Roadwork

Roadwork by Stephen King as Richard Bachman

Signet Books - March 1981

274 pages

Barton George Dawes has a problem. Well, actually, he has a few problems. He lost his job. His wife left him. His son died of a brain tumor. Oh yeah, and they're going to build a highway through his house. That's also the reason he lost his job; caught in the path of the wrecking ball. Well, fine, he says. You can take my son, you can take my wife, and you can take my job. But you aren't going to take my house as long as I'm still standing here. So he goes right ahead and buys $900 worth of guns and some gasoline for Molotovs and decides that he's just going to destroy the superhighway. And along the way he becomes friends with a Mob boss and a hitchhiker.

I apologize for the poor description of the book, but that's pretty much how it was in my point of view. Yeah, they've taken everything but my house, so instead of look for a new house like a sensible person I'm going to blow up everything, get into a (spoiler alert!)stand-off with police(spoiler end), and if everything goes my way I'll have an empty house that I can't pay for. If nothing goes my way I'll end up in jail and they'll still destroy my house. A rock and a hard place. Except, he was the one that shaped the rock and molded the hard place. Sure, a brain tumor isn't your fault, but you could have saved your marriage, and the real reason he lost his job was because he refused to sign a paper to relocate it. Yup, the place was moving instead of closing. So I have a hard time encouraging someone who creates a bad situation. Stephen King originally said that this was horrible, but then later changed his mind and said it was the best of the Bachman Books. I agree with 1985-Steve.

Grade: D