I'm pretty sure in the edited version there was no Trashcan Man or any of that, yeah.
NO Trashcan Man?? I thought the uncut version just expanded his role. Man, how can you have that book without Trashcan Man? Isn't he kind of pivotal?? MY LIFE FOR YOOOOOU.
I LOVE The Stand. I read it in high school and I remember it taking forever. There were also so many characters I had to make lists to keep them all straight! But I remember enjoying it a ton. I always mean to read more Stephen King; I've liked everything of his that I have read.
I can't remember! I know something from that section of the book was cut, because a friend read the edited version and S. and I kept saying "happy crappy" and he had no idea what we were talking about.
It's been a long time since I've read my uncut edition, though.
Salem's Lot
made me terrified of my bedroom closet, for some reason. Possibly I was flashing on the kid waiting for dark and hearing the footsteps on the stairs.
I was reading a story about a Little League team in Maine in
The New Yorker
several years ago, and a couple of phrases struck me as familiar. I checked the byline and, yep, Stephen King, writing about the year his son's team made it to State. The bit about "Some obscure author from Bangor threw out the first pitch, then the game was on," was very nice.
I've only read the original edit of The Stand, and IIRC, there was a Trashcan Man.
Life is too short for me to find time to read an even longer version of a novel that gave me weeks of quasi-PTSD every time I heard anyone cough...
I consider King to be valedictorian of the first graduating class of the "Too Popular to Edit" school of novelists. Other alum include Anne Rice and JK Rowling. I look with disfavor on this development: nobody is above editing.
Full Moon, No Stars
I didn't realize that that was a collection. I thought it was a novel.
Nope, it's four stories, sj.
Consuela, the editing thing is why I can't read Dave Eggars or (my boyfriend's favorite) William T Vollman. I just can't sog through pages and pages of meandering. Editors exist for a reason, dammit.
Trashcan Man was definitely in the original Stand.
It's been a long time since I read either version, but the main thing that sticks out is that Harold had a larger role in the longer version, so he comes across as more tragic than in the original.
What am I misremembering? I have no time to go read and compare both now, darn it.
java, I think it's Full
Dark,
No Stars.