Books: Elevation By Stephen King (2018)

“Although Scott Carey doesn’t look any different, he’s been steadily losing weight. There are a couple of other odd things, too. He weighs the same in his clothes and out of them, no matter how heavy they are. Scott doesn’t want to be poked and prodded. He mostly just wants someone else to know, and he trusts Doctor Bob Ellis. In the small town of Castle Rock, Scott is engaged in a low grade—but escalating—battle with the lesbians next door whose dog regularly drops his business on Scott’s lawn. One of the women is friendly; the other, cold as ice. Both are trying to launch a new restaurant, but the people of Castle Rock want no part of a gay married couple, and the place is in trouble. When Scott finally understands the prejudices they face–including his own—he tries to help. Unlikely alliances, the annual foot race, and the mystery of Scott’s affliction bring out the best in people who have indulged the worst in themselves and others.”

There is a lot of irony of setting this uplifting short novel in Castle Rock, a town King has used as the setting for many iconic tales of terror (and revisited for the first time in many years, with a 2017's short novel he penned with Richard Chizmar, Gwendy’s Button Box). This town, much like neighboring Derry, has suffered many horrors, with many folks who live there existing in a world of indifference to its horribleness –hence the dislike for Deirdre and Missy (though that may just be more homophobia than evilness) and their restaurant get, the vegetarian Holy Frijole.

So yes, the only evil that exists in Elevation is the closed-mindedness of its people to a lesbian couple trying to live the American dream. Scott Carey, like a lot of men, is not one to go to doctors to find out what is happening to him, but he does realizes his own thoughtlessness of Missy and Deirdre and decides –like accepting his fate- he will do something about it.

It’s always surprising (though it shouldn’t be) what King can do. Even as one of his “constant readers”, he can still astound me with his prose and originality of his stories. And while he still has a huge fan base of readers, there are still many who just see him as a popular horror novelist. I think after four decades of publishing novels, some would see he is more than the sum of a certain genre.

Elevation is a entertaining read, fun and moving.