Specifications: comes out in 1970, and is one of the volumes are signed by "Richard Bachman" pseudonym used by the "King" for some time. Volume "minor" in length (does not meet the 290 pages), is one of the novels shorter than King. Edition recommended and cost: Sperling Paperback - 8.40 €. Economical and easy to read, compulsory purchase in duplicate.
Comment: hundred young volunteers to start a running non-stop between Boston and Canada, which is repeated every year under the eyes of a nation morbid, curious to find out who will win, for he can ask the current government as a prize to whatever you want.
Set in an unspecified future, this short novel tells the psychological drama of this death march in which he who hesitates is lost, in fact, anyone of the participants to stop, or slow down below a certain speed of travel, you will receive a warning. After three warnings, here is the elimination: the military convoy that accompanied the marchers on the competitor will fire, removing it forever from the "race."
Only one, therefore, can win after days of uninterrupted march, leaving behind him 99 companions, with whom, probably, have shared the time, feelings and history during the crazy walk.
A small masterpiece of King, in this case as the master of the nightmare never twisted psychological dramas (in this case of 100 boys, each with its own history).
An ongoing dialogue between groups of marchers, continuous and desperate, looking for a challenge to the death, the precarious life or just to discover something about themselves and the sense of a lifetime ... paradoxically during a mad march toward certain death.
One after another, such as leaves, as numbers fall deleted. Freddie King, it records the exit:
"... the number 42 took his leave a few minutes later. "
A slap to today's society, the spectacle, in which the audience cheering the suffering of others, for each deletion, a provocative stimulus to our values, our conscience, to the system and feelings. The reaction under pressure, the desire to live and die at the same time, we finally arrive prepared for the last kilometers of the final pages, I really have accelerated the heart and breathing stopped, fascinated. Where I was absorbed by a wave of emotion muffled, as told through the eyes of 2-3 guys who come straight to the final lifeless, with wings of a large crowd to scream death with a smile, where the asphalt flickers giving away (last) images blurry, before losing his last strength and ...
It says a lot of the big bestseller King of his greatest novels, long and complex, in which a narrative description and build a world almost live, but in these 280 pages that in my opinion is summed up the King : in the rational madness, in the cold and incontestable nightmare, to which one can only believe, and where you fall, dragged by a thin hypnosis.
Frightening in its simplicity, brilliant, absolutely.
Overall Rating: 9.5
