The Body (Stephen King)

The Body
Stephen King
Penguin Random House Audio Publishing
Fiction, Thriller
****+ (Good/Great)

DESCRIPTION: A successful author with a happy family and fulfilling life, Gordie Lachance reflects upon the experience that both defined his childhood and, in a way, ended it. The year was 1960, the place a small Maine town called Castle Rock, and a young teen Gordie was hanging out with his friends Chris and Teddy one summer day when Vern showed up and told them he knows where they can see a dead body. Everyone knew about the boy Ray Brower who disappeared several days ago while out picking berries; surely this was the same kid. Vern claimed the body was in the woods off the railroad tracks, and they could probably get there in a day and a half following the rails. Partly from summer boredom, partly from a macabre childish fascination with death, the foursome decided to make the journey... not knowing how it would change them, and their relationship, for the rest of their lives.

REVIEW: This novella formed the basis of the classic 1986 movie "Stand By Me", which changed some details but kept the heart of the tale, a coming-of-age journey where the true natures of the four friends are laid bare and their childhood innocence is forever lost, in tact. As in other King works, the characters become real people, flawed and complex and often living under dark clouds that they may never escape. Also as in other King works, childhood is remembered not as a golden, happy time of love and safety and whimsy (as some adults like to remember it), but as a violent struggle that leaves scars, sometimes literal, that one rarely outgrows. The half-feral childhood in a 1960's small town, long before kids were boxed in by schedules and leashed by cell phones, comes through clearly, even as the adult Gordie can pause to reflect on events and memories, even interspersing excerpts from his own stories. King paints a vivid, if sometimes brutal, picture of the friends, the town, and the transformative journey whose implications Gordie wouldn't fully understand until later; even the grown and married Gordie is still processing everything that happened, everything that he learned, all the ways that one fateful decision to go look at a dead body set the stage for the lives that would unfold after. Even as the journey transforms from impulsive adventure to something darker and more serious, there are moments of profound meaning and beauty. Much like the movie, there's a lot to examine and process in this work, more to it than initially meets the eye (or ear, as this is yet another audiobook I checked out from Libby).

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