‘Take the next exit,’ Billy says.’
‘Reading Billy Summers, this summer,
If not a beezer, not at all a bummer !’
Yes, I was reading Stephen King after a long time, and I did not take the next exit. I journeyed from beginning to end, and pulled up only after the curtain falls! This is not my genre, but I am stretching my canvass these days. I had read King for the first time in The Stand and I was in love with his scenery drawing and description. I have a hard copy of that bulky book, I guess that one is the bulkiest on my shelf. After that, I read some parts of his other books, like Carrie and The Bazaar of Bad Dreams, but not completely, so after a long time I was experiencing him as a whole.
Billy Summers is a professional assassin, a sniper of the highest order. He is hired to kill an official.
He acquires a new identity, takes the guise of a photographer in a small town, and also writes (he also thinks about Emile Zola), he tries to create his ‘dumb self’ to confuse and baffle people, he prepares and while preparing he comes in contact with a single mother Alice and her son, and at a point, grapples in holding his emotions to chose between his dangerous living and normal life.
I saw that King has taken too much time in preparation for the sniper’s deal. I did not find any novelty in that part and also believe that it was not an extraordinary story, Story within a story can always make the comprehension of a reader tough. Yet King is a master at creating an entire world of his fancy and he usually does not allow the reader to come out of it, of his volition. He kept the reader engaged in that chaotic jumble, that erupted after Billy successfully executed what he was planning, through various twists and circumstances.
Apart from the suspense and thrill that is a badge’ the author carries, I think the story also deals with the absolution and moral complexities of its characters. Though the protagonist is a professional killer, I like the way his human touch was presented in the dialogues and actions. Concluding, I liked the book and I guess a King fan would not be disappointed with this story.
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