Audiobook Review: From a Buick 8 by Stephen King
Less creepy, more plot and “the unknown” .
Here is a nice summary that I “borrowed”
An assembly of readers performs King’s latest, which is told from several different perspectives. This subdued, vaguely creepy tale is about an extraordinary force that infiltrates the lives of the people who work at a police barracks in rural Pennsylvania. King displays his masterful knack for building tension, but this work is more about the effect of events on the central characters’ psyches than it is about the events themselves. In that vein, the portrayals of the characters, their inner monologues and their interactions are vital to the success of this audio, and the entire cast does a fine job. Rebhorn serves as an able narrator and provides a brief, chilling portrait of the sallow, mysterious man who brings an otherworldly ‘54 Buick into the life of Troop D before vanishing. Davidson handles the inner turmoil of Sgt. Sandy Dearborn and the youthful stubbornness of troubled Ned Wilcox. Among the other highlights is Tobolowsky’s perfectly inflected Swedish accent for Arky, the troop’s janitor. With only a few, appropriately wistful notes of guitar at the beginning and end, the production is kept to a minimum. The approach works well for a quieter book that relies less on shock than much of King’s previous work.
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As the last line above suggests, this is a “quieter King”. This work is more about plotting and impact on the characters verses scaring and killing. I think Buick8 works very well as an audiobook because of the different narrators. This work is told from the view point of 6 people and there are 7 readers for it (Sandy is read by 2 people, a NOW and THEN version - YOUNGER and OLDER). It is a longer listen at 13 and half hours but when you have my commute it is not so bad. The performances I think are the best I have heard to date, save Oliver Platt in Everything’s Eventual. I am enjoying King’s work more and more. I am starting to worry - Stephen King FAN?!
