The last of the Richard Bachman novels, recently recovered and published for the first time. Stephen King’s “dark half” may have saved the best for last. A fellow named Richard Bachman wrote Blaze in 1973 on an Olivetti typewriter, then turned the machine over to Stephen King, who used it to write Carrie. Bachman died in 1985 (“cancer of the pseudonym”), but in late 2006 King found the original … 2006 King found the original typescript of Blaze among his papers at the University of Maine’s Fogler Library (“How did this get here? “), and decided that with a little revision it ought to be published.
Blaze is the story of Clayton Blaisdell, Jr. — of the crimes committed against him and the crimes he commits, including his last, the kidnapping of a baby heir worth millions. Blaze has been a slow thinker since childhood, when his father threw him down the stairs — and then threw him down again. After escaping an abusive institution for boys when he was a teenager, Blaze hooks up with George, a seasoned criminal who thinks he has all the answers. But then George is killed, and Blaze, though haunted by his partner, is on his own.
He becomes one of the most sympathetic criminals in all of literature. This is a crime story of surprising strength and sadness, with a suspenseful current sustained by the classic workings of fate and character — as taut and riveting as Stephen King’s The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon.
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Clayton Blaisdell Jr, known by his peers as Blaze, has had one hell of a childhood. One a smart and happy little boy, his life turned to shit when his drunken father threw him down the stairs not once, but multiple times resulting in a head injury that caused him to then be slow. He was taken from his father’s custody and put into a state run …
This novel written by Stephen King in 1973 reminds me of how much superior his writing used to be as compared to what he has been putting out in recent years. It lacks the complexity of some of his recent novels, and that’s probably a good thing. In this novel, Blaze is a mentally deficient person who has lived a rough life. His mental faculties …
I loved the main character and how much trouble he gets into.
Another King book where protagonist doesn’t fit in society. He tries but the odds are stacked against him
Great book. Blaze was just very sad for me. Poor guy never had a chance