Stephen King - Joyland

[dem bones]

Stephen King - Joyland (Hard Case Crime, 2013)

Glen Orbik

Blurb:
College student Devin Jones took the summer job at Joyland hoping to forget the girl who broke his heart. But he wound up facing something far more terrible: the legacy of a vicious murder, the fate of a dying child, and dark truths about life—and what comes after—that would change his world forever.

Life is not always a butcher's game.
Sometimes the prizes are real
Sometimes they're precious

A riveting story about love and loss, about growing up and growing old—and about those who don’t get to do either because death comes for them before their time—JOYLAND is Stephen King at the peak of his storytelling powers. With all the emotional impact of King masterpieces such as The Green Mile and The Shawshank Redemption, JOYLAND is at once a mystery, a horror story, and a bittersweet coming-of-age novel, one that will leave even the most hard-boiled reader profoundly moved.

Heavens Bay, North Carolina, 1973. Devin Jones, Uni student, twenty-one, takes a job at the Joyland Amusement Park. Dev is distraught when Wendy Keegan, his girlfriend of two years, prefers to spend the holiday in Boston with her roommate, particularly as she doesn't seem the least concerned that loves young dream will be put on hold for the whole summer. Dev's growing a little suspicious of Wendy. Just because she won't put out for him, doesn't mean to say she won't .... but he mustn't torment himself. Better to put the Doors or Hendrix on the stereo and contemplate suicide instead.

Dev loves Joyland, where he's adopted by seasoned veterans Lane Hardy, who operates the Ferris Wheel, and 'gypsy' Rozzie Gold - professional name 'Fortuna' - who may even be a 1% psychic. As a "Happy Hound", Dev will soon be paired with a "Hollywood Girl" (a meet 'n greet photographer in a cute little Peter Pan costume). On Lane's sound advice, Dev rents cheap digs at Mrs. Shoplaw's boarding house. He immediately hits it off with fellow boarders and Joyland novices Tommy Kennedy (Happy Hound) and Erin Cook (a particularly knock out Hollywood Girl). The landlady has an encyclopaedic knowledge of the Carney - and it's resident ghost.

Four years ago a guy took his date through the Horror House. Halfway around the track, calm as you like, he slit her throat with a razor, tossed the corpse out of the cab, changed his shirt, and slunk away into the crowd. The killer has yet to be caught. There's speculation that he's done this before. Four times. The victim, Linda Grey, is said to haunt the Funhouse. Rozzie won't go near the ride for love nor money.

Wow, how cool would it be to see the ghost. If that doesn't lure Wendy from her Boston gallivant, nothing will! Which is when he receives her "Dear John" ...

All good stuff so far. Looks as though the author thought to save time by compiling an instant soundtrack as he wrote. The Faces Stay With Me, Elton John's Crocodile Rock, the Beatles' Run For Your Life, The Hollies Long Cool Woman In A Black Dress, and, for the skiffle-minded infants of the Wiggle-Waggle Village glee club, Lonnie Donegan's Does Your Chewing Gum Lose Its Flavour On The Bedposts Overnight.

[franklinmarsh]

I enjoyed this one. Having a bit of a King revival at the mo having reread Apt Pupil (and watched the film), The Langoliers and Secret Window,Secret Garden. Found a copy of Revival at the weekend, which looks interesting.

[dem bones]

Sept 5, 2016 16:17:22 GMT franklinmarsh said:

I enjoyed this one. Having a bit of a King revival at the mo having reread Apt Pupil (and watched the film), The Langoliers and Secret Window,Secret Garden. Found a copy of Revival at the weekend, which looks interesting.

I'm not sure if I read Four Past Midnight. Is The Langoliers something to do with rats on a plane? Apt Pupil (the story) seems to have come in for stick from the critics, but I found it morbidly entertaining enough.

Back in Joyland, Madame Fortuna has hit a rich vein of psychic form. She was right about Wendy, now she tells Dev to look out for a little girl in a red hat clutching a Raggedy Ann dolly and a boy with a dog. "I see danger for you, Jonesy. Sorrow and danger. " Oh, and "Give those morbid records a rest, do you understand that?"

The little girl in the red hat is Hallie Stansfield. Dev, in Happy Hound costume, saves her life when she chokes on a hot dog. He's hailed a hero by the girl's parents and fêted in the press. Pop Allen, his gnarly old team leader, is mighty proud and reckons that, though he ain't carny from carny, Dev is the next best thing.

Dev, Tom and Erin have a day off and decide to check out the rides, including the Ghost Train. Tom, the sceptic of the three, emerges from the Horror House a shaken pale shadow of himself. He's seen the ghost of Linda Grey, Alice band and all.

Dev decides to forget College for the time being and take full time employment at Joyland. On the musical front, he's given glam a swerve in favour of Dark Side Of The Moon and his Doors compilations and Daddy Dewdrop's Chick-A-Boom, Chick-A-Boom, Don't You Just Love It.

[mattofthespurs]

The Langoliers was to do with the plane, and everyone who was asleep on it, going through a time slip and ending up a few minutes or so in the past.
Great story with a rather average TV adaptation.
I'm re-reading The Bachman Books at the moment because I gave my 12 year old Son the book to read, most notably The Long Walk. He finished that, and thoroughly enjoyed it, and is now reading the first story from the collection Rage.
I'm also re-reading The Talisman as it's been a few years.
Mildly interesting story; We, the 3 of us, have just come back from our holiday which was a Royal Caribbean cruise to the West of France and Northern Spain. Every day on the cruise there would be three general knowledge quizzes that we liked to attend. All the quizzes were well attended and most teams had the maximum players allowed of 6 people. We had two adults and one child and still managed to win 5 of them, However, I digress, in one of the quizzes one of the questions was 'What horror author was also known as Richard Bachman?' And my Son just happened to be leafing through the book as the question was asked. He surreptitiously held up the cover to the quiz master who gave him a massive high five and a prize before my Son hid the book away. We won that quiz (on a tie break. What chemical element has the symbol FE....Easy peasy :-) )

[dem bones]

Well done, Mr. Spurs junior! The Long Walk is my pick of the Bachman's I've read, a genuine future sport is horror classic. Also like Rage and The Running Man. For some strange reason have still not felt enthused to begin Road Work or Thinner, but dived straight in on Joyland within an hour of so of finding a copy. Am glad I did, too, as it is reminiscent of his early, pre-epic novels.

Dev's eased up on apocalyptic rock music in favour of reading Tolkien, and he's met the boy with the dog. Mike Ross is ten years old, unlikely to see eighteen on account of muscular dystrophy. His health has further deteriorated due to pneumonia (Yeah, you're right. He's too Tiny Tim by far). Dev has slowly won over the kid's initially hostile mother, Annie, a former wild child who rebelled against her strict upbringing by getting into marijuana, mini-skirts and teenage pregnancy (Mike's Gramps is Buddy Ross, the famous Radio & TV Evangelist). Milo, the great big soppy mutt, completes the family.

Dev has made an enemy of Eddie Parks, the mean old bastard who makes a pretence at maintaining the Horror House. It's nothing particularly personal - Eddie hates everyone. Lane assures the new boy that Parks is a chickenshit underneath all the bully boy bluster, and, should Dev find him tedious, he will be happy to bust the fucker's face. As it turns out, Parks has cause to be grateful to Dev soon afterwards.

Back in the straight world, Erin and Tom are an item. Erin has been researching the Linda Grey murder, and is extremely concerned at her findings. Enough so to schedule a visit to Joyland, because Dev urgently needs to know this stuff.

Closing in on P. 200 of 283.

[dem bones]

Finished this last night, fair flew through the last third. Had the carny killer nailed early doors (© Ron Atkinson), changed my mind ("nah, it can't be"), so ... always trust your spidey sense, kids! Overall impression is of a feel-good novel written by a manic depressive. When Joyland is sad it is heartbreakingly so, but that good old human spirit - aided and abetted by benevolent ghosts - wins the day, and the sex is amazing.