Insomnia

I’m reading this book and I look up at the tv and OMG it’s the 50th Anniversary of Roe vs Wade. What a bizarre feeling that I’m reading this book at this time when Roe vs Wade has been overturned. I can’t even believe it. Everything that happened in 1992-3 in this book is still happening to this day in real life, what irony. But to this day in the real world, Roe vs Wade has been over turned. Abortion is illegal in many states now, some states it is a crime punishable by numerous years in jail or worse. Again I just can’t believe it. Art imitating life, life imitating art? What a question….. I don’t want to get all political because this is a book review and I’m not a politician. So back to the review. This is one of Stephen King’s best. I love the characters. I love the Easter Eggs that are peppered all the way through the story. I really love the senior citizens as the heroes in this story, it is also a romance. The love story is sweet and tender. The character building is amazing and detailed. I will be reading this book again probably next year. I need to read the Dark Tower series. I had read reviews that said you could read this book as a standalone. Then I read other reviews that said that you should read the series first. My opinion is that I would have read the series first and then this novel. I think I would have gotten a much better overview of this World. I’m much more interested to take a deep dive into the Dark Tower series than I was before reading Insomnia. I’ve read many Stephen King’s books so I recognized many Easter Eggs and some I didn’t understand. I feel if you just sort of know this World you can read this as a standalone and very much enjoy it. I really love these two quotes, they aren’t long but they are very, very impactful,“done-bun-can’t-be-undone” “Life, Death, the Purpose, the Random”. I’m very interested if these show up in the Dark Tower series. Overall this was a great read.

Of course I read this book when it originally came out and I thought it was a very good book, 4 1/2 stars. I have since read it every 5 or 6 years since and now think it is a great book, a solid 5 stars. As I became older, more and more of the story resonated with me and different parts of the story became more impactful (or for language "sticklers" important). If you have read any of my reviews then you know I don't summarize the story (read the inside flap or the back cover) I just try to indicate whether the book is worth your time. THIS ONE IS! "Insomnia" is one of Stephen King's best stories...

There are a lot of things I love about this book. Most of all the character development is amazing. Ralph is an unforgettable hero. I know that when I come across situations in my life that call for me to have strong character I will channel some of Ralph Roberts into my actions. That’s an incredible thing. To imagine transferring the ideals, judgement, and character of a fictional person into your real life. That being said, while there is much to love about this book, I found a lot of issues as well. One, the book is way too long. It’s just about 800 pages. Length works for many a good story. One of my all time favorite books is Atlas Shrugged which is at least around 1200 pages. It works. For insomnia though, the length is not needed and leads to starting, stalling, and confusion during the most important moments in the book. The action is so drawn out with memories, backstories, and just a bunch of random thoughts that it’s like moving through molasses during scenes that should be intense, riveting, and holding you on the edge with bated breath to see what’s going to happen. Instead, I ended up being mixed up, having to reread a few sentences back over and over and really just thinking to myself, can we get to the climax already. Part of the issue is we, as the reader, understand that time is different in certain situations and what is happening in the climax, as far as times concerned, doesn’t seem to match up with how we’ve seen time elapse before. There are also some scenes in the 200 of pages of the multi level climax that are unclear as to what is exactly happening. I liked the concepts of reality, life, and death that are explored but the descriptiveness of it, while brilliant, sometimes became heavy and in the way. I’d say especially toward the end. I think so much was put into it beforehand that I did not need such heavy handed descriptions in middle of the action that seemed to mostly stall the plot. I think the first 300 pages were solid. A very clever unfolding of the story. The level of detail is intense, which was great to set up the story. My feeling is it needed more succinct story telling after the good set up. All the elements were there, perhaps sometimes a bit unbelievable, it just got too bogged down with meandering thoughts/words and began to feel a bit contrived. I also wish some of the wordiness had been saved for a little peek into what happened to the main character in the end, or after the end. This book would of shaped up to be a great 600 page novel, even 650. I appreciate a slow burn and I appreciate character development, in this case though I feel the lengthiness caused the story to come apart some. Perhaps if there had been more explanation of the overall forces at work, it may have given the story the extra continuity to pull off the length. If the extra words brought something integral to light. I just didn’t find that they did. So, I can recommend this book bc I did read it in 6 days. I loved most of my time reading it but by the last 200 pages I was becoming frustrated. It was go time, and the go was just not going, we were on a leisurely stroll still even though the stakes were intense and high. As I said before Ralph Roberts and of course Lois are awesome and completely developed characters. There are also many other great characters, and so many great small moments. If you love Steven King and especially if you are looking for a unique non-horror read. This may do you good. I would call this a supernatural story that ties in with Dark Towers. I have not read Dark Towers but I have to admit this made me curious. I need a Stephen King break right now but I’ll look into it when I’m in the mood again. The SF novel I read before this was The Outsider which is one of my favorite books I’ve read. The balance of description, development, action, tension, and in the Outsiders case- horror was spot on. With a balance like that insomnia would be in my top picks as well. I will say though, I’ll never forget Ralph, so that’s a testimony for this story. Also, visually, this story would make a cool movie or mini series. Sorry, speaking of too long...;)

I originally couldn't get into Insomnia as a read and I actually attempted it several times. I would read a few pages, get a little bored, then put it down and try again later on. One rainy Sunday, i picked it up and thought I was going to get past page 100 and if I could do that and still didn't like it, I would not pick it up again. I'm glad I pushed through. The start of the book was extremely slow to me, but I thoroughly enjoyed it once I got into the story. It was a creepy twist on relationships, the passage of time, old age, other worlds, and the thought that we don't always know everything we think we know, even if we have heard about that since childhood. All preconceived notions do not always have truth to them at all. I don't believe there is always an answer to everything, and this book shows this quite well. A great read once you get into it - I would definitely recommend this to everyone, and I would tell them to push through the slow part of the book in the beginning to get to the treasure underneath it all later on.

I find it hard to believe in this day and age that there's someone out there who hasn't read at least one book by The King. The man's writing is so prolific that even people who don't gravitate toward the horror fiction genre can likely find something of his to stand by. With that said, I've been on somewhat of a hiatus with Stephen King after having exclusively read only his books for years. During that time I wanted to discover new authors and the like in the genre and have found a few favorites in the process. With that said, I got a little homesick and wanted to come back to my horror roots with The King and decided to post my first Stephen King review on Insomina.

To date, I do believe that I have read all of his earlier books, except those that are out of print. I first read this one, Insomnia, when I was either in 8th grade or 9th grade. I couldn't remember much about it except that it was about a lonely old man who see's auras. Now coming back to it some 15 years later, I've discovered that I really didn't forget much. That really was all there was to this book - a lonely old man see's auras.

Alright, so how is any of this remotely interesting, you might ask. Well, for me it wasn't the idea of seeing people's lifelines and emotions that made this story worth the time I read to complete all 905 pages. It was the underlying theme of a human being's mortality that had me interested. This book made me vividly aware of the "death clock" ticking in all of us, that as young people we all tend to think we're not going to get old. It's true. Sure, we all know sooner or later we're going to die, but for some of us it doesn't really sink in to us that we're going to become old and will soon be subjected to the same prejudices or stereotypes we stigmatize the older generation with.

What I got from this surprisingly flat story more so than anything else was that once your hair grays - you're still human. You still want the same things and feel the same desires you felt when you were young. You don't stop living and taking life as far as it will go just because there's a shuffle in your walk or lean in your step.

Now, if I'm through being philosphical, story wise - like I said, it wasn't incredible. Ralph Roberts is a widower suffering from insomnia and soon begins to see the auras of the life going on all around him. These auras come in bright vivid colors - generally, the brighter they are, the more healthy and positive the individual blanketed in it and the darker, it's just the opposite with some being a little in between. In the meantime, Ralph learns that he is a part of something bigger than what he can see with his own two eyes and soon learns that his ability lends him this out of body quality that allows him to travel to a higher dimension of reality. All of this is associated with a plot to stop a controversial feminist speaker from speaking at a pro-choice rally, who on the other side is being heckled by the overwhelming majority of Derry's pro-life supporters.

The main antagonist in this story mentions a prominent evil that becomes the force in another one of Mr. King's popular novels, The Dark Tower series, and it is here all of the puzzles are first coming together for the hero in that series to start his journey, which brings me to my next point.

I really like how Stephen King's books always tend to relate to others on one level or another. Having read all of the books that came before this one, I like the allusions to past characters in his other books. For example, he mentioned Ben Hanscom having been the architect who created a very prominent building in the area (if you don't know, he was one of the seven youths terrified in the very popular book, IT).

One of the things that keep me coming back to Stephen King (and that's even if he does get damn carried away with details) is the way he always takes average people - or some even below average; he's given people with mental handicaps very extraordinary abilities - and makes them do extraordinary things. People who are weak, people who are underprivileged, people other people ignore - these are the heroes of many of his novels and I find it very refreshing because I like to read about everyday people getting over or getting the upperhand. I don't want to read about people with money and power using it to do what they do best - screw other people over. I want to see the screwed, doing the screwing - if you catch my point.

So, this wasn't a bad read. It was okay. I do think Ralph could have did without the whiny sidekick (his friend, Lois - I just didn't like her; Like I said - I thought she was too whiny), but it was still okay.

Below is an e-mail I sent to Amazon.com customer service regarding my issues with the Kindle and, especially, the digital copy of this book. It should sum up my complaints well enough.

First, let me say that I have the utmost appreciation for the way Amazon.com is managed both in terms of employee and customer relations. I only take the time to write such a lengthy e-mail because I feel certain that it will be read and taken seriously, and I sincerely hope that the following problem can be addressed, not just for my own satisfaction (although it would please me to no end to not see silly typos in every future Kindle purchase), but because Amazon is a good business, and I think it would be silly for its strength as a provider of digital content to be negatively affected by what amounts to a technical glitch married to a lack of time and effort on behalf of whoever is responsible for bringing us e-books.

I recently purchased a Kindle after much internal debate and many attempts to convince myself that I would never turn away from my analog books. I was a difficult convert, but since getting my hands on my Kindle I've really fallen in love with the thing and I recommend it to everyone who asks about it (and many who don't).

However, I've noticed some rather bothersome errors that occur when converting books to the Kindle format and wind up in the finished text as silly typos. I understand how these make their way in: you've got thousands of books you're trying to upload to the Kindle to ensure readers have a large enough potential library to warrant purchasing a Kindle and continuing to download books, so whoever-is-responsible-for-this-sort-of-thing gets a text (poopoo to all of those authors of the past few hundred years haven't bothered to submit digital copies of their works) and scans it on some fancy pants scanning machine that automatically converts the words on the paper to words that can be rolled up and sent through the ether to our sexy Kindles and then to hungry minds, and of course you just HAVE to get to the next book, because, hey, there's catching up to be done and we can't sit here and proof-read every book we put on the device, because there's simply no time. I get it. I do.

But errors seem to be inevitable. I've read, I don't know, six books on the Kindle so far, and ALL of them have silly mistakes, the most frequent being the following:

• The lower case letters "rn" become the letter "m". Understandable. Just look at those two intimate little humped consonants rubbing shoulders! If they were at a dance at my middle school, Principal Scragg would quickly remind them that, hey, he better see LIGHT between those two bodies. Totally inappropriate, that level of letter-on-letter intimacy is. Still, I'm sick of seeing "comer" in place of "corner". For the nearsighted among you, I'll repeat that with CAPS: I'm sick of seeing "COMER" in place of "CORNER". I'll tell you, you don't realize how many times an author uses the word CORNER until you've had to stumble over COMER in its place for the fiftieth time.

*Hyphens and double hyphens are used inconsistently, making it difficult to distinguish between hyphenated words and parenthetical statements, and god help you if you should stumble upon a parenthetical with a hyphenated word inside. Who knows what the heck that line is supposed to mean!

*Ellipses, instead of being placed attached immediately to the end of a word (like this... see?), find themselves dangling between words like antisocial little obsessive compulsives (like this ... see?).

Okay, so those are are survivable (although the Kindle has successfully ruined the words CORNER and COMER for me for all time -- I will never be able to read those without mentally stumbling over them -- thanks), but I recently started a book ("Insomnia" by Stephen King) that has so many typos that it wouldn't pass a ninth grade composition class, let alone the scrutinizing eye of an editor at New American Library or Penguin or Signet or wherever. It's gag inducing (hyperbole!). After making it only 4% into the book and being frustrated by the stupid number of typos I took upon myself to highlight every mistake I noticed in the course of reading (and now the progress bar at the bottom of my screen is practically black with the number of marks I've made). I've encouraged Amazon customer service to open up "Insomnia" and look over the sheer number of mistakes I've highlighted, but just for fun, here's another bullet-point list of stupid-crap-I-found-in-my-book-that-I-paid-money-for (with locations!):

*COMER(S) shows up 51 times! Enough said. Man! Just do a search within the the text for the word "COMER" and see what happens. I dare you.

*(Loc 552, among others): the numeral 1 in place of the capital letter I. In the same place there is an example of incorrect use of hyphen length.

*(Loc 615): "delivery-track" instead of "delivery-truck"

*(Loc 622, among many, many others): "...at . 4:15 a.m., anything seems..." -- Randomly placed period. See it? It's like a zit in the middle of that sentence, as conspicuous behind the time of morning as a big white popper is beneath the lip of a high school cheerleader, and if that period is a zit, then this book has a helluva case of acne. These blemishes are sometimes in the middle of sentences, sometimes dropped in front of sentences AFTER the preceding sentence has already been punctuated, and it sits there in the empty real estate like (pardon me for mixing my metaphors here) a dog deuce left carelessly on my front lawn.

*(Loc 647, among many, many others): "Up-Mile Hill" -- Randomized bolding of words. If the misplaced periods are zits, then I don't know what to call these... reminds me of a lady of the night wearing too much mascara -- it's tasteless and distracting.

*As I look through here I'm seeing more and COMERS and COMERS and COMERS and COMERS and COMERS. COMERS of people's mouths, COMERS of the street, COMERS things that get rounded off to becomes less COMERy.

*(Loc 771, among many, many others): "...petition, he thought..." -- Inconsistent use of italics making it difficult to distinguish between where the internal thoughts of a character end and where the words of the narrator begin.

*(Loc 837): This one is funny, I promise. "Flow long are we going to sit on your porch...?" See it? SEE IT? "HOW" became "FLOW!" Like everything else, this jerks you right out of the text.

*(Loc 1203): There's a character named "McGovern". Here, he rounds the COMER and becomes "McGovem". This happens a few times.

*(Loc 1532): This is another funny one. I think "the Now-up" is supposed to be "the blow-up". I'm not sure. It's a stretch. I can see how the first vertical line and the intersecting diagonal of the capital N correspond to the vertical back and tiny belly of the lower case b. I guess. Sort of. Anyway...

*(Loc 1643): "Anyway" becomes "Ar y-way". Seriously. There's even a space in there.

*(Loc 1720): "Lopez" becomes "L6pez".

*(Loc 1883): "...what had happened..." becomes "...wha, had happened..."

*(Loc 2868): "...knew everything..." becomes "...knew e-erything..."

Anyway, look: this is exhausting, and it just goes ON and ON, much like this e-mail. Believe it or not, I skipped a lot of mistakes in between what you see above.

These errors are like that moment we've all seen in movies where the boom mike floats down into the frame or where the hand of a puppeteer can be seen manipulating what should be a spooky monster tentacle or where-- nevermind. I think two examples is enough. Point is, this stuff takes you out of the fantasy, and it does so violently. It's abortive, and it can sure as heck ruin the moment for the audience.

I wouldn't let the above mistakes dissuade you from purchasing a Kindle. Those mistakes certainly aren't present in ALL texts (although COMER always makes a guest appearance), but you should be aware of the drawbacks to Amazon's offered e-book library as it stands.

Once these problems are addressed? 5-star review for the kindle. It's sad, because until I downloaded this most recent book, I was fully ready to post a five star review for the Kindle, but this experience is enough to make me not want to use the thing anymore.

My review for Insomnia? Eh, my one star review stands since this thing looks like it was formatted by a half-blind chimp. Without the typos it'd only get 3-stars anyway. It's okay. For completists only. I'm only finishing it because of some supposed tie-ins to the Dark Tower series, which I'm trying to finish right now.