The Stand, best contemporary novel?

Question

I think Steven King's The Stand is the greatest novel of the modern era. The characters are vivid and involving, and the storyline is good enough to make you read all 500+ pages and still want more. What do you think is King not getting the kudos he deserves because he writes horror? Will the established literary world not recognize him until he is gone?

Answer 1

Harold Bloom and the self proclaimed literary elite still bash him. I can't stand those literature professors.

Answer 2

I agree with you on that. When I read the Stand, I was about seventeen. I was in the process of waiting on The Drawing Of The Three to come in to the library when I ordered it, and one day when I was stopping in to check on it, I saw the Stand sitting up on the shelf in a dusty jacket next to Night Shift (it's really weird I remember that in it's entirety) and maybe The Shining.

I picked it up, studied the cover where the two figures were engaged in a sword fight, and bounced it up and down in  my hands a couple times, feeling how heavy it was. When I took it home, I started reading it immediately, not stopping for the night until all the way into chapter seventeen or something. I can agree that it is by far the best book I've ever read - not my favorite King novel (that being Pet Sematary) but the best all the same.

Although, the greatest group of books I have ever held and finished in about three months was the Dark Tower. It opened up so many different levels in my creative mind that I didn't know existed, and for that, I love those books. The only thing I'm waiting on now Is for JJ Abrams to make the series of movies.

Answer 3

I think the stand was very good, but time period are you talking when you say contemporary? I think Stephen King doesn't get as much recognition as a legitimate author because of the sheer volume of his material. He cranks out a book every ten minutes, and most of them are completely aimed at public consumption. That being said, it is a VERY underrated novel.

Answer 4

You know my opinion! It is the best book I have ever read in my opinion! Like you said, the characters are just great and fleshed out. Randall Flagg makes a great antagonist

Answer 5

Have you read his Dark Tower sries! Excellent!!