Stephen King Book Reviews:

BLACK HOUSE

BAG OF BONES

BLOOD AND SMOKE

COLORADO KID

CYCLE OF THE WEREWOLF

CARRIE

CUJO

CELL

CHRISTINE

DANSE MACABRE

DARK HALF

DEAD ZONE

DESPERATION

DIFFERENT SEASONS

DOLORES CLAIBORNE

DREAMCATCHER

DRAWING OF THE THREE

EYES OF THE DRAGON

EVERYTHINGS EVENTUAL

FIRESTARTER

FROM A BUICK 8

FOUR PAST MIDNIGHT

GERALDS GAME

INSOMNIA

HEARTS IN ATLANTIS

IT

MISERY

Stephen King Book Reviews:

NEEDFUL THINGS

NIGHTMARES AND DREAMSCAPES

ON WRITING

PET CEMETERY

RAGE

REGULATORS

RIDING THE BULLET

ROADWORK

ROSE MADDER

SALEM'S LOT

SKELETON CREW

SONG OF SUSANNAH

STORM OF THE CENTURY

THE DARK TOWER

THE GREEN MILE

THE GUNSLINGER

THE LONG WALK

THE PLANT

THE RUNNING MAN

THE SHINING

THE TALISMAN

THE TOMMYKNOCKERS

THE WASTE LANDS

THINNER

TOM GORDON

WIZARD AND GLASS

WOLVES OF THE CALLA

 Roadwork is yet another novel penned by Stephen King under the pseudonym of Richard Bachman. There is something more dark and sinister within the Bachman books than with King’s more popular works. Whether this is a trick of the mind convincing the reader that there is another personality penning the works of Bachman within Stephen King’s mind or actually the work of the author is unclear.

Roadwork is the story of a man dead-set on stopping progress. As progress plows through his home and place of employment in the form of a new highway system, Bart Dawes snaps. Purchasing a gun at a local shop, he finds company with the voices in his head – namely that of his deceased son Charlie who died years earlier as the result of a brain tumor, which had burrowed so deeply within Charlie’s brain that surgeons were unable to touch it. It is from this event that Bart’s mind slowly descends into madness as he awaits another event to push him into full blown desperation, which is, of course, the roadwork that will demolish his physical history.

While many of King’s works written under his name deal with the issues of isolation and loneliness, the Bachman books seem to focus more on desperation. Oddly enough, King’s novel titled Desperation was a companion to another Bachman novel, The Regulators.

Like Ray Garraty in The Long Walk and Charlie Decker in Rage, Bart Dawes is driven by both desperation and madness as he attempts to fight the progress of the roadwork that will soon plow through the physical representations of his memories. For though he has been compensated for his home, he cannot bear to watch the home in which he raised his deceased son be replaced with asphalt and speeding vehicles. In essence, to see such a thing happen will be like losing Charlie all over again.

Like Rage, The Running Man, and The Long Walk – all books penned under the name of Richard Bachman – there are no supernatural elements here. Only the madness within the mind of one man. There can be no happy ending to this novel and most readers will realize that from page one. Roadwork is a worthy novel to be included among King’s best.