Update 48 - Comfort Book - Salem's Lot by Stephen King

Stephen King is one of my favorite writers. Some of his books I enjoyed more than others, but On Writing alone is filled with enough solid advice to make my top twenty, but there are plenty of other stories. Short stories I can’t remember the name of but remember scenes from vividly. Short stories and Novellas that stick with you for some reason years after you read them like Dolan’s Cadillac or (one of my favorites) The Man in the Black Suit.

King has themes and messages behind his stories, but with the exception of certain lines, he doesn’t hammer you over the head with them. Sometimes a story is just a story. I think that’s a line of his.

I have a handful of films, books, and albums I’ll consume when I’m feeling low or listless. Sunday was one of those times. I’m constantly weary of escapism. It can be too easy to slip into the world of certain fictions. People who rabidly consume certain flavors of media do so because it tastes good to them. Salem’s Lot is the second novel written by Stephen King, and it was the bit of escapism I sought this time around.

The elevator pitch for Salem’s Lot is essentially “Dracula in New England in the 1970’s”. Anyone who has a passing familiarity with Dracula will see the inspirations for many of the character’s in King’s own novel. The novel doesn’t feel like a retelling with a change of set dressing and costume, though.

While Dracula is probably the most famous epistolary novel I’m familiar with, Salem’s Lot takes a more grounded perspective. King’s greatest strength, I think, are his characters. They feel like people you think you’ve met, or imagine exist out in the world. Some of them even across as people you might actually meet. The perspective of the characters, their fears and motivations and losses, are what makes Salem’s Lot so compelling.

It’s not an entirely happy story. The easy, slightly ominous slide into the town of Jerusalem’s Lot eventually becomes a desperate clutching at the edge of hopelessness by the end. There is a range of emotion, a comfort in the locations around the town, a familiarity with the evil the heroes face. And the knowledge that the good guys are the good guys, in spite of their flaws.

I won’t spoil the story, but I will say it is one of the better modern vampire novels out there. I would highly recommend it.