Stephen King’s latest epic “Under the Dome” was a good 25 years in the making, and boy was it worth it. This apocalyptic vision of what could, and horrifyingly probably would happen if a small population of us were left to our own devices, cut off from the rest of humanity manages to grip the reader from the beginning and transport them directly to the small town of Chester’s Mill, Maine and the nucleus of the trouble.
The story follows the inhabitants of Chester’s Mill from the day an impenetrable dome descends over them. Typical of the ever-complicating King, the tale consists of a vast amount of characters, most of who are central to the plot and therefore need to be remembered. In his favour though, King is a master of characterisation, making this job easy for his readers. Big Jim Rennie, second selectman and chief villain of the narrative is a perfect depiction of all that is and ever has been wrong within politics. King appears to have taken all of the most terrible parts of all of the most despicable politicians in history and moulded this figure from them, adding a few psychopathic profiles in for good measure. Jim Rennie is a creation that sends chills down the reader’s spine purely because of how easy it is to see how he almost effortlessly manipulated himself into power despite being the barbaric person he is.
Other characters, such as Andrea Grinnell and Samantha Bushey strike the reader because of the stark contrast in the strengths and weaknesses of their personalities. Both women have great troubles to overcome in this novel, and they handle them in completely divergent ways. The fascinating element of these characters narrative is that right up until the climax of their individual stories the reader is unsure of whether their strengths or weaknesses will win.
Conversely, an aspect of “Under the Dome” I personally found disconcerting was King’s treatment of religion. In this book only the corrupt and evil characters believe in God. Piper Libby, the town’s vicar, is a “good” character, but she no longer believes in her religion. It is as if King is suggesting that only nutcases and extremists still believe in religion, and as someone who isn’t wildly religious but does have religious beliefs I found this mildly offensive.
If I could have changed something about this narrative it would have been the ending. It’s difficult for me to express my feelings here without spoiling the end somewhat. Suffice to say, I was a little disappointed and felt it could have been cleverer. My ending would also have made more sense and aligned with the theme of the novel a lot more, but King obviously had a different purpose for his epic and his ending does make sense. It just felt a bit lacklustre to me after the preceding story.
Which brings me nicely to the length of “Under the Dome”; at over 800 pages some readers may be put off from picking up this book. I wholeheartedly encourage you to give it a go. Not one page, storyline or character could have been cut out. It is a complete masterpiece and an almost effortless read. Even if you have previously hated Stephen King’s writing, (I for one wish I hadn’t wasted time reading “The Shining”), this is one novel that deserves to be read.
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