Just in time for the heat of summer-the GTCC Jamestown Campus LRC has landed Stephen King's Blaze in the latest batch of bestsellers.
Blaze is one of the titles King wrote long ago under the pseudonym Richard Bachman early in his career, to distinguish the novels he was writing from the short stories he was cranking out for what are politely referred to as "gentlemen's magazines" under his real name. It was never published and languished in the Folger Library at the University of Maine in the Stephen King collection there for well over thirty years. King returned to it after becoming involved with a publisher called Hard Case Crime, a small press dedicated to reviving old-style paperback crime novels.
Blaze is the tale of a small-time thug named Clayton Blaisdell, Jr., who is long on brawn and short on brains. Blaze is a nickname he aquires while growing up in Hetton House, an orphanage for wards of the state. Blaze shows signs of promise as a kid even after the early death of his mother, an event that leaves him at the mercy of his alcoholic, abusive father. One day his father in a fit of drunken rage picks up young Clayton and throws him down the stairs, then repeats the act a couple more times for good measure. This event leaves Clayton with a large hole in his forehead and not functioning on all cylinders. The authorities take Blaze away from his father and put him at Hetton House, where Blaze remains until his young adulthood. As the story unfolds in flashbacks, we see that the situation at Hetton House is not a vast improvement over living with his father.
Clayton eventually leaves the warm confines of Hetton House and drifts into a life of small-time crime, usually recruited as muscle by whatever clever type needs a big (6 foot 7 inch) and strong guy for his next nefarious enterprise. Blaze follows this pattern for a few years, fluctuating between low level crime jobs, jail, and a few attempts to go straight. Then he meets George, and everything changes.
George Rackley is a thief and small-time con man who sees in Blaze a willing and not-to-bright partner who can follow orders without asking to many questions. He and Blaze form a partnership that is generally successful for both-George has a steady associate and bodyguard, and Blaze has someone to do his thinking for him and look after him.
Eventually one of their capers goes awry and George heads uptsate to do some hard time. He emerges from prison with a new idea, bordering on obessesion-getting the one big score that will enable mean an end to the cycle of small jobs and jail terms. Blaze opens not long after George has been killed in a knife fight, leaving Blaze on his own to carry on with George's plan for the one big score.
I found Blaze to be a nice, tightly written crime story that is also working as a lower-class tragedy. King has real gift for telling stories about losers for whom time and circumstance are ever the enemy, always slamming the door shut just when it looks like something may finally happen to make a positive change in what has been a very hard life. The story deliberately echoes Of Mice and Men, albeit with a darker twist. The scenario for the big score could have have been cloying, but King handles it cleanly without descending into pathos. Blaze may be a good guy at heart, but he is still doing the wrong thing. It is hard not to sympathize with him; it is hard to forgive some of his actions as well.
Well-written, well characterized, and well-plotted, Blaze succeeds on every level. Need noir, here's your fix. Enjoy!
