Article by Jacob Malewitz
Author, The Writer Who Smiles, Now Available from Booklocker
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Writer A Writer’s Eye, A Reader’s Eye, A Comic Eye, Chasing Heaven, Story And Script
Stephen King has been fairly popular on A Reader’s Eye in the past months, as I reviewed his novel “IT” and I wrote a piece “Hero and Writer: Stephen King and the Horror.” I will speak of him again. Never read Carrie or Firestarter. But I read “The Shining,” “The Gunslinger,” “IT,” “Bag of Bones,” “On Writing,” and a good number of his short stories. Some say “The Stand” is his best work, but I would find it hard to beat “The Shining,” a perfect combination of madness, alcoholism, and horror. Yes, Stephen King is a writer hero. Sure he gets the big checks. But he deserves them!
The Poor Man’s Stephen King. What a horrible name … but it aptly sums up the works of horror legend but relatively forgotten author Robert R. Mccammon. I read “Swan Song,” “Stinger,” some of “Boy’s Life,” and a few non-fiction articles. It is safe to say “Swan Song” is his best horror work. Since he was tagged as a horror writer, Robert R. Mccammon had trouble publishing later, non-horror books like “Sings The Nightbird.” As a writer of anything, he has plenty of talent. “Swan Song” is my favorite of Mccammon’s, and I think it could give “The Stand” or “The Shining” a run for the money. His name just never reached Stephen King or Anne Rice status.
Speaking of Annie Rice, where are all the female writers? I am more of a genre enthusiast. Powerful female novelists … there are plenty. I have yet to finish one of her books, but J.V. Joyce is one of the masters of the modern fantasy epic. Anne Rice moved away from horror—much to my chagrin—and wrote “Christ Out of Egypt,” which I tried to read, and I should have underlined tried. A powerful novelist named Mary Shelley wrote the best horror novel ever in her 20s, something called “Frankenstein.”
But, now that I think of it, the most powerful female novelist, and one who can give any male writer a run for their money, is …
Virginia Woolf. Who? Yes, you might have picked her up in some lost issue of “The New Yorker” or while scribbling in a crossword. But Virginia Woolf is the best literary novelist I have ever read. Simple as that. “To The Lighthouse” taught me more about language than any other book. There isn’t much tangible story—just tangible words which seem to move on the page. Move and dance.
Of all of them, who would I pick? Sure, I can tell you, soon, sooner … getting close … moving away, running to the next article …
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