Originally, I read this book shortly after it came out. It was not long after the September 11th attacks and, if memory serves correctly, was the first novel to come out by Stephen King following that day. It was also the first time that he mentioned them, although he did so only in passing in this book.
Well, I reread this book recently. It was the first time in well over two decades that I had done so.
It's funny to think about how different a book can seem depending on when you read it, and your state of mind while reading it. Somehow, admittedly, I probably felt a little disappointed that this book would focus on a car (it's even in the title). It felt to me at the time like he had covered this ground already with Christine.
Still, I am a Constant Reader, so that was not going to stop me from reading the book. But I remembered going into it with more lukewarm enthusiasm than usual for a Stephen King book. Perhaps that was why it felt underwhelming to me at the time.
Now, the world feels very different. Of course, part of that is because I am older. When I first read "From a Buick 8," I was still in my twenties. Not yet a father. Still a young man. In fact, I admittedly felt more like an overgrown kid than an actual adult still.
Things are different now. I turned 50 late last year. My own son is officially a man himself, although he is in his final months of being a teenager. In my role as a father, the experiences changed me, and changed my perspective. Also, simply growing older, seeing all of the changes with people around me also changed me.
Let's face it: the world has also changed. Quite radically, actually. Back in September of 2002, when this book was first released, it was still just post 9-11. We had not yet invaded Iraq. There were concerns about growing totalitarianism in the United States, even if the Bush administration - which sometimes felt quite evil back then - feels comparatively innocent and reserved by comparison to what we have seen here in the United States since.
Back then, I was worried that Bush's blind pursuit of the war in Iraq was turning the world against us. Perhaps it did, but again, nothing like what we have seen since the political rise of Trump. It really feels like the United States under Trump has come to be viewed almost as a rogue nation. For some reason, he sees fit to go out of his way to try and provoke nations which traditionally were allies of the United States. This is particularly true of Canada, Denmark, and Mexico, although it seems like the rest of our allies around the globe are rather watching with a sense of disbelief and growing horror, as well.
At the time, back in 2002, the changes in the post 9/11 world felt scary, and I longed for a return to the world I once knew. Now, reading this book from 2002, it almost feels quaint to read about those times, which I thought were actually terrifying and depressing. Little could most of us have guessed just how quickly everything would change, eh?
Anyway, let me get to the book.
So while I kind of dismissed it the first time around reading it, since the idea of another killer car did not appeal to me so much, this book hit me differently this second time around. Perhaps it was because this time, I knew what to expect. Having read it before, there was familarity with it, and so it was easier to get past the killer car idea. Although it was rather astonishing how much of the book I had either not paid attention to or outright forgotten.
This story takes place in western Pennsylvania, with one branch of the State Police. In his book "On Writing," King had described the origins of his idea for this book. Simply, it was the idea of a man suddenly leaving a car at a gas station and then disappearing without a trace. And so that is how the story begins, back in the late 1970's, with a very mysterious and creepy man (is he even really a man?) pulling up to a gas station with a highly unusual, classic car. In fact, he appears to be heading to the restroom, but never apparently never actually went there, or anywhere else. This man just disappears entirely, without a trace.
Of course, the gas station attendant calls the police, and that is how this "Buick 8" becomes property of the Pennsylvania State Police, or at least that particular branch of it. The car itself seems highly unusual in ways that the guys cannot figure. First of all, there is no evidence that Buick made a model like this. Also, the car feels false, like it is not a car at all. Anyone who is familiar with Stephen King will likely know how this goes.
It turns out that, in fact, it is not what it might seem to be at first. In fact, the idea is that it is only meant to appear like a car. What it is in reality is something very different.
Now before I go further, this is the time when the usual warning that there are spoilers ahead should come. So here goes:
SPOILER ALERT
SPOILER ALERT
SPOILER ALERT
Okay, so if you are still reading, I have to assume that you either are already familiar with this book, or otherwise do not mind the spoilers to come, for whatever the reason. So here goes:
This is told from the perspective of numerous characters are different points. However, the main character is Sandy, the Commanding Sergeant of Troop D of the Pennsylvania State Police (PSP). Most of the book is told from his perspective. He is telling this story to a kid (Ned, more about him in the next paragraph), explaining how the Buick-8 came into the possession of Troop D of the Pennsylvania State Police. Also, that the car is unusual in more ways than one. That in fact, it is a portal to a very different world, with very different life forms. And the portal works both ways, so there is the threat that a person might be transported to that other world. So everyone has to exercise extreme caution around the Buick 8.
Naturally, there are other major characters. That includes Curt Wilcox and his son Ned, who seems to hang around Troop D, mostly to keep his late father alive. His father Curt was killed in a car accident which bears some striking resemblance to King's own accident back in 1999 in Maine, although King apparently wrote most of this book (including the part of Curt's accident) well before he himself got hit by a van. Another "character" of sorts is the car itself, which is a 1953 Buick Roadmaster, or at least appears to be. I say that because it becomes clear quickly that, in fact, this is not an actual car, but the car is just a façade for something else. What it actually is, evidently, is some monstrous portal to another world, or at least another dimension. And it works both ways, sending alien creatures and beings which are horrifying to those who catch a glimpse of them. However, it also has the power - and some kind of sick desire - to send human beings into that other world and, in fact, does so. We learn early on that Ennis Rafferty, one of the troopers, disappears without a trace. Eventually, we get a bad guy, a neo-Nazi domestic abuser by the name of Brian Lippy, who also gets sent to this other world. It seems speculative at first, but in the end, we do get confirmation that these two men ended up in that alien world, where they both met their end.
Now, of course there are other characters, but for the most part, it would probably be getting too ground down in the details to mention all of them. So let's get to the story.
Stephen King got the idea of this story by an incident he had in western Pennsylvania in 1999. He stopped at a gas station and discovered a stream behind, when he was heading to the bathroom. But he slipped and almost fell into the stream. It was a close call, and he could not get it out of his mind. Within hours, he had the idea of a guy who pulls up to a gas station and then disappears seemingly without a trace, leaving his car behind. In this case, the car is the Buick-8, which feels like it is filled with mystery.
At first, nobody can figure it out. It looks nice, like a classic. Yet, it feels strange for a Buick, and it becomes clear that everybody gets a bad feeling when they are around the car. Eventually, they find that it gives off these strange purplish light shows, which are often followed by the appearance of alien life forms which find themselves trapped in Shed B, where Troop D of the PSP (Pennsylvania State Police) keep the car. The first such creature is some kind of a winged thing that they call a bat, but which really bares no real resemblance to a bat. Next, there is a gigantic thing which they liken to a fish, but which is not a fish. In fact, it is the size of a sofa. There are also thousands of what are called leaves, although again, they are not really leaves. All of these things die quickly upon arrival, and they also quickly begin to decompose.
Eventually, it grows far more serious. There is a very tall, reddish thing which has a trunk with eyes at the end. Also, it can talk, although the people gathered - none of the major characters, as I recall - are overcome with a violent urge to kill it, because it does not belong to this world. It tries to speak to them, and is a living, sentient being. Those who killed it now have to wrestle with the idea that they might just have committed murder. However, this incident proves to be the last major incident involving a visitor from another planet or dimension which the Buick-8 (which again, is not actually a car) sends to Shed B of Troop D of the PSP in western Pennsylvania.
Remember, all of this is being told after the fact. Mostly it is being told by Sandy, but sometimes some of the other characters chime in. Through it all, they gauge Ned's reaction, more often than not negatively. The young man seems to hungry and overly entitled to hear these stories. In fact, he almost seems to demand more knowledge of the monstrosity out in Shed B. But everyone collectively tells him that there really is not much more to the story. Ned's father had tried to find out more by training himself on how to dissect earthly creatures, expecting to be able to gain some greater understanding. In the end, however, he has to acknowledge failure, because there is no understanding. Nothing really to learn more about the nature of the creatures or where they came from, let alone how they got here and what role, exactly, the Buick-8 played in it. All of these years later, Sandy feels that he recognizes that same unslakable thirst in Ned to try and figuratively dissect these stories to gain a better understanding, also to no avail.
The Buick 8 will remain unsatisfying, a mystery without resolution. Yet, there is one last adventure, or event, or whatever you want to call it left. It happens at the end of the night, when everyone is done sharing their stories and experiences with the Buick-8. Everyone heads home, except for Sandy. He heads to a local diner. But right in the middle of it, he gets this overwhelming feeling that the young Ned is up to something. It is more than a feeling, but a certainty. He knows that the kid is trying to do something with - or rather to - the Buick 8. So he rushes back and sees that the kid is indeed in Shed B, where nobody is supposed to go by themselves. Sure enough, he has poured gasoline and has obvious intentions on destroying the car that is more than a car. But he is sitting in the front seat and seems hypnotized, and Sandy can hear the familiar humming, as well as the sucking on air that has preceded past events with the Buick 8 before. The purple light show begins, and Sandy has to do everything in his power to try and get the kid out of the car and to safety before it is too late.
Before long, Sandy realizes that he is not alone. One by one, the others who had been sharing their stories and experiences with the kid start showing up. They all felt what Sandy felt at the diner. They know that the kid is determined to do the most dangerous thing imaginable and confront the monstrosity on his own. Som together, they manage to pull the kid out of there, but not before Sandy catches a glimpse of that other world, with some of the kinds of creatures that had ended up being sent to Shed B, as well as an ocean and strange grass. Also, a few pieces of evidence - or perhaps it is more like proof - that the missing officer and the missing neo-Nazi had indeed ended their lives in this strange world. Indeed, the Buick 8 sucked them out of this world and into that strange other world.
At the end, we find that Ned has dropped his interest in college and decided to join the PSP himself. He is now a member of Troop D. At the very end, he has a surprise for Sandy. He asks Sandy to take a look at the Buick 8. At first Sandy sees nothing, but then he sees it. A crack on the window, which is the first sign of aging or of the thing falling apart. There is a sense that the thing will likely fall apart and essentially die in due time.
As for recommending it, I do. That is especially true for fellow fans of Stephen King. Indeed, if you are a Constant Reader, then obviously you should read this book. After having read and seem some reviews, it seems like this book gets more criticism than other King works. Most people agree that it is quieter than other books by King, and I would tend to agree with that. Yet, this is part of King's strength as a writer, because the quieter books like this often allow him to really build his characters, which I have long felt is the greatest strength of his writing. So while I understand that some readers want things to happen quicker, I personally enjoyed the slower pace of this book. And whatever this means, the second time reading this one felt a lot more rewarding and enjoyable, even, than the first time around.
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