Book Review: King's "The Wind Through the Keyhole"

"There's nothing like stories on a windy night when folks have found a warm place in a cold world." - Stephen King, The Wind Through the Keyhole

I once wrote that Stephen King, like most of life’s great pleasures, is a bit of an acquired taste.  On the one hand, King is easily one of the more imaginative writers of his generation and capable of crafting some truly elegant prose.  On the other, though, one of the more consistent complaints regarding his work, even coming from King himself, is that his writing, overall, isn’t as good as his storytelling and that he has some trouble with endings.

As much as I’d like to argue with the latter point, I can’t.  Even with his magnum opus, The Dark Tower Cycle, the ending felt, and one could argue that this was inevitable with an epic of such scope and power, somewhat anticlimactic.  While I enjoyed the ending, I will admit that I had to tack on a bit of speculation to really feel the kind of closure I expect from good fiction. 

To me, though, even given that, the whole journey of Roland and his Ka-tet was more than worth it and is easily on of my favorite series of all time.  The characters were rich and developed and the mythology was brilliant.  Even the cameos of other people, places and things from the rest of his work (and that of some others), which could have come off as corny or trite fit seamlessly into the narrative.

Among the books, Wizard and Glass was easily my favorite.  The reason for this is that King is, above all else, an incredible storyteller.  When Roland tells the story of Mejis and Susan Delgado, King is finally able to slip fully into his skin.  In so doing, he becomes a sort of contemporary incarnation of the old world storyteller, the man who traveled from place to place, carrying on his shoulders the history and belief of his people.  There was a reason those men were venerated, because it is in a well-told story that we can both lost and find ourselves and, for that brief moment, King, as Roland, allows us to feel like children again, listening to our parents tell us of worlds far away.

In The Wind Through the Keyhole, King returns to that format, with Roland’s Ka-tet holing up to wait out a storm.  To pass the long, cold night in a desolate world, Roland tells another story of his youth, one that comes between the events in Mejis and the fall of Gilead, the kingdom over which his father is Steward.  The tale is one of horror and justice and courage, as any good quest story should be, and King once again finds that fantastic narrative voice.  What’s more, during the story, young Roland begins to tell another, a kind of Mid-World fairytale about a boy named Tim Ross and the journey he takes to save someone he loves.

The two stories, though seemingly unconnected, nevertheless weave together perfectly, creating a kind of resonant harmony for anyone willing to take the time to truly listen and understand the subtle tones which connect them. 

Though the book can be read and followed as a stand-alone novel, with little of the impact lost, I found myself, as I finished it, finally feeling that deep sense of closure that the original series left me wanting, though I couldn’t yet explain why.  I realize that I probably won’t have to urge fans of the series to read it, as they likely have, but if you haven’t, give it a shot and save this one for last.  It will be time well spent.