From a Buick 8

MY SELF AND MY HUSBAND ARE STEPHEN KING SUPER FANS I LOVE TO WATCH THE MOVIES , HE LOVES TO READ THE BOOK FIRST AND THEN SIT BACK AND NOTICE ALL THE CHANGES FROM BOOK TO MOVIE....... I STARTED BUYING USED STEPHEN BOOKS FROM the store ABOUT 1 YEAR AGO- AND I HAD TO DO QUAD TAKES AT THE PRICES GEE I BUY THE 1CENT BOOKS WITH NORMALL 3.99 POSTAGE TOTAL 4.OO WE ARE BOTH DISABLED AND SPEND MOST TIME IN OUR HOUSE AND MOVIES AND READING ARE OUR DATE NITE OUTS OR WAITING FOR A BOOK U ORDERED TO COME TO, SO I CAN SURPRIZE HIM WITH A NEW BOOK FOR HIS LITTLE LIBARY WHICH HAVE GREW LEAPS AND BOUNDS OVER THE PAST YEAR.... THE NEWEST BOOK I GOT FOR HIM IS FROM A BUICK 8 WOW IT LOOKED BRAND NEW THE CARE YU COULD TELL WAS TAKEN CARE OF WITH LOVE, I HAVE MANY MORE WRITTEN DOWN I AM GOING TO SURPRIZE HIM WITH BUT DO TO OUR FIANACES 1 TO 2 BOOKS A MONTH- IS WHAT HAPPENENS AND SO MANY TIMES TRYING TO PICK FROM THAT BECOMES VERY HARD...... THANKS AGAIN FOR THE PAST DELIEVERY OUR ANNIVERSARY IS IN 5 DAYS AND I WILL BE IN THE HOSPITAL HAVING SURGURY BUT I CAN GIVE HIM SOME BOOKS I SENT FOR ONE WAS THE ONE I GOT FROM YOUR COMPANY THANKS AGAIN BE SURE WE WILL BE BUYING AGAIN REAL SOON!!!!!!!!

This was a story of straight science fiction. It was somewhat less terrorizing for that. He did have an interesting take on either another planet around a different star in our universe, or another dimension of reality altogether. He did give us a conclusion to the terror in the end and it was a fitting one that was obvious in its necessity.

I LIKE STEPHEN KINGS BOOKS AND MOVIES. I'AM STILL READING FROM BUICK 8 AND IT IS REALLY GOOD. I WOULD SAY ONCE YOU GET A HOLD OF ANY OF HIS BOOKS AND START READING THEM YOU CAN'T PUT THEM DOWN. TY BOBBI

For every beloved novel King has under his belt I feel there are almost as many that don't get the love or respect they deserve. I won't say he has never had a dud, but I don't think he has nearly as many duds as most of his more critical fans do. I may sound like a utter fanboy but the King novels I flat out dislike can be counted on one hand (Cell, Cujo, Thinner, Insomnia and Full Dark No Stars being the 5). All the others range from masterpiece to insanely readable to pretty decent. I'm sure any cynical literary type reading this just scoffed so hard their manacle fell off. How can a man who has written so much stuff over the years have any REAL talent? I'm not literary scholar but I think I can judge a good writer when I see one. I think this guy can write and deserves to be listed among the great American authors. He may not be a satirist or make grand statements on the world and politics with his stories but he is a writer who understands people. He understands them to the very core. He is one of the best writers of PEOPLE I've ever come across. From A Buick 8 is no different.

Some casual fans have dismissed this as a Christine knock-off simple because the plot involves a supernatural car. That is where the two books stop being similar. Like Christine, what makes From a Buick 8 tick is it's characters. These people are just as alive as any of Kings other books. In fact I think these are some of the most relatable and human characters he's written in his later career. Some of the reviews on here state this is a softer, kinder King. That alone may scare some people off and seem like a detriment. It really is not. This story isn't as harsh as some of his other stuff but it has his signature stamp all over it the things go bump in the night as they always have. The book is actual creepier than I expected it to be when I first picked it up. From a Buick 8 has a nostalgia and longing to it that feels oddly personal. I highly doubt many will say this is one of Kings most personal novels (Pet Sematary and Lisey's Story take that honor) but it gives off that vibe very strongly to me. You get the sense King wants these people to be ok at the end and that is a nice change of pace for him.

The novel is structured well and moves a consistent pace, lacking his more indulgent tendencies which others will find to be a great relieve. I honestly feel From A Buick 8 deserves to be listed along side Salems Lot, The Shining, Pet Sematary, Firestarter, Christine etc as his great works. It fits in with that set of novels like a glove. Give this one a shot. It needs to be read.

Just for kicks, my top 6 most underrated Stephen King books. Yes 7, 5 is too little :)

7. Rose Matter
6. Dreamcather
5. Roadwork
4. The Regulators
3. Lisey's Story
2. From a Buick 8
1. Needful Things

In the afterword of "From a Buick Eight," Stephen King explains the circumstances by which he came by the idea that led to this novel. He stated that he was moved by "the indecipherable quality of life's events, and the impossibility of finding meaning in them." This frustration with the mysteries of existence is the motive power behind the plot of "From A Buick 8," and it is also one of the book's principal drawbacks.

At his best, King is obviously a towering talent, a massive literary genius. But like most mega-successful authors, and especially the prolific ones, he has long since reached a point in his career where really tough editing is a dwindling point in his rear-view mirror. Put another way, he tends to release books which have kind of a half-baked feeling to them, a feeling that if only he'd spent more time in the drafting process, or maybe listened more to his editor (assuming anyone even dares edit him at this point), he could have really hit a homer, instead of a double or, in this case, a bunted single. "From a Buick 8" lacks nothing in the imagination department, and it is spiked throughout with the touches of brilliance that make Stephen King, well, Stephen King, but after a promising start it became a bit of a bore and frankly, quite a struggle to finish. Weighing in at a relatively trim 350 pages, it nevertheless feels bloated and over-written, rather like a really clever novella somebody with dollar signs in their eyes decided to inflate into a novel; yet despite that bloated feeling, it talks too much and says too little. I get that the whole message of "From a Buick 8" is one of coming to terms with things that don't make sense, but the methods King uses here to make that statement are unsatisfying. There's a difference between leaving things to our imagination ("Pet Sematary" excelled at this) and simply leaving a story half-finished, and this one seems to me anyway to fall into the latter category.

"Buick" proceeds from a simple and clever premise. PA State Troopers respond to a call about abandoned vehicle at a gas station. Investigating it, they discover that it is not what it appears: though it resembles a Buick Roadmaster, it really isn't a car at all, but rather a mysterious object, possibly from another world or plane of existence, that periodically opens a portal between this world and wherever it came from. Sometimes things (unpleasant things) come out of the vehicle; other times things (and people) disappear into it, never to be seen again. The "car" becomes a secret among the cops who impounded it, and for years they leave it locked in a shed in their remote barracks where it can't (seemingly) hurt anyone. Then one day, a boy named Ned Wilcox, the son of a trooper killed in the line of duty, begins to ask questions about the Buick, and about his father, who was its principal keeper and whose death may have been linked to it. Those who have kept the secret decide to share it with him, not grasping that his curiosity may be linked to other motives involving the mysterious Roadmaster.

"Buick" has a few of King's great strengths. The idea is interesting, to say the least. And when he can be bothered, he writes gorgeous prose and often makes really insightful comments about life that sometimes cross the border into real wisdom. But the story here, or its execution, lacks power. King is by his own admission a notorious over-writer, and while there are books he has over-written which were better for it ("It" and "The Stand" come to mind), in this case it just slows everything down, which is especially annoying in a novel which is very short by his standards. What's more, the characters are dull, uninteresting cut-outs, sort of hard to distinguish from each other with their similar-sounding names (Sandy, Eddie, Arky, Huddie, Shirley). There is a moment at the end when I thought he would redeem everything by his choice of ending, but -- oddly for a man who writes mostly horror novels -- he has developed a tendency over the years to force happy endings on stories that in many cases demand either unhappy or at least ambivalent endings. The greatest flaw, of course, is the book is neither scary nor intensely readable. Like some of King's more middling or mediocre efforts ("The Tommyknockers," "Needful Things," "The Dark Half"), it's got a nice engine but never hits on all of its cylinders.

Truth be told, the real problem with "Buick" isn't individual flaws, but a feeling that he didn't quite get to the core of his original premise, which is that some mysteries have no answers. Handling that is best done if the author has (or thinks he has) the answers, but withholds them and lets the audience make its own deductions as to meaning. Here, I felt King had no answers and was just randomly generating mysterious incidents. The difference may seem academic, but it's not; it's the difference between teasing the audience and cheating them.

In the afterword of "From a Buick Eight," Stephen King explains the circumstances by which he came by the idea that led to this novel. He stated that he was moved by "the indecipherable quality of life's events, and the impossibility of finding meaning in them." This frustration with the mysteries of existence is the motive power behind the plot of "From A Buick 8," and it is also one of the book's principal drawbacks.

At his best, King is obviously a towering talent, a massive literary genius. But like most mega-successful authors, and especially the prolific ones, he has long since reached a point in his career where really tough editing is a dwindling point in his rear-view mirror. Put another way, he tends to release books which have kind of a half-baked feeling to them, a feeling that if only he'd spent more time in the drafting process, or maybe listened more to his editor (assuming anyone even dares edit him at this point), he could have really hit a homer, instead of a double or, in this case, a bunted single. "From a Buick 8" lacks nothing in the imagination department, and it is spiked throughout with the touches of brilliance that make Stephen King, well, Stephen King, but after a promising start it became a bit of a bore and frankly, quite a struggle to finish. Weighing in at a relatively trim 350 pages, it nevertheless feels bloated and over-written, rather like a really clever novella somebody with dollar signs in their eyes decided to inflate into a novel; yet despite that bloated feeling, it talks too much and says too little. I get that the whole message of "From a Buick 8" is one of coming to terms with things that don't make sense, but the methods King uses here to make that statement are unsatisfying. There's a difference between leaving things to our imagination ("Pet Sematary" excelled at this) and simply leaving a story half-finished, and this one seems to me anyway to fall into the latter category.

"Buick" proceeds from a simple and clever premise. PA State Troopers respond to a call about abandoned vehicle at a gas station. Investigating it, they discover that it is not what it appears: though it resembles a Buick Roadmaster, it really isn't a car at all, but rather a mysterious object, possibly from another world or plane of existence, that periodically opens a portal between this world and wherever it came from. Sometimes things (unpleasant things) come out of the vehicle; other times things (and people) disappear into it, never to be seen again. The "car" becomes a secret among the cops who impounded it, and for years they leave it locked in a shed in their remote barracks where it can't (seemingly) hurt anyone. Then one day, a boy named Ned Wilcox, the son of a trooper killed in the line of duty, begins to ask questions about the Buick, and about his father, who was its principal keeper and whose death may have been linked to it. Those who have kept the secret decide to share it with him, not grasping that his curiosity may be linked to other motives involving the mysterious Roadmaster.

"Buick" has a few of King's great strengths. The idea is interesting, to say the least. And when he can be bothered, he writes gorgeous prose and often makes really insightful comments about life that sometimes cross the border into real wisdom. But the story here, or its execution, lacks power. King is by his own admission a notorious over-writer, and while there are books he has over-written which were better for it ("It" and "The Stand" come to mind), in this case it just slows everything down, which is especially annoying in a novel which is very short by his standards. What's more, the characters are dull, uninteresting cut-outs, sort of hard to distinguish from each other with their similar-sounding names (Sandy, Eddie, Arky, Huddie, Shirley). There is a moment at the end when I thought he would redeem everything by his choice of ending, but -- oddly for a man who writes mostly horror novels -- he has developed a tendency over the years to force happy endings on stories that in many cases demand either unhappy or at least ambivalent endings. The greatest flaw, of course, is the book is neither scary nor intensely readable. Like some of King's more middling or mediocre efforts ("The Tommyknockers," "Needful Things," "The Dark Half"), it's got a nice engine but never hits on all of its cylinders.

Truth be told, the real problem with "Buick" isn't individual flaws, but a feeling that he didn't quite get to the core of his original premise, which is that some mysteries have no answers. Handling that is best done if the author has (or thinks he has) the answers, but withholds them and lets the audience make its own deductions as to meaning. Here, I felt King had no answers and was just randomly generating mysterious incidents. The difference may seem academic, but it's not; it's the difference between teasing the audience and cheating them.

And…here is the second book about a haunted car by Stephen King. From a Buick 8 uses some of the creatures from the todash that was used in the Mist. Now, I know that I didn’t review The Mist because it was part of a collection. Did I like this book? You will see.

The Ugly: The thing that killed me the most with this book was the fact of the point of views. There was maybe six different first person point of views and the flashbacks are in third person. I know I have mentioned this in the Alex Cross series, but this one just hurt the story more than helped it. I don’t know why it bothers me so much, but it just does. I just like the way of telling books in a singular point of view.

The Bad: I know this part will not make sense to a lot of people, but it is the way I feel. They should have never kept the Buick so close to a population once they found out it was a dangerous weapon. No one in their right mind would have left it there. They would have found some place to put it to make sure it wouldn’t hurt anyone. Sure, the shed housed the creatures pretty good, but who’s to say it wouldn’t have always been that way.

The Good: Even though I don’t like the point of view thing, this is still a very good book. The storyline alone takes care of that. A mysterious car that no one knows where it came from or what it is doing there. And I think that King did that on purpose. I think he left the ending ambiguous when it comes to the car.

Final Thoughts: Needless to say, I did enjoy this book. But the point of view thing did it in for me. Some people may like it, but it’s not for me. Still, you should read this book.

For every beloved novel King has under his belt I feel there are almost as many that don't get the love or respect they deserve. I won't say he has never had a dud, but I don't think he has nearly as many duds as most of his more critical fans do. I may sound like a utter fanboy but the King novels I flat out dislike can be counted on one hand (Cell, Cujo, Thinner, Insomnia and Full Dark No Stars being the 5). All the others range from masterpiece to insanely readable to pretty decent. I'm sure any cynical literary type reading this just scoffed so hard their manacle fell off. How can a man who has written so much stuff over the years have any REAL talent? I'm not literary scholar but I think I can judge a good writer when I see one. I think this guy can write and deserves to be listed among the great American authors. He may not be a satirist or make grand statements on the world and politics with his stories but he is a writer who understands people. He understands them to the very core. He is one of the best writers of PEOPLE I've ever come across. From A Buick 8 is no different.

Some casual fans have dismissed this as a Christine knock-off simple because the plot involves a supernatural car. That is where the two books stop being similar. Like Christine, what makes From a Buick 8 tick is it's characters. These people are just as alive as any of Kings other books. In fact I think these are some of the most relatable and human characters he's written in his later career. Some of the reviews on here state this is a softer, kinder King. That alone may scare some people off and seem like a detriment. It really is not. This story isn't as harsh as some of his other stuff but it has his signature stamp all over it the things go bump in the night as they always have. The book is actual creepier than I expected it to be when I first picked it up. From a Buick 8 has a nostalgia and longing to it that feels oddly personal. I highly doubt many will say this is one of Kings most personal novels (Pet Sematary and Lisey's Story take that honor) but it gives off that vibe very strongly to me. You get the sense King wants these people to be ok at the end and that is a nice change of pace for him.

The novel is structured well and moves a consistent pace, lacking his more indulgent tendencies which others will find to be a great relieve. I honestly feel From A Buick 8 deserves to be listed along side Salems Lot, The Shining, Pet Sematary, Firestarter, Christine etc as his great works. It fits in with that set of novels like a glove. Give this one a shot. It needs to be read.

Just for kicks, my top 6 most underrated Stephen King books. Yes 7, 5 is too little :)

7. Rose Matter
6. Dreamcather
5. Roadwork
4. The Regulators
3. Lisey's Story
2. From a Buick 8
1. Needful Things

Where to begin, where to begin... I found a spelling error lol, yeap an actually spelling error. I won't lie, it distracted me like a mofo.. Had this error been in an indie book, it wouldn't have, but this is far far from an indie book. Mr. King, please inform your editor that "rubed" is not a word... From the way the sentence is written and a sentence on the next page, I believe the editor was looking for the word "rubbed", a small error, but an error nonetheless. It was the only spelling error I found..

As to the story itself, It's not horrible, but it's not great either. It's JUST interesting enough to make the reader keep turning pages to see what happens next; however, most of it is just honestly mundane. Like Hearts in Atlantis, and The Green Mile, From A Buick 8 has that normalcy feel to it. A far cry from the heart-stopping horror most people who know King's work are used to seeing. There's just enough strangeness going on to make it interesting, but not enough to say "That book is one of his best ever!" Frankly, it's not.

I do like the mystery surrounding the Buick, and I love the way the characters are developed and distinct. Some even have their own dialect tossed in which makes them even more believable. As usual, all the good stuff comes within the last 50 pages of the book... And it didn't last very long.

There are a lot of emotions in the book, even if it's not something you'd expect from King. There's moments when the reader will want to scream in frustration, and even moments that will have the reader reaching for a tissue. While it's not one of Kings' greatest works, the story is still told well and will still pull the strings it was meant to.

I give this book 3 of 5 paws

From a Buick 8 (2002) is a Lovecraftian dark fantasy as interpreted by Stephen King; the big, cosmic ideas are there, but it's all wrapped up in neat, homely Americana.

It's also a novel about storytelling. The policemen of Troop D, not at all dissimilar to the prison guards of E Block in The Green Mile, gather around the son of one of their own in present day to share the story of a decades-old secret kept in storage shed B.

Troop D's very own miracle-making John Coffey is a 1953 Buick Roadmaster, a car that even in real life has that repellent "Innsmouth look". Indeed, there is something fishy about the vehicle. Left at a gas station in the seventies, Troop D soon discovers that the car is merely a prop. A prop that hums and puts on spectacular lightshows they dub "lightquakes".

But there's more; occasionally the Buick "gives birth" to strange, unearthly creatures, appearing from the trunk and probably originating in another dimension. And people as well as gerbils that go too near the car go missing, presumably travelling in the opposite direction. It's a far-fetched proposition, a Buick as a portal to other worlds, but it's also quintessentially King. The policemen, like some guardians of an arcane secret, keep the Buick locked up and under observation for decades.

From a Buick 8 is not an action-packed story; for the most part the Buick just sits there in its shed, with the cops peering in through the shed windows. It's the mystery that drives the story, the weird, inexplicable nature of things "from beyond" that the smalltown cops could never even begin to comprehend.

But they give it a brave try, and their camaraderie bestows the story with warmth in a way that only Stephen King can create. The policemen live, they retire, they die - as all men must. And the structure of the novel allows them to tell their tale with their own voice. It's this kind of narrative choices that drive home the point that King is a seriously prodigious writer in full control of his craft.

Read all my reviews at mikareadshorrorfiction.wordpress.com

Maybe it was because of lowered expectations but I didn't think this book was as bad as some of the reviews said it was. I saw a lot of articles that commented on how this was just another scary car novel, a la CHRISTINE. And how this wasn't some of his strongest writing. And I believe it was after the release and some of those reviews that King announced his planned retirement, a retirement that I'll believe when I see. Personally I think that he'll be like The Rolling Stones or Ozzy or Cher who announce their retirement but then keep on doing what they love. And even now King has announced his plans to do a crime novel called THE COLORADO KID. But I digress, back to FROM A BUICK 8.

I'll agree that it was not one of his better books. Since there is no active threat, no monster looming or no quest driving folks forward, the action was minimal. The tale unfolds as several troopers reveal the history of a car that was impounded many years back. Their recipient of the story is Ned Wilcox, a young man who recently lost his dad, a fellow trooper.

While the story is interesting and intriguing, there is also a level of detachment to the telling. This is probably due to it being told to Ned while sitting around a picnic table rather than experiencing the story live, so to speak. I'm not sure if this hurt the story or not but I know that I wasn't pulled into it as much as I am with other novels. At the same time though, Stephen King on his off-days is still tons better than a lot of other stuff out there. And for you completists, it does tie-in to the Dark Tower series but more on the peripheral than directly. In that regards it is a nice complement to Hearts In Atlantis.

Stephen King will publish two books this year: one is already out, and the other will be released tomorrow. In January or February the publishing schedule was switched around for some reason, so Everything's Eventual - a collection of short stories - was released in March, while From a Buick 8 will be released on Tuesday. Why this is, I know not, but I can certainly say Mr. King did not save the best for last in his publishing schedule of 2002. From a Buick 8 is simply not that good.

The book begins at a rural gas station in rural Pennsylvania with some backcountry characters whom King has such a way with telling. A bright, shiny blue Buick pulls into the station, and the estranged driver wearing a billowing trench coat and looking menacing tells the attendant to fill her up and then heads off to the bathroom. The attendant fills the tank, but the owner of the opulent automobile never returns. He just disappears. When the police arrive, a preliminary search and detailing is made of the classic car, and some very astonishing facts are discovered. The car has an engine with "Buick 8" written on the sides, but the engine is not connected to anything. All the dials on the dashboard, while looking very realistic, are entirely artificial and serve no true purpose. The exhaust system appears to be made of glass.

The car, like its owner, remains a complete mystery, and is left in Shed B at the barracks of the Pennsylvania State Police (PSP). We soon meet our main character, Sandy Dearborn, and the scene is set in the present day, some twenty-five or so years later. We also soon discover that this harmless vehicle has apparently been spitting out some hideous creatures, as well as sucking in a few humans without a trace. Where they go, nobody knows.

250 pages of the 356 page book focus on a detailed retelling of the history of this Buick 8, told to a young man, Ned, whose father was killed - by the car? It does not seem so, but as the story unfolds this becomes uncertain. At parts it becomes a little slow, as King waxes diatribe on the little ineffectualities of rural PSP life, juxtaposed with scary scenes of these helpless cops dealing with monsters erupting from this organic car, all dead (except for the last one).

What comes to the greatest shock, having read just about everything King ahs ever published, is that there is very little resolution, which has always been an important quotient in King's books. Once all the ups and downs of the car have been revealed, there is a big final scene where our young hero, Ned, attempts to blow up the car with himself in it, with the intention of getting sucked to wherever the ingested go, and killing whatever is on the other side, as the car explodes. But this never comes to pass as Sandy Dearborn saves the day, unsurprisingly.

And that is pretty much how the book ends. We do not find out who the mysterious character that disappeared was. We do not discover whether the car attempts to take over the world. We do not discover whether there is anything in this other dimension that the car takes its victims to (I was personally hoping for a Dark Tower tie-in that seems to be popular with King these days). The car simply begins to age and rot, end of story.

And there's not much more to say about it. It's nicely written, there's some amusing character work, though no great character development, since most of the book is delivered in hindsight. It is simply a very remarkable story (short for King) about a strange car that doesn't really do much, and has no real ending or explanation. It seems that something is amiss in Stephen King's From a Buick 8, I only hope it does not carry on in his future publications.

Originally published on September 23rd, 2002.

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A state police post in Pennsylvania has an impounded car and locked it up in their shed. When Ned Wilcox, the son of a recently killed officer, starts coming around the barracks he begins hearing tales about the "Buick 8". It seems to be a supernatural car that isn't really a car. It has no working engine, the steering and gauges are not working and the car strangely seems to heal itself when damaged. The car isn't really a car to the state troopers and some believe it is a portal to another dimension that is somehow related to Ned's father's death. Things go into the car and don't come out, even stranger things come out. Bright flashes of light seem to be related to supernatural type events.

To me this story while having some interesting parts just seems to wander. I own the book and couldn't finish it and I finally listed to the CD version. Some of Stephen King's books are just beyond comparison to other authors. This one unfortunately is not one of them. It is just OK for me and that is the best I can say. I could not get enthused about the characters and the plot/storyline was just slow in moving and not up to Steven King's standard that I have come to expect from the master. It seems like the book was 75 to 100 pages too long and for me the fluff just seemed to hurt the storyline.

If you like Stephen King you have to read this story but just don't expect one of the greatest tales he has ever told!

This has to be the most "Stephen Kingy" Stephen King book of all time. The tone of it is so quintessentially Stephen King that it almost feels like a Stephen King tribute band! Like someone was given an assignment to write a scary story in the mode of King. It's not really a book. It feels more like a vingette in the Stephen King world. A style study. If you love the feel of a Stephen King novel you will enjoy this story. If you are not a die hard fan of the author I would skip this one.

Like 1983's Christine, From a Buick Eight is ostensibly about a vintage automobile, but that's where any similarity between the two novels ends. Unlike the former, which featured a demonic car out for blood, the latter features something that looks like an auto, but is actually a doorway to another reality.

The aforementioned doorway takes the approximate shape of a Buick Roadmaster; said car was impounded by a unit of the Pennsylvania state police in 1979, after its owner, a tall man dressed in black, abandons it at a local gas station. Examining the vehicle, the responding officers realize that it contains far too many anomalies to actually be a car. Intrigued by its utter strangeness, they tow it back to their barracks, where it becomes a source of wonderment to them for the next two decades.

Why? Well, strange things happen around the Buick, which is kept in a storage shed on the grounds. The first night it is there, the temperature in the shed drops twenty degrees. Then, the car begins to emit intense bursts of light. Finally, a trooper disappears-subsequent investigation leads the troop to conclude that, strange as it may seem, the car was somehow responsible.

Over the years, any number of strange plants and creatures appear in the shed, seemingly emerging from its trunk. Objects placed in the shed for experimental purposes disappear. The light shows continue, but are separated by greater and greater intervals. During this time, the troop manages to keep the car a secret, revealing its presence and activities to only a select few.

The troopers relate the Buick's history over the course of an evening to young Ned Wilcox, son of Curtis Wilcox, a trooper who died a year earlier in an accident eerily similar to the one that befell King in 1999 (even eerier, King wrote the novel before his accident). Curtis was obsessed with the car, studying and recording its activities, even going so far as to autopsy one of the creatures that emerged from its "womb." Despite this, he never finds definitive answers.

If From a Buick 8 is "about" something, it is about the fact that life itself rarely yields definitive answers. As one character says, "Life rarely finishes its conversations." Why do some people survive accidents when others perish? Why are some successful and others failures? Why? Real life is not orderly, nor is everything which occurs easily explainable. Human beings can look for patterns, for explanations, but they very rarely manifest themselves. The book also makes the point that, despite the tragedy or wonderment that appears in our lives, life, indeed, does go on. King's characters go to great pains to emphasize that to Ned, who, being in his teens, does not have the perspective that the older troopers have.

The tone of this novel is a hybrid between King's "own" voice and that of his pseudonym's, Richard Bachman, a tightrope walk between optimism and cynicism. The story slowly builds momentum, drawing the audience into the narrative so subtly that you find yourself a good two hundred pages into the book before looking up. Of course, like most of King's novels, it features well-realized characters that evoke readers' sympathies. Although King set the story in rural Pennsylvania, these characters resemble the native New Englanders with which King usually populates his tales, "keeping themselves to themselves," accepting what life throws at them with preternatural calm and stoicism. It is their all too human reactions to the strangeness that has entered their lives, rather than the special effects (which are plentiful) that make this book the subtle triumph that it is.