The novel Stephen King admits is “clumsy and artless”
As the most prolific living author and master of the thriller genre, Stephen King is a true literary sensation. Even if someone isn’t an avid reader and haven’t yet humoured his words, finding a person who hasn’t sat down to watch one of his innumerable movie and television adaptations would be more than challenging. His most notable film-adapted novels include iconic pictures such as The Green Mile, The Shining, The Shawshank Redemption, Stand by Me and Cujo.
Since his first published book, 1973’s Carrie, King’s unrivalled talent for concise, tension-driven storytelling has been outshone only by his wild, rampant imagination. King’s literary itch has thus far graced us with 64 published fictional novels and upwards of 200 short stories. Despite being in his autumnal years, the author doesn’t appear to be slowing down and continues to write novels at a frantic pace.
As any author will say, writing is a talent earned through hours upon hours of reading and writing practice. It would be logical to assume, therefore, that King’s weakest material lies at the very beginning of his catalogue. The candidly critical creative has, on several occasions, supported such a hypothesis in rather negative appraisals of Carrie.
As well as being King’s first published novel, Carrie was his first to be adapted for the big screen. In the mid-1970s, director Brian De Palma read the book and immediately sought adaptation rights.
“I read the book. It was suggested to me by a writer friend of mine,” De Palma recalled in a 1977 interview with Cinefantastique. “A writer friend of his, Stephen King, had written it. I guess this was almost two years ago. I liked it a lot and proceeded to call my agent to find out who owned it. I found out that nobody had bought it yet. A lot of studios were considering it, so I called around to some of the people I knew and said it was a terrific book and I’m very interested in doing it. Then nothing happened for, I guess, six months.”
Eventually, word seeped through to King, who was 26 years old at the time. Delighted that his debut would be taken to the screen, he accepted just $2,500 for the rights. De Palma released Carrie to widespread critical acclaim.
Although Carrie gave King an important leg up into the literary and cinematic spheres, he’s long maintained that he was unhappy with the story. In his autobiography, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft, King recalled throwing the initial Carrie manuscript in the bin and only persevered with the idea because his wife Tabitha saw its potential. “You’ve got something here,” King recalled her telling him. “I think you really do.”
Speaking to Playboy in 1983, King expanded on his self-critique. “I’m the first to admit that it is often clumsy and artless,” he said of the book. “But both creatively and financially, Carrie was a kind of escape hatch for Tabby and me, and we were able to flee through it into a totally different existence.”
In his memoir, King also noted that he was never drawn to the lead character, Carrie White. “I never got to like Carrie White, and I never trusted Sue Snell’s motives in sending her boyfriend to the prom with her, but I did have something there,” King pondered. “Like a whole career. Tabby somehow knew it, and by the time I had piled up fifty single-spaced pages, I knew it, too. For one thing, I didn’t think any of the characters who went to Carrie White’s prom would ever forget it. Those few who lived through it, that was.”
Watch the trailer for Brian De Palma’s Carrie below.
