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How do
you kill something that can't possibly be alive?
Synopsis
''Christine'' appears to be formed
along the classic lines of a triangle. There is Arnie Cunningham, the
bookish, bullied, introverted high school student. His best friend is
Dennis Guilder, even though Dennis is the all-American Arnie never could
be. Then there is the beautiful Leigh Cabot who meets Arnie first and
plays the princess to his frog, although by all rights she should be
Dennis's girl.
Besides being the timid soul who won the lady, Arnie
is also an auto mechanic, a master craftsman in the true sense of the
word. And like any artisan of merit, he cherishes that which he works on,
in this case a 1958 Plymouth Fury named Christine.
Christine
belonged to Roland LeBay, a malcontent who was involved in an accident in
which both his wife and child perished. Nonetheless LeBay has held on to
the car for two decades. But, too old to pass the driver's eye examination
now, he puts Christine up for sale. For reasons Dennis can't understand,
Arnie squanders his summer earnings to buy this hulk whose crankshaft
barely turns over. Arnie declares that he will restore Christine to her
original beauty. Through her (never it) he will show his parents just what
he can do on his own, show everyone what a ''loser'' is capable
of.
In Stephen King's world, however, things are not so simple.
Writing in a clear, precise style that recalls ''The Shining'' and
''Firestarter,'' the author gently leads the reader from the believable to
the incredible. Like the movie director Steven Spielberg, Mr. King is a
master of infusing life into inanimate objects or nonhuman forms. When
Christine begins to repair herself, and certainly when we ride with her on
her first murderous adventure, we cannot doubt that she is as alive as any
of the other characters.
Such humanity becomes painfully clear
toward the conclusion of the novel. Leigh loves Arnie, but such emotion is
inadequate to wrest him away from Christine's spell. Christine, on the
other hand, has become deathly jealous of Leigh and contrives a way to
push Leigh into a compromising situation with Dennis. When Arnie sees his
girl in the arms of his best friend, the tragedy is complete. Christine's
demonic fury becomes his own, and the traitors become its object. But will
Arnie succeed? -- Phillipe Van Rjndt, New York Times
Quotes from the
Book
"He was
a loser, you know. Every high school has to have at least two: it's like a
national law. One male, one female. Everyone's dumping ground."
"If
being a kid is about learning how to live, then being a grown-up is about
learning how to die."
"Now,
that 'school spirit' business is mostly a lot bullshit made up by school
administrators who remember having a helluva time at the
Saturday-afternoon gridiron contests of their youth but have conveniently
forgotten that most of it resulted from being drunk, horny, or
both." |
