Technology at its Worst

In 2002, Stephen King proclaimed to Entertainment Weekly, which he know writes a column for, that he was through with publishing. His novel, From a Buick 8, had come out. Since then, he published the three remaining books in his Dark Tower series, co-authored a book about the 2004 Boston Red Sox series in which they won the World Series. Last year, his short novel, The Colorado Kid, was published in paperback.
Now, he's got a new novel, Cell, out.
Nice retirement, Steve-o.
Anyway, in the past three and a half years, cellular phones have pretty much taken over American pop culture. There are about as common now as laptops and DVD players. I know people who use their cell phones as their regular phones. Land lines are a thing of the past.
In 20 years, cell phones went for being play toys for the yuppies to being a common accessory. There are hundreds of millions of cell phones in use. Last month, I was in a bookstore at a mall when I observed a young boy, no older than six, talking on a cell phone. Quite possibly, cell phones have become this decades thing to hate. The one thing people despise but otherwise can't do without. Ten years ago, when you went to town to run some errands, you went. Now, you can't go without taking your cell phone.
They're everywhere and just about everyone has one. Well, King claims he doesn't own one. He might be serious. After reading his latest novel, you might think differently about talking on your cell while waiting in line at The Gap. Then, again, you might not.
The novel starts off in Boston with a thirtysomething artist, Clayton Riddell, who is in town trying to sell his comic ideas. All of a sudden, everyone around him, who's on a cell phone, goes nuts, acts violent, and becomes mindless zombies, all thanks to the Pulse.
Clay teams up with a fellow Bostonian and heads north through New England to Maine to save his son from the Phone Crazies, as they are called. They hook with with people, some who live and some who die and contemplate how to fight the Phone Crazies, Along the way, he learns that the Phone Crazies and the Normies, those not affected by the Pulse, are heading toward TR-90, an unincorporated community in Maine where there is not much cell coverage.
King fans might remember TR-90 as the setting of Bag of Bones.
Cell isn't as scary as it is a comment on modern technology. Set sometime in the near future, the book has reference to Hurricane Katrina and the 9/11 attacks, but the year definitely doesn't feel like 2006. King, who is no friend of the GOP, makes stabs at George W. Bush and Donald Rumsfield. The book seems to be set after the Bush administration ends.
King has been publishing his stories for decades now. As he goes from middle-aged to senior citizenship, he seems to have gotten more cynical about pop culture the way Kurt Vonnegut Jr. and George Carlin have.
Cell is dedicated to George A. Romero and Richard Matheson and it is a rightful homage. While the idea of violent zombies is nothing new, this isn't a Living Dead book. Romero's movies were more commentaries on ideas at the time rather than straight horror. Matheson is a writer for The Twilight Zone series, most notably, the episode in which there was a gremlin on the plane wing. A good horror/suspense writer takes something that is considered harmless and makes us afraid like Jaws did with swimming.
A lot of King fans might not like the older writer. But I like his evolution. His early works were true horror. Then, his works in the 1980's seemed to refleck his struggle with celebrity status, such as The Dead Zone and Misery. In the 1990's, he focused his attention on spousal abuse, child abuse, child neglect, incest, racism, and the death penalty.
But ever since his near fatal accident in 1999, his works seem different. The Dark Tower series seemed to end with a bit of a whimmer. Flagg dies easily in the first part of the seventh book leading for a confrontation with The Crimson King (?) and there's a bizarro world in which Gary Hart is the President of the United States (???)
The ending of Cell doesn't really resolve matters as it leaves the reader's imagination open for what might happen afterwards.
After the publication of From a Buick 8, critics said that he had recycled the concept of Christine. Anyone who read both books knows that not the case. Cell seems to have similarities with The Stand in the end of the world plot. The Raggedy Man, the book's antagonist, seems similar to Flagg.
Anyway, King still knows how to write characters who seem like actual people. That is his specialty. Cell is only about 350 pages which is half the size from his other books and there are parts that seem to lag, even though he gets the ball rolling within the first 10 pages.
True King fans will like this book.
As well as anyone who hates cell phones.