'Salem's Lot by Stephen King

 Before drifting away entirely, he found himself reflecting--not for the first time--on the peculiarity of adults.  They took laxatives, liquor, or sleeping pills to drive away their terrors so that sleep would come, and their terrors were so tame and domestic: the job, the money, what the teacher will think if I can't get Jennie nicer clothes, does my wife still love me, who are my friends.  They are pallid compared to the fears every child lies cheek and jowl with in his dark bed, with no one to confess to in hope of perfect understanding but another child.  There is no group therapy of psychiatry or community social services for the child who must cope with the thing under the bed or in the cellar every night, the thing which leers and capers and threatens just beyond the point where vision will reach.  The same lonely battle must be fought night after night and the only cure is the eventual ossification of the imaginary faculties, and this is called adulthood.

I've been intending to re-read this novel for years now.  I remember the first time I read it.  I was in High School.  I have a memory of reading while riding the exercise bike in my parents bedroom.  I loved this book; I wanted to visit it again.  I'm glad I did... It is funny or sad or weird how this book is now a story of a world that no longer exists.  EVERYBODY is smoking ALL THE TIME.  And, of course, there are no personal computers to investigate.  People have to go to the library.  Microfiche.  And, how these folks could have used cel-phones!

Additionally, I was reminded that King can write something beautiful- yet still foreboding. 

In the fall, night comes like this in the Lot:

The sun loses its thin grip on the air first, turning it cold, making it remember that winter is coming and winter will be long.  Thin clouds form, and the shadows lengthen out.  They have no breadth, as summer shadows have; there are no leaves on the trees or fat clouds in the sky to make them thick.  They are gaunt, mean shadows that bite the ground like teeth.

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