A few years ago, Stephen King said he was done writing. That was after the conclusion of the Gunslinger series, which is one of the best reads I’ve encountered. Fortunately, his muse didn’t die so easily. Since then he’s written several books, most recently Under The Dome, a story he first started working on in 1975, according to his afterword, but backed away from because he was intimidated by it. Fortunately, he dusted off the manuscript in 2007, hired an excellent researcher, and went back to work. The result is a hefty volume 1088 pages long that I read in less time than many 150 page novels.
What happens when you take a small town in Maine and surround it by an invisible barrier that prevents anything from passing except tiny amounts of air and water? That’s where King starts. The fictional town of Chester Mills, Maine becomes a pressure cooker in which ordinary small town people are reduced to their essential natures. Some rise to the challenge to become heroes, and others, who would have been nothing more than petty scoundrels are forged into monsters. King shows how the sins of the past can define an individual for the better or the worst.
I really enjoyed this novel. I think it ranks up there with The Stand and the Gunslinger Series as one of King’s best works.
