Now to Await the Final Volume

Just finished Song of Susannah. Yeah, it was only just over 400 pages, but I’m still surprised at how quickly I raced through it. Especially since I didn’t set aside big chunks of time to read … a couple hours here and there, plus some breaks between getting school stuff done.

After so many years of anticipation, it’s impressive how King manages to keep this story fresh, exciting, and most importantly, extremely satisfying. Unlike Wheel of Time, which just seems to be dragging on and I keep waiting for *something* to happen to move things forward, the two recent volumes of The Dark Tower just *feel* right.

Before I can elaborate, I have to comment on the fact that King is a character in part of this book. I can’t decide if it’s genius or conceipt, but writing himself into the story is at first amusing, then disconcerting, but then totally acceptable and in the end seems like it shouldn’t be any other way. If you’ve read a majority of his stories, as I have, and particularly in the last few years, The Dark Tower is kind of like the unifying force of King’s works. Thirty years of stories all come together for this. And I get the impression that writing this story has become such a focal point of his life — probably more like an obsession since he was almost killed. It’s hard to separate the truth from fiction in the final chapter (it’s very Charlie Kaufman-esque; much of it is certainly true, some of it definitely isn’t … what about everything in between?), but King has a lot invested in the Dark Tower, and it’s always been held slightly apart from his other work.

So anyway, it’s mentioned how writing these stories comes so smoothly once he starts. Within the story, it’s almost like he’s channeling the details of Roland’s quest. I find that reading it has similar qualities. I don’t speculate much on where the story’s going, develop expectations, etc. Everything just unfolds naturally as I’m reading, because this is the tale of the Dark Tower, and it is what it is. Ka.

But damn … cliffhangers are brutal.