Book #47

The Wastelands
by Stephen King

Looking for something good, I read the third book in the Dark Tower series, The Wastelands. There are parts of this one that I really love, particularly when they draw Jake into Mid-World, and the parts just before that when Jake is the POV character in New York -- I love the scene when he finds the rose in the vacant lot, for instance, and sees faces everywhere and hears a chorus of voices, but also sees that the rose has camouflaged itself. I also love the scene when Roland gets to play nobleman, when they find the old people at River's Crossing (I think that was the name of their town) and they treat him like royalty because they haven't seen a gunslihnger in decades. Plus, Oy is, you know, one of the best animal characters ever written.

The problem was that I remembered this one a little too well. I don't know if I've read it more than the others, or it just stuck in my head better for one reason or another, but I expected things a little too much. It was nice to revisit the parts I enjoyed, but the parts in between -- like when Eddie and Roland get into squabbles, which makes them both seem to me like assholes, which I don't like because I love both characters -- were a little tough to make myself read. So it took me a bit longer than the first two -- of course, it's also 200 pages longer than The Gunslinger and 100 pages longer than Drawing of the Three, so that might have been part of it as well. Heh.

Anyway, I did find some new things; I liked the description of Tick-Tock Man, and of the wasteland beyond Lud (I like the joke about the people being Luddites, too.) and I didn't remember either of those terribly well. I liked the scene when they get on Blaine and he tells them he's going to kill himself and all of them, and Eddie and Susannah are asking him, "Why? Why would you kill yourself? Why would you take us with you?" and every time, Jake keeps muttering, "Because he's a pain." I thought that was great. Also when Roland stands up to Blaine. And though I remembered Gasherman and how icky and horrifying he was, I forgot the lovely detail of pus running out from under his eyepatch. That was about the grossest thing I've seen in these books.

But the best part? This is where I first saw my all-time favorite line of poetry: "I will show you fear in a handful of dust." Greatest. Line. Ever.