Roadwork

Roadwork by Stephen King
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

A new stretch of interstate is being build and Bart Dawes' house is right in its path. He has until January 20th to find a new place for he and his wife to live and also a new location for the Blue Ribbon, the industrial laundry where he has been employed for twenty years. What will happen if he doesn't?

I wasn't very old when the original four Bachman books were released but I can't imagine this one did very well before King outted himself. It doesn't really have a lot going on. Bart Dawes is cracking as progress threatens to take his house and place of employment. For 320 pages.

Normally, my complaint with a lot of Stephen King books is that they're a lot of unnecessary crap and they could easily lose 300 pages. Roadwork is no different. This thing could easily be condensed into a 20 page short story. Your house and work are having to be relocated and the city is paying for it. I get it. Now use that Weatherby and plastique and start blowing things up if you can't handle it!

Even Rage was better than this. At least all the talking and stalling before the climax in Rage was somewhat interesting. Dawes started out mildly interesting and then just seemed pathetic and sad. By the end, I was ready to run the wrecking ball and destroy his house myself.

The fourth of the original four Bachman books is now closed. Now I can move on to a book I actually care about. 2 out of 5 stars.

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