Salem's Lot

2012 Random House Audio
Written: Stephen King; Read: Ron McLarty

Writer, Ben Mears, has decided to venture back to his childhood small town of Salem's Lot, to focus on writing his next book. He immediately finds romance, as well as friendship, and material to fill ten books...because he's not Salem's Lot's only new arrival. It seems the new antique furniture store in town is being run by two mysterious men. One is more than a little bit creepy and the other is never seen. Soon enough, a child goes missing, and is presumed dead...until the young one comes back, hungry for blood...a hunger that seems to spread through the town quicker than juicy gossip. Can Ben and his new group of allies put a stop to this strange evil before they themselves become vampire food...or vampires themselves?

I've been meaning to check out Stephen King's spin on the vampire legend for quite awhile now. 1975's Salem's Lot has been in my Audible queue for as long as I've had a membership. Thankfully, I'd begun a tradition to listen to one King novel every October back in 2018, so Salem's Lot after waiting a couple more years, just got to skip right up to the front of the line.

I do have few negative things to say:

Over all, the way Salem's Lot treats its female characters is abominable.
The book's central romance is amazingly lousy, with Ben Mears' love interest's only role in the story to fall in love with the him at first sight, have sex with him, and listen to him talk. All of the other female characters are gossips, prudes, or ignorant. None of them are allowed in on the action. King sometimes struggled to write women, and Salem's Lot is one of the worst examples. There is, and there's a caveat to this, a truckload of homophobia in Salem's Lot, as well. But what's the caveat? 

King is dissecting what he considers America's dying small towns here. Like any great American horror writer, and King is the best we've had over the last 50 years, he is looking at the dark sides of the country. The townsmembers' homophobia and bigotry seems to reveal more about this town than it does about King: Salem's Lot was rotting far before the vampires showed up. 

Indeed, the rot of mid-century Americana seems a primary focus of Salem's Lot, making the Northeastern town easy prey for the cunning (ancient and foreign) vampire--these folks seem far more concerned that their fellow citizens will turn gay (this work feels like it has more queer subtext than any of King's others), than they do that they will turn into evil, blood-sucking vampires. Indeed, there isn't really much of a comforting "godboyism" web of safety for Mears to fall into when things start getting dicey. Tellingly, his only allies are the town's educated people: a doctor, a teacher, and a star pupil from the local school.  

And when things start going to hell, Salem's Lot becomes one of King's most frightening works, with Salem's Lot's denizens making deals with the devil before they even become terrifying creatures of the night. The way the town's shift to evil is exponential, with a slow build suddenly ramping up into haunting passages about empty streets and businesses is some of King's most creepy stuff.

Perhaps Salem's Lot's strongest asset among King's other works from this time, even the superior ones like The Shining, The Stand, and It, is a strong finale. Indeed, of his works I've read, only Pet Semetary ends more strongly, without a streak of deus ex machina sentimentality. It's an extremely satisfying conclusion. If you can forgive the author his general weaknesses (some of which, I've said, seems intentional here), this is a fine, frightening, incisive piece of work. 

For this Random House audiobook, Ron McLarty does an excellent job reading King's unabridged novel. His tone and inflection is perfect, his voice carries authority, and he perfectly captures that throwback Americana feel of King's work. It's an atmosphere unto itself. His voice really brings out this novel's strengths, and I highly recommended this version as a definitive way to experience King's Salem's Lot.