|
Carrie is Stephen King\'s first published novel, released in 1974 as a title from an unknown author. It was fairly well recieved and sold modestly. No one could have predicted that it was the beginning of what would become the biggest publishing phenomenon in history. But, as the novel\'s own opening proclaims, \"No one was really surprised when it happened, not really, not at the subconscious level where savage things grow.\" Savage things did grow. They were planted here. It is surprising how well this tale of a young girl with telekinetic powers holds up after twenty-one years. Perhaps it is because the novel is still intense, still vivid, and still an apt commentary on modern life. Even after years of slasher films, mass murderers, and nuclear threat, Carrie still has bite.
It is the classic Cinderella tale, with a twist. Carrietta White is the long-suffering teenage girl with all strikes against her. She is the idiot of all the jokes in her high school, tormented by her peers, and saddled with an overzealously religious mother, who is coming closer to the point of insanity. What nobody knows is that Carrie is also telekinetic, able to move things with the sheer force of her mind. What sets off the nearly dormant power in her is her first menstraul period, which happens in the girls\' shower room at the gym in school. Carrie, who doesn\'t understand what\'s happening to her, screams. The other girls laugh at her, throwing sanitary napkins and telling her to \"plug it up!\" One of these girls, Susan Snell, later feels sorry for what she has done, and tries to make up for it by asking her boyfriend, Tommy Ross, to take Carrie to the Prom. He agrees.
Another of the girls, Chris Hargensen, doesn\'t feel bad; in fact, she becomes to hate Carrie because she got in trouble for the napkin-throwing incident. And she devises a plan with her boyfriend Billy Nolan to take revenge on Carrie. What happens as a result of Hargensen\'s actions: The last third of the novel burns with total wreckage and loss. Carrie sets the stage for much of what Stephen King will experiment with in later novels, but it is also a remarkably solid novel in its own right. Well written and chillingly realistic even in the face of the supernatural.
|
