"Carrie" by Stephen King (1974)

Actually I had started to read collected short stories about Father Brown - another classic of crime & mystery genre (very popular literary character in pre-WW2 times) but got distracted with a thought that I actually don't really know Stephen King's early novels - so many of his works had been filmed that we all have feeling like we read all these books. In fact, come to think of it, what I actually read from him could probably be counted on fingers of one hand - "The Shining" of course (that was my first ever introduction to King), "The Stand" and few others. So I found few of his early books in chronological order, added them to my virtual library and last night decided "just to have a look" at "Carrie".

Now, Stephen King has a rare gift - he is literary the only author I have ever encountered who grabs the reader from the very first page and holds the firm grip of excitement until the end. With everybody else, you need to slowly built a interest after a few pages or even chapters, but Stephen King really knows how to keep you turning those pages. The memories of 1976. movie are so strong that of course plot did not have much surprises here, except that characters thoughts and feelings could never be expressed as well as in the actual process of reading. Carrie herself reminds me - and probably everybody else - on certain girls we all knew in school, poor outsiders who were never popular or fashionable, always ridiculed and poked. Here she is a everybody's favorite punching bag and cruel as it is, seems that nobody ever bothered to be nice to her, which is also reality unfortunately. What I don't remember from a movie is the fact that Carrie actually never wanted to create death and mayhem, her idea was to use her telekinetic powers in order to lock everybody in and have water pouring on them, just as blood poured on her - it was unfortunate accident that electricity and gas connected with water and killed so many people, that probably didn't occur to her at all. And of course, the character of mother religious fanatic was sheer terror - even if novel was actually quite clumsy and raw when compared to King's later far more polished and perfected style, this was pure, classic Stephen King character, talking to herself and sinking into madness.

This was the book that actually put Stephen King on a map - definitely not his best work but exciting nevertheless. I have no desire to see the movie again and that is why it was so interesting to read the story (finally) as imagined by its author. It kept me awake until 4 a.m so I guess I enjoyed it. Father Brown will just have to wait.