After a 4+ year coma, Johnny Smith awakens & finds he gets visions - when he touches someone/something, he often gets glimpses of their past/future. The rest of the book is about what he does (or doesn't do) as a response to his visions, how the people around him treat him. Some see him as being superpowered, while others act as if he's cursed. Johnny himself wants to be left alone, but sometimes he is pulled into situations as a result of this ability. I appreciated Johnny as a character, seeing him struggle with recovery & his visions. His post-coma relationship with Sarah was strange, though. King did a good job of building up tension, especially towards the end. Quite an easy read, & I certainly enjoyed it ( )

#366 in our old book database. Rated "Good." ( )

Stephen King's sixth book. Copyright 1979. Didn't seem to flow well. First part had a nice scene with a carnival game and magical ability to predict outcome. The following car crash resulting in a four plus year coma worked for me. However, the character who was the Castle Rock killer and the other character who was an evil politician confused me. I thought they were one person when first introduced. Also was disappointed there were two psychic events involving same type of disaster: A fire. The end of the book's format being different than the other parts added to the strange flow of the book that wasn't working as well as it could. Nonetheless I enjoyed the book as I have enjoyed many by this author.
9,776 members; 3.8 average rating; 12/15/2023 ( )

Random thoughts about this book:
• It’s very dated, but in a way that’s amusing and a little thought-provoking. The inner thoughts of a man on hold, at a time when the telephone “hold” function was new and before the now-ubiquitous hold music or recorded messages, when being put on hold was like a little death: “The line was darkly, smoothly, blank. You were nowhere. Why didn’t they just say, ‘Will you hold on while I bury you alive for a little while?’”
• As per King’s usual, the romantic relationship with the main character is awkward and unconvincing, as was their weird little sexual interlude.
• But his portrayal of religious fanaticism *is* convincing, especially in this book, where he treats it with some sympathy rather than just as a motivation for evil deeds and rude behavior. He is savage with those who exploit the believers’ needs for relief of pain and grief, all for a price, of course.
• Oh, and Greg Stillson. Chilling description of a power-hungry sociopath who wears the mask of respectability and presents himself as a hard-hatted, patriotically flag-draped champion of the working class, promising jobs and security, while employing thugs as “security” and “campaign managers” to pave the way forward through nefarious means. King seems to have been prescient. For who would have seriously thought that a populist buffoon like that could actually rise to national power in a democratic America?

Overall, it’s not the great book that I remember reading as a young teen, but it’s entertaining and it still has some very relevant things to say about the danger of allowing our pain and fear and need cloud our judgement so much that we make ourselves vulnerable to those who would use us to enrich or empower themselves.

Audiobook, via Audible. James Franco’s performance grew on me a little, but not all talented actors make great audiobook narrators. Few characters had a distinct voice, and his New England Yankee characters had oddly Southern accents. ( )

Johnny Smith is out with his girlfriend at a fairground, and after dropping her off, gets knocked over by a car. [return][return]He spends 7 years in a coma, and after coming around, so many things have changed. His girlfriend has married someone else and had a child. His body isnt performing like it used to, as his muscles have atrophied. His mother has gone all religious in her old age. And his latent psychic ability has come to the fore, which means he can "see" things by touching items. Most of these are useful - he finds a lost child for instance and identifies someone who has been kidnapping children.[return][return]However, he is put in a dilemma - how far would you go when you realise that one of the presidential candidates will get voted in and then "press the button", starting nuclear war. Knowing that he is dying, John makes a decision that he feels only he can make to stop things happening ( )