Minireview: The Dark Tower book 2: The Drawing of the Three, by Stephen King
Ok, onwards to The Drawing of the Three, the second book in the Dark Tower series. It’s an interesting and pretty good book, and one with a transitory role; it needs to transform the “pulp western” stylistic imagery of The Gunslinger into a more coherent, longterm story. I’d say it succeeds pretty well, and also goes into some quite unexpected directions.
The book begins almost directly where the first book left us, on a nameless shore after Roland’s encounter with the Man in Black. Attacked and badly wounded by lobster-like monsters, Roland stumbles along until he finds… a door, stading by itself on the sand. Beyond that door lies one of the “three”, one of his future companions and gunslingers-to-be. The fact that the door leads into our present (more or less), and into the mind of a heroin junkie, is just one of the curve balls the story throws at us. I found the juxtaposition of the mythical seashore, the door, and the addled heroin mule on an airplane to be pretty delicious, and it kick-started the action nicely.
After that we’re introduced to the second and third of “the three”, in the form of a schizophrenic young wheelchair-bound black woman from the 1960’s. How her conflicting personalities cope with things forms the bulk of the second half of the book, with the third door containing more of an epilogue than one more beginning.
In the end, we’re left with three people, still on the same endless shore, but with all of them both somewhat wiser and more scarred. It’s a good place for the beginning of the rest of the story, wherever it may lead.
I liked the book. King is good at describing flashes of images and feelings in the middle of a crisis, and in using those to build characters. Here, while Roland still remains a man of mystery, both Eddie and Susannah stand on their own. I also liked the continuing (purposeful) anachronisms in the story, they bring an interesting flavor to the mix. Looking forward to reading the next book.
Mon, 05 May 2008 10:05 Posted in Books
Tags dark tower, stephen king
