THE SHINING by Stephen King
                                                (Book)

  Welcome back! After my very optimistic post about updating at least every other day I went on vacation. Fooled you didn't I? We were up calling in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan which is so beautiful. And, honest truth, I almost enjoy the drive there more than the camping itself. It's such a beautiful drive. The U.P. was gorgeous, too. In the fall you really can't go wrong up there wherever you go. The colors will astound you. And it was great, except for the bees. And my car deciding to give itself an oil change by leaking oil like a sieve. And ending up in Wisconsin (briefly).
  And the Mackinac Bridge.
  Don't get me wrong, the bridge is beautiful and I'm sure 100% safe. But I hate to drive over it. I really, truly do. So, next time you're on it and you're stuck behind someone going 15 miles an hour and cringing at any little gust of wind, it's probably me. I'm very sorry.
  Anywho, I'm back and while I was camping I managed to finish The Shining, which is one of my favorite books so unfortunately there will be very little snark to it this time. Also, tonight I watched The Shining mini-series (1997) and tomorrow I will force myself to watch The Shining (1980). I guess it's The Shining week here at Picking on Stuff.
  But, enough about me and my mis-adventures in camping.
Let's hurry on to The Overlook hotel. I hear it's nice this time of year.

  SYNOPSIS:
  The Torrance family is spending the winter in the famous (or infamous, depending on who you ask) Overlook Hotel. Jack has been hired on as winter caretaker and his wife Wendy and give year old son Danny are accompanying him. Jack really needs the job and they are all hoping something good comes of their winter respite at the hotel.
  For Jack it's the chance to put his recent past as a drunk behind him (and firing from a prestigious prep school) and finish up a play he's been working on. For Wendy it's the chance to put their fractured marriage back together and for Danny? Well, Danny's just along for the ride, no matter his personal feelings about the hotel.
  As the snow closes in and isolates them, things go from bad to worse.
  Because Danny has a gift. He had a powerful psychic gift that gives him glimpses of the future and the past.
  And the dead at the Overlook aren't really dead. They're just waiting.


  THE PICKINGS:
  Spoilers ahead!!Daeha sreliops

  This has been one of my favorite books ever since I was 11 or 12. Let's just sat my mom exposed me to horror at a very young age. And I've been thankful ever since.
  So far it has been one of the few books that made sleeping on the couch preferable to crossing a dark living room and hallway to go to bed. I'm not too find of King's more recent works but back then he was in fine form.
  It's strange how your perspective toward a book can change with age. When I was younger I connected more with Danny but reading it as an adult I can appreciate Jack's character a lot more. Wendy, to me, hasn't changed much. Her character is pretty solid no matter what. A little less complex and simply drawn than Danny and Jack. Which I guess isn't too much of a surprise since Danny and Jack are the main focus of the book. But for all the time we spend in Wendy's head her character is definitely secondary to Jack and Danny. That's not to say that she's a bad character, just less complex.
  As a kid I thought of Danny as a brave kid, Jack was the boogeyman and Wendy was The Mom. But reading it now Danny impresses me a lot more. He's this little kid who has this enormous power that makes him privy to all sorts of information he doesn't want, need, or even know what to do with half the time. He knows The Overlook is a Bad Place but doesn't really want to say anything because of how important the job is to his father and his mother. He also had a naive optimism that maybe it's not really as bad as he thinks. But really, he's all alone with what he's feeling. So, yeah, I am a lot more impressed with Danny this time around.
  Jack I'm finding myself a lot more sympathetic toward now. Not the whole bash-your-family's-head-in-with-a-mallet thing but his desperation is so palpable. This is truly his last chance to be something, to do something to get their life back on track and keep himself from sinking lower. Through a lot of the book I could picture him on a cliff with his fingernails slipping slowly off and the Overlook waiting at the bottom, jaws open wide. And of course he does slip off but when he does it's sad.

  In some ways Jack's mental struggles at the Overlook are scarier than the more in-your-face horrific moments. Partly because they're understandable. The Overlook is at its most insidious when it preys on Jack's uncertainty about his actions being good for his family, his depression at always failing and his resentment at Wendy for not fully trusting him. His resentment is actually pretty understandable. In his eyes he's trying as hard as he can. He's quit drinking, cold turkey pretty much, he's trying to be a better father to Danny and a better husband to her but sometimes it doesn't seem enough. She's always checking for booze on his breath, tense when he and Danny play, generally watching him like a hawk and more than ready to throw the past in his face if he screws up. But then you have to look at it from Wendy's point of view. He hurt their son while drunk, and not just hurt him but broke his arm. His turnaround on the drinking was very sudden and it off the blue. Also, cold turkey isn't easy. So she's probably waiting for him to slip. She's also trying very hard to keep their family together. So both of them have equally valid feelings.

  There is just so much good, creepy stuff in this book that it's hard to really get started on it. A lot of the evil is subtle, especially when it's working on Jack's mind. A lot of it seems like echoes that only Danny can see. Like the blood and brain, residue from a gangland slaying, on the walls of the Presidential Suite. Some of it's harmless but other manifestations are not so harmless. Like the lady that waits in Room 217. Small confession, while reading this at night in bed I was just to the part where she turns Danny around and chokes him and right at that moment my dog kicked me in her sleep and I about shot ten feet in the air and gave the wussiest screech known to man.
  One of my favorite parts is when Jack finds the old scrapbook down in the basement. I'm a sucker for the history of places, especially if it's creepy history.
  Some of Wendy's actions don't make much sense sometimes. When Danny tells them he saw the hedge animals move Jack is trying to tell Danny that it's his imagination. Danny 'reads' that Jack saw them too and says so, well, until Jack smacks him. Wendy freaks out about the slap (as well she should) but then never asks Jack about it at all. She also seems mildly upset about the CB radio getting smashed by Jack in his sleep but not nearly as much as you'd think she would be considering that it is literally their only connection to the outside world after the phones go down. It never shows her reaction to the snowmobile magneto being missing but again I'm assuming she takes it somewhat in stride. Of course, there's not a whole lot she can do except wait it out and hope for the best.
  I know Jack's irritation with her, over her insistence to leave, stems mostly from the hotel and him not really wanting to leave but I kind of share it. Her big ideas are to take the snowmobile or snowshoe down. Now, the snowmobile is a perfectly reasonable idea but snowshoeing down the mountain in the thick of winter is insane. Maybe not for people experienced at it but these people do not seem the outdoorsy type at all. She just didn't seem to comprehend how quickly they could die out there.
  I love how slowly the tension builds. I love the refrain of "Unmask! Unmask!" And "The red death held sway over all" throughout. That was the first Poe story I read and it's still my favorite one. And it fits the story so well.
  My absolute favorite part though is near the end. Jack has royally fucked up Wendy and Dick Halloran and is going after Danny. Danny realizes it's pointless to run and stood and stands to confront the thing that's wearing his dad like a Jack suit. Which leads to my favorite exchange:
  "They promised me I could look all I want!"
  "Yes, they promised, but they lie." Said Danny.

  I don't know why but it's always been my favorite line. Probably because it sums up the Overlook so succinctly. They promise a lot. But they lie and they take and they never give anything back.

  This may have not been the greatest review of The Shining but it's always so much easier to nitpick than praise. When I like a book or movie it's a little hard to tell why I like them exactly. When I don't like something is much easier to point to certain things and say, "I don't like that or that".

  So, tomorrow will be The Shining movie (1997). Which hopefully will be a little bit better reading.