Pocket Books The Long Walk 大競走 史蒂芬金系列

“You'd expect The Long Walk to fall foul of the same youthful errors, but, somehow, it transcends them. I count this book as among King's finest works: a horrifying piece of not-horror that's as powerful today as it was when it was released in 1979. There are traces of The Long Walk in a great number of contemporary young adult novels – its DNA is all over The Hunger Games, for example – but, unlike so many of the books it has influenced, The Long Walk is actually scary; threatening and unsettling. Given the allegorical nature of the novel's content, so it should be.” — The Guardian

 

The Long Walk is the earliest of all King's books, written when he was just 18. Against the wishes of his mother, sixteen-year-old Ray Garraty is about to compete in the annual grueling match of stamina and wits known as the Long Walk. One hundred boys must keep a steady pace of four miles per hour without ever stopping...with the winner being awarded “The Prize”—anything he wants for the rest of his life. The boy we readers want to win is 16-year-old Ray Garraty. He's the main character, our eyes on the Walk. 

 

But, as part of this national tournament that sweeps through a dystopian America year after year, there are some harsh rules that Garraty and ninety-nine others must adhere to in order to beat out the rest. It's referred to as "the national sport", and that's a large chunk of it: entertainment, watched by millions on television. But that's not all, and it's definitely not enough.

 

The Long Walk, it's plain to see, is a metaphor for war; specifically, the ongoing conflict in Vietnam, which was taking place during the novel's gestation: the televised draft, the horror of seeing new friends die, the seeming lack of reason for it occurring in the first place. To all involved, it's endless; or, rather, there is only one end. King manages to encapsulate some of what it must be like to survive when all around you is blood and gunshots in the darkness and your friends falling to their deaths.

 

The jingoistic nature of army recruitment, the screams of doing your duty and honouring your country, all of that, it's all in The Long Walk: in the pride that the Major inspires at the start and end, in the national anthems and parades and flags draped over jeeps; in the dead eyes and unfaltering bullets of the soldiers told to kill those Walkers who have done nothing wrong except stop walking; and in the Walkers themselves, who don't know why they signed up, and don't understand why they're doing this, but know that they cannot stop until they're told that it's over.

 

Features

• Edition : -
• Binding : paperback
• ISBN : 9781668052013
• Publication Date : 2024/8/20

 

Materials & Care

• Imported