CELL by Stephen King
A few years ago I was a Stephen King addict. I read everything he wrote and could not wait for the next book to be published. Then, for some unknown reason, I cooled on his writing. It has now been several years since I read anything by him at all. I was over Stephen King, finished, until I started reading his commentaries on the last page of "Entertainment Weekly." These essays on a variety of subjects re-introduced me to the wit and wisdom of the man. And that led me to read CELL, his latest novel.
CELL is a throwback to the days of THE STAND. It takes an apocalyptic event and shows the struggles that ensue. Clay Riddell is in Boston when this amazing event occurs. He has just gotten the job of his dreams as a cartoonist/illustrator and can't wait to let his estranged wife Sharon and their son Johnny know about his good fortune.
The sun is shining and the day is bright. It is three o'clock in the afternoon when the world turns upside down, figuratively that is. People instantly go crazy and begin killing each other. The ones who become so deranged seem to have one thing in common - they were talking on their cell phones and some "pulse" on the line drove them crazy.
Clay doesn't own a cell phone so he was not affected, but he knows his son Johnny owned one and that drives him into a panic. He has got to get from Boston to Maine in order to find Johnny and Sharon and make sure they are alright. Getting there may be a problem; staying alive may be a bigger one.
This is definitely King territory. He creates a world where the "day of the dead" is the order of the day. Those who have been infected by the pulse are walking zombies. They can not speak, and they do not go out after dark. This means that those not infected become people of the night. Clay and the people he has found who are not infected form a small coalition traveling north.
As Clay and company make their trek they observe the infected ones and discover they are mutating into something else, something akin to a swarm that communicates through telepathy. This mob thinks with a single mind and is gaining strength every day.
The great thing about King's writing is how intense the situations become. These are life and death times and King let's the death axe fall where it might. No character is safe and no relationship inviolate. This keeps the readers on their toes and anxious for the next chapter to unfold.
The frustrating element of this story is that it ends without filling in the pieces of the puzzle of what happened and why. Still it is such an intense read and such a scary one that King followers will lap it up. Even when the story ends with a complete question hanging in the air, it is okay. The readers can give it any ending they wish.
I don't know if I will continue to read King as faithfully as I once did, but reading CELL was a pleasure. The old man of horror still has it and makes it work totally in this gripping story.
CELL is published by Scribner. It contains 355 pages and sells for $26.95.