Once upon a time, there was a prolific writer capable of creating a character for you in a few lines, making you love him in a few paragraphs to the point of bringing tears to your eyes when, after a few pages, he makes him an orphan.
Once upon a time, therefore, Stephen King, this “master of horror” that it is now simplistic to label as such. His new and voluminous novel, Fairy taleproves it… as if proof were necessary: even a “less strong” King is not devoid of qualities.
Gold Fairy tale is in the upper fringe of its production. Although, paradoxically, it may not please some of its readers.
The pace is slow (especially in the first 200 pages, moreover full of human fragility and humanity), the plot is linear. And it is a tale. A tale with a princess, a “prince”, a monster, a curse sweeping over the kingdom. A tale that plays with tales. The lover of the genre will enjoy these references at least as much as King had fun planting them like a certain Jack his magic bean. But the neophyte will not wander through these pages like Tom Thumb in the forest, after he has traded the white pebbles for bread crumbs. Selected comparisons.
Carrying all this, the old man and the child — a tandem exploited several times by the writer who masters it like no other. To this mismatched duo joins a dog. Radar. So old that she walks, slowly and limping, towards an approaching death. Unless…
It is this “unless…” that the child follows. A teenager, in fact. Charlie. Unlikely friend of Howard Bowditch, the disturbingly old neighbor who discovered an access to another world, here called… the Other World. Therein lies the way to rejuvenate Radar. Fairy tale, so it’s the story of a kid ready to do anything to save his dog. Merely. Quite simply. Charlie’s desire is not a desire for wealth or power. It is out of love that he enters a parallel universe populated by beautifully different creatures, bruised, effervescent or withered, where Good confronts Evil so fiercely that the consequences of the conflict could spill over into our own. Especially since the Good of some cannot be the Evil of others? Charlie will have choices to make. And Stephen King launches, as he knows how to do so intelligently, arrows at this country (which was) so great, his.
Punctuated with quintessentially “Kingsian” horrific scenes, powerfully bizarre characters, cruelty, literary references (from the Brothers Grimm to Lovecraft to King himself) and pop culture (psychology, The Exorcist, The Thingetc.), Fairy tale contrasts with the more recent (and realistic) productions of the writer (The institute, Billy Summers). And even if not everyone will adhere to its proposal, this novel-river has the timeless essence that makes the best tales (with or without fairies).