Kevin's Watch

1: The stories are paced well. Unlike some writers who go on to describe everything in extensive detail for too many chapters, SK gives just enough narrative to propel the story and then it's back to the adventure.


2: He enjoys writing himself into corners. I really love that about him. He will come up with the strangest, most creative stuff, knowing that the harder he makes it on himself the more he will enjoy figuring out how to get his main characters out of trouble. This is why he is so fascinating to us. He doesn't fear boundaries. This allows the stories to sort of write themselves, enabling him to become what is essentially the first reader. Not many people can freehand write like the King.

he writes about my home, New England in general and New Hampshire many times.

My two faves would be:

One: taking beautifully rendered and completely believeable three-dimensional characters and putting them in fantastic, extraordinary situations. I think he is unsurpassed in this ability.

Two: his uncanny sense of time and place. I'm just a little younger than him and I can attest that his portrayal of middle-class America in the sixties, seventies and eighties is so right on the money it's scary.

I like that deep down he is really a moralist. good usually triumphs.

But he's not afraid to let his characters die. And good doesn't inevitably triumph. Or triumph in the same way or by doing what is "right".

--A

if you add it up i think you would find good triumphing more than evil.