Mention Books Concering Joyland
| Original Title: | Joyland |
| ISBN: | 1781162646 (ISBN13: 9781781162644) |
| Edition Language: | English |
| Characters: | Annie Ross, Devin Jones, Michael "Mike" Ross, Wendy Keegan, Fred Dean, Bradley Easterbrook, Lane Hardy, Rosalind "Rozzie" Gold, Emmalina Shoplaw, Linda Gray, Erin Cook, Timothy Jones, Tina Ackerley, Tom Kennedy, Gary "Pop" Allen, Brenda Rafferty, Eddie Parks |
| Setting: | Heaven’s Beach, North Carolina,1973(United States) North Carolina(United States) |
| Literary Awards: | Anthony Award Nominee for Best Paperback Original (2014), Edgar Award Nominee for Best Paperback Original (2014), Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Mystery & Thriller (2013) |
Stephen King
Paperback | Pages: 283 pages Rating: 3.91 | 106684 Users | 11418 Reviews
Representaion To Books Joyland
You gotta agree - Stephen King can tell a story like few others can.
Maybe it's because he can see the world in the way most of us do not, and then grants us the privilege to experience it through his eyes for a few hundred pages - the world that can be unsettling and scary and fascinating and different in subtle little ways that change the way you view it - at least for a little while.
Add to it that Stephen King also can do nostalgia like no other (well, perhaps excluding Bradbury - and there are very Bradbury-esque notes in this book about
It's really the longing for youth from the distance of years, wistful and melancholic, seen through the sharp and yet distorted lenses of a few decades passed, with the hope and bittersweetness and gentle quiet regret that such look into the long-ago can bring; the glance into the time that seemed simpler and more innocent because you back then were simpler and more innocent and vulnerable yourself.
"When you're twenty-one, life is a roadmap. It's only when you get to be twenty-five or so that you begin to suspect you've been looking at the map upside down, and not until you're forty are you entirely sure. By the time you're sixty, take it from me, you're fucking lost."And add to it his knack for truly fantastic, amazing characterization, creating in the pages of his stories people that are alive, real, recognizable (for better or for worse); characters that inhabit the settings that with a few casual phrases turn hauntingly real, come alive from the paperback pages - and here, dear reader, we have Joyland.
"That fall was the most beautiful of my life. Even forty years later I can say that. And I was never so unhappy, I can say that, too."
Devin Jones is a poor college student with a newly broken heart and "such a really bad case of the twenty-ones", taking up a summer job at Joyland amusement park in North Carolina in the time when banning smoking at such venues was a strange new thing. He is young, charmingly naive, and unhappy - and a carny life could do him some good (granted, this life, unbeknownst to him, also comes with an old unsolved murder mystery and some ghosts, and a kid with supernatural ability, and a deranged mysterious serial killer).
It's a setup for a coming-of-age story, a few life-changing months that are impossible to forget - and such it is (but a *King* version - think 'The Body' rather than 'David Copperfield), but told by King in his trademark casual 'Uncle Stevie' voice full of effortless grasp of perfect storytelling it grows and comes to life.
And suddenly we can see and hear the hot summer days, and the creaking of the giant Ferris wheel operated by the friendly Lane Hardy, and the happy screams of children as Howie the Hound (played with unexpected happiness by a twenty-one-year-old unhappy and brooding kid in his spare time listening to The Doors and entertaining suicidal thoughts while nursing his first real heartbreak), and the shrieks coming from the Horror House - rumored to be haunted by a girl with a blue Alice band - manned by a surly Eddie Parks who always wears gloves, even in summer heat, and the happy barks of a dog and happy voice of a young boy watching the kite fly up into the sky, and a kiss from a lovely girl who is no more than a friend, and the groaning of the Spin in the storm, and the eyes of a maniac, and beach fire and beer and smores, and the excited buzz of the crowds in Joyland - an amusement park (or, really, more of an overgrown carnival that knows it has not that much longer left) that, after all, as its owner knows very well, sells fun.
And we see the humanity of his characters shine like you wouldn't believe.
"All I can say is what you already know: some days are treasure. Not many, but I think in almost every life there are a few. That was one of mine, and when I'm blue -- when life comes down on me and everything looks tawdry and cheap, the way Joyland Avenue did on a rainy day -- I go back to it, if only to remind myself that life isn't always a butcher's game. Sometimes the prizes are real. Sometimes they are precious."Joyland appears to have been presented as a crime story, a noir novel complete with a cover (a redheaded bombshell in a skimpy green dress, eyes wide and mouth open in an exaggerated shocked surprise) that is designed to help it seamlessly blend in with other occupants of a gas station cheap paperback rack.
But it's not a crime noir story, nossir, trust me. And it's not a 'typical' King novel in a way media and those only marginally familiar with King think of his works. But, on the other hand, it is a 'classic' King, really - the one who has penned Shawshank and The Body and The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon and 11/22/63 - the one who transcends his pidgeonholed role as the King of Horror, the one who knows that it's the depths of the human nature that make life both terrifying and wonderful, the one who takes the trip down the Memory Lane and brings us a story of people being shaped by seemingly small events that happen around them.
And this is the thing about this book - it's not about the horror (there's none; the scary things are the everyday things that happen to people - death, loss, loneliness) or the mystery (the murder story is pushed so far into the background it almost fades out of sight) or the supernatural (it's hiding in the background right next to murder mystery). It's simply a book about people. It's about getting into Devin Jones's head (metaphorically, of course) and taking a life experience alongside him through the eyes of his older self, seeing him change and grow a bit at a time, and missing a part of us we left behind when we had to grow up, too.
At under 300 pages, this book is a tiny offering compared to King's as of late habitual door-stoppers, and it could have easily been developed more, stretched out to greater lengths and depths exploring the paranormal bits that have largely taken the backseat, exploring more of Mike and Annie's stories, bringing the murder mystery closer to the forefront, exploring more of the noir-ish promise the purposefully tacky book cover promised. Yes, it could have done all of that in the "usual" King fashion, yes.
But you know what? I'm glad he left it at this compact size, choosing instead to simply focus on a story of a young unhappy man coming into his own over a few months in the shadow of an amusement park where they "sell fun", playing Howie the Happy Hound on suffocatingly hot summer days (fifteen-minute shifts only!), looking at the world from the top of the Spin, thinking about the ghost in the Horror House while nursing his broken heart the way only the young can, flying a kite once a while, and all throughout going through the little subtle changes that bring you into the rest of your life, into adulthood, away from Joyland, into a world with sharp edges and hard corners.
"When it comes to the past, *everyone* writes fiction."
*****
True, but few can do it as scarily well as King.
Fantastic.
Almost perfect.
And you don't even have to be a fan to appreciate it. Trust me.
Describe Out Of Books Joyland
| Title | : | Joyland |
| Author | : | Stephen King |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | Special Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 283 pages |
| Published | : | June 4th 2013 by Hard Case Crime |
| Categories | : | Horror. Mystery. Fiction. Thriller. Crime |
Rating Out Of Books Joyland
Ratings: 3.91 From 106684 Users | 11418 ReviewsCommentary Out Of Books Joyland
I've been reading Stephen King since I was a child and this book reminds me of his old stuff. It's really good.In early 2014 the wonderful podcast Pod of Horror (run by mastermind Mark Justice) announced its list of the top three novels of 2013. One of my books (I won't say which one now, because this bit is just preamble, and the review I'm writing isn't about my own novel) clocked in at #3. Number two on the list was Bentley Little's THE INFLUENCE, and though I hadn't (and still haven't, if I'm being honest) read Little's book, I'm familiar with Little's writing and was delighted to be included on the
In early 2014 the wonderful podcast Pod of Horror (run by mastermind Mark Justice) announced its list of the top three novels of 2013. One of my books (I won't say which one now, because this bit is just preamble, and the review I'm writing isn't about my own novel) clocked in at #3. Number two on the list was Bentley Little's THE INFLUENCE, and though I hadn't (and still haven't, if I'm being honest) read Little's book, I'm familiar with Little's writing and was delighted to be included on the
JoyLand is a slow burn of a book and that was alright by me. I love getting to know Kings characters and Devin Jones is no exception. Hes our young, intelligent narrator, burning with the passion and enthusiasm of youth; he is also healing a broken heart, his first, when he signs up to work at the carnival. This is a Hard Case Crime file so one would expect a murder or two and there is, except it happened years ago and remains unsolved. While never really taking center stage through most of the
Now I know how Neil DeGrasse Tyson felt while he watched the movie Gravity.I give Joyland three stars as far as story goes, and a one star when I take into consideration that Stephen got everything wrong about how amusement parks are run. He obviously did zero research. The most believable thing in this book is the ghost part, but I know the vast majority of you out there did not spend twenty odd years hopping around the United States working in amusement parks like I did, and therefore would
Watch Stephen King Talking about This book on Today show now @ http://more2read.com/review/joyland-by-stephen-king/ 'Work close to heaven!' That was the advertisement that Mr Devin Jones one Summer reacted to, and this stand up guy at the age of twenty one was soon to become Howie the Happy Hound suited up in Hound attire doing the Hokey Pokey dance with kids at Joyland, a fun amusement park, a place where fun was lived out in its highs of rides and pitch darkness of the Horror House.There is
The American author Stephen King is one of today's most popular writers of horror and supernatural novels and stories, occasionally branching out into other genres such as science fiction, fantasy, or factual books. With Joyland, published in 2013, he has once again tried his hand at a crime novel. As with his first novel of this type, it was published by "Hard Case Crime" who specialise in crime fiction by both established and new authors who write hardboiled crime novels. Some of their books
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