Shelf Life #6: Salem’s Lot

Where were you when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin set foot on the moon? When John F. Kennedy was assassinated? When the first plane hit the World Trade Center? We have a knack for recalling our circumstances during world-shaking events. For me, I remember what I was reading.
Perhaps it is simply a weird trick of memory, but I can look at just about any book on the list of books I’ve read since 1996 and recall in great detail where I was when I read the book. I can’t explain how I do this, but because of this trick, I know that I was on a plane to Los Angeles from Lihue, Hawaii, when I cracked open Stephen King’s Salem’s Lot and started to read it on September 8, 2001. I was still reading the book three days later when terrorists struck, and the towers came down.
In a rare burst of snobbery, I’d resisted reading a Stephen King book, telling myself, completely irrationally, that someone so popular couldn’t be very good. It took three of his books to completely change my mind.
In that first reading of Salem’s Lot, I was impressed by the depth and realism of the town and its inhabitants, despite the supernatural element. King populated his town with interesting people and put them in an interesting situation and then sat back to see what happened. Later, I’d learn this was what made his stories so compelling (for me, anyway). What bothered me on that first read was that the ending didn’t quite seem to pay for all the work that came before it. This is probably a familiar criticism to King fans, but I think it is one of perspective.
That first reading started out as a break for denser reading I’d been doing. Before Salem’s Lot, I was sitting poolside at a resort in Princeville, Hawaii, reading The Fed: The Inside Story of How the World’s Most Powerful Financial Institution Drives the Markets by Martin Mayer. And before that, I’d tackled Eisenhower: Soldier and President by Stephen Ambrose. Just because I am on vacation doesn’t mean my reading goes on vacation. But I was ready for a break, and something lighter and more entertaining, and I decided to give Stephen King a try. With 9/11, the book became an escape for me. I’d say I enjoyed three-quarters of the book, but my joy was dampened by world events.
It was almost three years before I read another Stephen King book. In the fall of 2004, I read Needful Things. Once again, I was astonished by King’s ability to create town and populate it was all kinds of interesting people—interesting enough to keep me reading for almost 800 pages! And once again, I thought the “explosive” ending didn’t live up to the build-up.
There is a certain combination of craftsmanship and hard work that I deeply admire. Genius is something genetic. Genius, when properly applied, can result in outstanding insights in science, and amazing works of literature, and stunning works of art. In my experience, however, it is possible for those of us who are not geniuses1 to achieve similar results through greater effort, an effort involving a dedication to craftsmanship and hard work. In 2009, when I first read Stephen King’s On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft, I saw that illustrated clearly.
Set aside whether you think Stephen King is a genius as a storyteller; his dedication to craft and the hard work he puts into it—detailed in his writing memoir–achieve same results. The book also made me realize that King takes his work seriously. He is not churning out books to pay the bills. After the paperback rights to his first novel Carrie were sold, money was no longer a factor. Each book is unique and tries to do something unique. Then, too, a careful reading can uncover an entire meta-work, that touches on nearly everything King has written.
I came away from that first reading of On Writing with a desire to try reading King again, this time starting from the beginning. I went on to read, in rapid succession, Carrie, The Shining and It. That last, It, took King’s work to a whole new level for me. It quickly jumped to the top of my favorite novels of all time. I continued on with Night Shift, Under the Dome, and Different Seasons, the latter of which shows King’s versatility outside the horror genre, to say nothing of his ability to write short fiction on par with his novels.
By the next time I read Salem’s Lot, in 2013 some dozen years after my first time, my entire perspective had changed. I read it more carefully and enjoyed it more thoroughly than ever before. When I finished, I realized that what bothered me about the end of the book was not so much that it didn’t live up to the buildup, but that there seemed to be so much more to the story. Later that same year, I discovered, to my surprise, that I was right. There was more to the story, and I found more when reading King’s Dark Tower series.
In the fifth book of the series, Wolves of the Calla, Father Callahan, formerly of Salem’s Lot, had slipped into Mid-World and had been living among a small community of people. In that book, Roland and his ka-tet, and this reader, learned the rest of the story of Salem’s Lot from Callahan himself.
I’ve read Salem’s Lot four times now, each time enjoying more than the time before. It changed the way I look at reading. It provided me with a humbling moment and reminded me not to judge a book (or an author) by its metaphorical cover. Just because a writer is popular does not necessarily diminish their work because it appeals to the masses. Indeed, a popular writer may be successful because, like a popular baseball player, they have worked for years (decades sometimes) to master their craft and delivery something superb each time they come to the plate—or at the keyboard. My experience with Salem’s Lot taught me to approach any book with an open mind.
My first read of Salem’s Lot was the 209th book I’d read since I started keeping my list in 1996. Since that book, I’ve read 1,221 additional books, each one of them selected with an open mind. I owe a debt of gratitude to both Stephen King and Salem’s Lot. I shudder at the thought of how different (or diminished) my reading list might look had it not been for this lesson.
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