine worked very well on screen. It has all the hallmarks of Stephen King at his best – and is vaguely reminiscent of “Needful Things” in the basic idea – a town essentially held to ransom by an evil man, who has his own special methods of getting his own way.

“Storm of the Century” was never published in the UK, as far as I’m aware, which makes it difficult to find in the usual places. There are a few copies through the Amazon UK Marketplace and eBay, although these are frequently overpriced due to sellers trying to bump the price up by claiming it’s rare. Which it is in the UK, but it can be bought quite easily from overseas.

There are brand new copies for $13.50 from barnesandnoble.com or $10.00 from Amazon.com, although the postage from the US does add a lot to these prices. For a casual reader, it’s really not worth the money, unless you happen to stumble across it somewhere or find a bargain on eBay.

If you’re as mad about Stephen King as I am, however, then a total price of $19.00 (about £12.00) including postage isn’t too much to pay and the joy of owning a rarity may well more than make up for it. And if you know someone who is travelling to the US, or have a friend out there who would send it over for a more reasonable price than the standard Amazon overseas postage charge, then it becomes even more attractive a proposition.  

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