heartbreaking – Tony's Horror Corner

“Elevation,” weighing in at only 146 pages, tackles themes of the more real-life horrors in today’s society. This novella is vastly different from King’s other works and if you go into it expecting his usual stuff, you will be disappointed. Go in with an open mind, however, and you will probably end up enjoying this one.

A short and truly beautiful little tale that leaves your heart feeling full and a smile on your face. “Elevation” is a touching story of acceptance and King shows how much it means to be selfless… especially in the divisive world we live in today.

“Not a wind, not even a high exactly, but an elevation. A sense you had gone beyond yourself and could go further still.”

I did enjoy this novel, my rating at the end may not reflect that, but in general terms it was a good story, it just had a few moments that left me shaking my head and other moments where I know King could have done things differently.

“Elevation” makes you think of his Richard Bachman story, “Thinner,” and it feels like it belongs in “Different Seasons.” For a short, somewhat spoilery synopsis, keep reading. If you just want to get to my rating, scroll to the bottom! Without further ado, lets get elevated.

King starts us off with the main character, Scott Carey, visiting a friend and former doctor, Bob Ellis, about his sudden weight loss. Scott is losing weight, but you can’t see it in his appearance. He is a man in his 40’s who looks like he should weigh 240 lbs., but he when he steps on the scale, it reads much less than that.

Scale malfunction, right? Wrong. No matter what Scott is wearing or holding, no matter what scale he uses, it reads the same numbers, and these numbers are decreasing by the day. With no answer to his mysterious affliction, Scott decides to accept his new weight-loss program and live his life anyway.

Next door, Scott’s new neighbors are a married lesbian couple with two dogs who regular leave presents in his yard. Scott confronts his new neighbors about this and one of the women takes this as Scott being intolerant of their relationship like the rest of Castle Rock.

The women, Diedre McComb and Missy Donaldson, have opened a new restaurant in town, Holy Frijole, and, due to their marriage, it isn’t doing well. Castle Rock is a very conservative town and Scott, seeing his neighbors are being stigmatized, tries to help.

Scott attempts to befriend his new neighbors and even stands up for them at another local restaurant. Diedre continues to give him the cold shoulder, but Missy befriends Scott and apologizes for her wife’s demeanor.

“Scott hung up, thought about what giving things away meant – especially things that were also valued friends – and closed his eyes.”

Castle Rock hosts an annual Turkey Trot, 12k around Thanksgiving. Scott enters the race and makes a wager with Diedre. If he wins, her and her wife must come to his house for dinner. Diedre was an Olympic runner before an injury, but she still is excellent at the sport.

Scott’s weight loss has continued to progress, but the muscles he gained from being a man weighing 240 are still there; carrying a body that now weighs barely over 100 lbs. He feels very light on his feet. At the end he catches Diedre and she is so shocked, she falls. Scott could easily win the race at this point, but instead he helps Diedre up, and she wins.

A picture is taken of Scott helping Diedre to her feet and it is plastered in every local paper. Scott’s selfless act inspires the other residents of Castle Rock to join the rest of the 21^st century and accept the married women for who they are. After the race, business at Holy Frijole is booming.

“The only thing harder than saying goodbye to yourself, a pound at a time, was saying goodbye to your friends.”

Diedre, Missy, Dr. Bob and his wife join Scott for dinner. Here he tells all of them about his continuing weight loss and how he believes “Zero Day” is coming soon. “Zero Day” is the day Scott believes will weigh nothing.

The rest of the novel quickly goes through Scott’s life as a figurative leaf in a windy park. We see flashes of how Scott’s weightlessness affects his everyday activities. This section is very sad and a few moments had me close to tears. Scott’s character, admirable from the start, is even more so here at the end solely due to his ability to accept his affliction and still attempt to make the best of it.

The novel ends with Diedre, Missy, Bob and his wife literally letting Scott float into the sky where he lights off a load of fireworks. Talk about going out with a bang. The ending, as heartbreaking as it was, was a tad cheesy for my liking, but it was the best way to send this story off.

Overall, I enjoyed this little tale. I really liked Scott as a character, but to me he was the only one that was fully fleshed out. The social justice and political aspects bogged down the very intriguing and somewhat intense journey of Scott’s decreasing weight.

I feel like King could have gone way further into the affects of Scott becoming weightless, but I understand why King wrote a novel like this and released it now. It is something everyone should read and take to heart. America needs to look at someone like Scott and take extensive notes.

ANYWAY, in the end, I am giving this novel a three because it just wasn’t quite enough for a four. It was very close though, mainly because of the message and the uplifting nature. I do recommend everyone check out “Elevation.”

3 out of 5

“The Drawing of the Three” was released in 1987 and starts with Roland Deschain, the last Gunslinger, waking up on a beach to the water from the sea soaking his guns and shells. Roland, concerned for his weapons, leaps up but is attacked by giant lobster-like creatures that lop off the first two fingers on his dominant right hand.

King immediately cripples the story’s hero, starting the readers off knowing this will be a major test. “The Drawing of the Three” contains some of King’s best writing, hands down. His imagination and descriptions are truly incredible. This novel is incredibly fast paced compared to book one, and you’ll never want to put it down… Olivia and I finished it in three nights.

We get to meet two major characters in this one: Eddie Dean and Susannah. Susannah, we don’t get to until later, but we start off quickly with Eddie and if I’m being completely honest, he’s my favorite King character and one of the best he’s ever written.

This novel offers us a look into how vast King’s universe can be, but we only scratch the surface. “The Drawing of the Three” is easily a top 10/15 King novel overall for me, and its either #1 or #2 within “The Dark Tower” series.

Brief synopsis below that may contain spoilers, so tread lightly.

After losing his fingers, Roland shambles down the beach, realizing the lobstrosities have poisoned him. Roland is in desperation mode when he comes across a door in the middle of the beach. The door reads “The Prisoner.” Roland opens it and realizes he is looking through someone else’s eyes. Eddie Dean’s eyes.

Roland steps through the door, and into Eddie. King’s imagination is on full display here and it’s truly incredible. The scenes where Roland and Eddie co-exist in Eddies body, Roland taking food from Eddies world back to his own, Roland hiding the drugs Eddie was smuggling into the US in his world, so Eddie would make it through customs… amazing.

Eddie Dean is a heroin addict who, as I mentioned, was smuggling cocaine into the US for his heroin supplier, Balazar. Balazar is holding Eddie’s brother Henry hostage as collateral. Eddie, with Roland as his passenger arrive at Balazar’s place to exchange the drugs.

Eddie goes to the bathroom, followed by one of Balazar’s men, to retrieve the drugs from Roland’s world. While in the bathroom, Eddie pulls the goon into Roland’s world and together, Roland and Eddie feed him to the lobstrosities. Roland comes back through the door with Eddie, not inside him this time, but separately.

There’s a major shootout in Balazar’s where the last men standing are Roland and Eddie. After having Henry’s severed head thrown at him, Eddie is broken, and Roland convinces him to come back to his world to find the Tower.

“On the way to the Dark Tower anything is possible.” – Roland

“Okay, I didn’t have anything else planned tonight, anyway.” – Eddie

The two take some of Balazar’s antibiotics for Roland and trudge along the beach. Roland recovering from infection and Eddie withdrawing from his heroin addiction. Two peas in a pod. The two sufferers happen upon the next door marked: “Lady of Shadows.”

Roland opens the door again and is looking through the eyes of Detta Walker who is also Odetta Holmes. Odetta/Detta is a woman with a split personality. She is also a woman in a wheelchair because her legs are missing from the knee down.

Odetta/Detta’s drawing is much quicker and less messy than Eddie’s was, but once Roland gets her into his world, he and Eddie soon realize her personalities are unaware of each other, and vastly different. Odetta is kind, smart and inquisitive while Detta is much more animalistic: vicious, cunning and dangerous.

During the trio’s journey to the third door, Roland’s infection begins to reassert itself with a vengeance. Eddie and Odetta/Detta leave Roland, who is unable to walk, to find the door. Once there, Eddie leaves Odetta/Detta and takes her wheelchair to get Roland. Roland is the only one who can open the door marked: “The Pusher.”

Eddie gets Roland to the door, but Odetta/Detta is missing. Roland goes through the door and enters the vile Jack Mort. Eddie stays behind to look for Odetta… he has fallen in love with her but fears she has turned into Detta.

Meanwhile, Roland is inside Jack Mort’s head and stops the him from pushing Jake into traffic, the same Jake and same car that killed him and sent him to Roland’s world in “The Gunslinger.” Another glimpse at how big King’s universe surrounding the Tower can be.

Roland uses Jack’s body to get ammunition for his guns, and antibiotics for himself. This scene is fun and wild. Roland, not knowing New York culture makes Jack seem like an imbecile at times. Further examples of Kings genius. We discover Mort is the man that pushed Odetta in front of the train which caused her to lose her legs. In a final act of vengeance, Roland throws Jacks body in front of the same train and brings the drugs and bullets back to his world.

Back in his world, however, Detta has tied Eddie up and he is on the verge of death by lobstrosities when Roland reemerges. His return caused Detta and Odetta to finally see each other, causing the split personalities to converge into one woman: Susannah.

These three are the beginnings of a ka-tet: one from many; a group of people summoned by ka (destiny). Together they continue their journey to the Tower but not before Eddie rips our hearts out by thanking Roland in the most genuine way possible:

“You saved more than my life, you saved my fuckin’ soul.”

“The Drawing of the Three” is an absolutely incredible novel and leaves us totally broken but also empowered and ready for the next piece of the puzzle: “The Waste Lands.” I can’t say enough positive about this one though.