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Roadwork (1981)



Before reading: We made it 10 books in! Sorry I'm so slow! I am hoping to zip right through this one because it is our 3rd installment of the Bachman Books and I have it sitting by my bed nestled right in with The Long Walk and Rage. Now I know you're probably thinking that this is probably one I've read before because TLW and Rage are two of my favorite books and I've had the Bachman Books for many years on my bookshelf...yeah well you're wrong. As much as I hate to admit it, I have never read this one. In my defense...when I first read the other two I was in high school and both of those stories are about high schoolers. The other two stories are about middle aged men, so excuse me for not being interested. It is wild to me that I've literally had this one sitting on my bookshelf for many years and never even thought about reading it. I honestly don't even know what it is about...I'm guessing...roadwork? I'm excited to find out so let's do this thing!

After reading: Was that the worst book I've ever read? No. Did I like it? Also no. Let's go through my notes real quick before getting into it. First thing I noticed right off the bat was that the main character's son's name was Charlie. It is interesting that he would use the name Charlie for a child again back to back. I've mentioned before that King tends to use the same names even within books...still haven't figured out why he does this or if it is even for a reason but I'm quite curious. Before I started reading the book I read into it and saw that in 2019 they were going to adapt it into a movie. I have no idea if this is still happening because obviously Covid would have messed with production but I am honestly not sure how this would even get made into a movie. Besides it just kind of being a boring concept, a lot of the book is dialogue between "Fred" and "George" which are two voices inside of the main characters head. I'm not really sure how you could get that across on the screen but also it was never fleshed out exactly what or who Fred and George are? It kind of sort of is but I was still confused by it throughout. I'm not sure if it is my specific copy of this book because I have an old paperback version that was made in 1985 or if it is like this in every edition but holy moly typos. There were so many typos in this book from spelling errors to sentences that straight up just didn't make any sense. I definitely don't think this was well-edited before being released. The main character works in a laundry and there is a direct reference to the mangler which was a story from Night Shift. I didn't like The Mangler, either, so maybe that was a red flag. One note I took was that the character Olivia is dumb--she's dumb for hitchhiking, she's dumb for not being scared of our main character, and she's the most dumb for flirting with him. Also Barton (the main character) is dumb. Toward the end of the book his name is shown as being George Barton Dawes even though through the rest of the book it is Barton George Dawes...I am confused. If his name is actually George then the Fred and George thing makes a little bit more sense but I have no idea if his name is actually George or if this was an error? There were so many errors that made the book hard to follow. There is a part when a man (Drake) takes Bart home and they even watch TV together while Drake waits for a taxi. Then several pages later when a lawyer comes to the house it says that is the first time someone has been in the house since Olivia left. Huh? What happened to Drake being at the house literal pages ago? This book was a mess. 

I hope I didn't totally turn you off from the story because it isn't terrible. However, it was hundreds of pages about an angry white man complaining that led up to maybe 10 pages of climax that wasn't even all that climatic. It was also confusing and not well-edited. I did enjoy the epilogue, however. This was definitely my least favorite thing that I've read from King but not my least favorite thing that I've ever read. Maybe you would like it, you'll have to find that out for yourself. I'll be interested to see if they do end up making a movie from this and can only assume that they will make quite a few changes. Up next is Danse Macabre which...surprise! I've already been reading so hopefully that post should be up soon!

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