Christine by Stephen King (1983)
Maybe it's just me, but it seems like after a remarkable 5-book start (Carrie, 'Salem's Lot, The Shining, The Stand, The Dead Zone) Stephen King had some rough years where is mojo just was not working at full strength. Sure, Night Shift and Different Seasons were good collections with occasional flashes of brilliance, and Cujo was a very good book, but Firestarter did not fully fulfill its promise and the other novels released (Roadwork and The Running Man, both under the Richard Bachman pseudonym) and the other projects (Danse Macabre and Creepshow) ranged from sub-standard to vanity projects. Unfortunately, Christine falls in that sub-standard category for me.
The story revolves around high school nerd, Arnie Cunningham, and his love/lust for a 1958 Plymouth Fury named Christine. The car is apparently possessed or haunted and has supernatural powers to heal itself of any and all damage. Arnie uses his car to try to gain popularity and get a girlfriend, but ends up going crazy in the end.
It is an interesting premise for a novel, but it just does not gel on all levels. Arnie is being used and mentally torn apart, but it is difficult to feel much sympathy for him. Moments of empathy are evoked for his girlfriend, Leigh Cabot, but in the end it is hard to remember feeling too much for any of the characters. I think that is what is really missing here--the characters are underwritten in such a way that it is hard to care much about what happens to them in the end.
It ends up being a good read at times, but really only suitable for the King completist and not the casual reader who may turn to his works occasionally.
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