“The Shining”, by Stephen King, is not what you think
What can I say that hasn’t already been said about this novel?
Well, first of all, that it’s not what you think. You see, dear reader, you, just like me and many others, perhaps, were influenced by the movie The Shining directed by Stanley Kubrick, and think that this is some horror story with so many jumpscares that you won’t be able to sleep at night. Well, I’m sorry to tell you, you need to think again.
In many ways, the novel by King is much more similar to a family drama than anything else. Sure, it does have elements of horror, like Danny’s ability to communicate, telepathically, with his 71-year-old friend and cook Bill, that appears to be life-saving in the end, but what the novel is really — and there should be so surprise here — is alcoholism and how it affects families.
Real Stephen King fans would know that King was an alcoholic and struggled with depression and drugs for many years, especially during the first years of his career, till his family and his wife, Tabitha King — also a writer — staged an intervention. During the process of writing the novel, King was also raising two young kids.
The most heart-breaking moment in the novel comes towards the very end, when Danny and Wendy have to confront Jack and realise that the man who was trying to kill them is not really him: it is his body, but the real man that once was, was long gone, and that it had been gone to alcoholism.
It is a true and faithful account of what alcoholism can do to a family and what it does to individuals: Jack, in a moment of the book, says that he feels like a failure, even as a alcoholic he is a failure because he can’t seem to get away for wanting to drink.
The novel depicts with vivid detail the process of Jack falling deep into alcoholism and how he changes and so does his family with him. It is both hard-breaking and fascinating the way King manages to put it all on paper.
It is 100% recommended, but, before you read it, please, keep in mind that it is not at all like the Kudrick movie: that film might as well be inspired by different events.
