Back in the first decade of this century (the "Aughts") I was tearing through nearly all of Stephen King's books to date, both novels and collections. One of my favorites...the first time I read it...was his 1994 Insomnia, a story set in his imaginary, sinister Maine town of Derry, site of the events in his earlier tumultuous novel It but set in 1991, six years after that tale's climax. The protagonist is 70-year-old retiree Ralph Roberts, recently widowed and spending his time hanging out with the loose association of fellow elderly friends they collectively dub themselves "the Croaks". As the peculiar change in a younger friend, Ed Deepneau, shows him becoming a violent and dangerously delusional man, the issue of abortion takes center stage and Ed and Ralph's closest friends, Bill McGovern and Lois Chasse, become more and more prominent in the developing narrative. Ralph finds himself in the unsettling position of falling asleep at night easily enough...but he keeps rising out of bed fully awake earlier and earlier each morning until, eventually, he no longer sleeps. At the same time, he begins to see an enhanced hyperreality of auras and strange "people", among them three figures who seem to have both the power and duty designate who will be next to die. Eventually, a lot...maybe a little too much...gets explained as Ralph gets sucked into the monumental struggle that King covers much more deeply within his Dark Tower fantasy series. What appealed to me then...and now...about Insomnia was the attention that King paid to the elderly and their attitudes and concerns. This aspect of the novel gets magnified each time I reread it...this is my third, the last in 2017 (click HERE to read my review from then)...and I'm only four years removed now from Ralph Robert's age. Yet I have to admit that while I considered Insomnia in years gone by as a favorite, I didn't particularly enjoy it as much this time around...I never could get into Stephen King's Dark Tower universe although I read all seven core novels twice, as well as the associated Wind Through the Keyhole. King himself has been critical of this novel, earlier stating that it diverged from his usual writing pattern as he atypically outlined the story in advance...and the Dark Tower series itself seems to distance its narrative from that in Insomnia. But perhaps the most disturbing thing about this story is something that, if I bring it up, is bound to be a plot spoiler...so stop reading this article NOW and go no further if you're planning on reading Insomnia in the future. Still sticking around? Okay, here goes...
Sometimes when I watch certain movies and TV series, especially the ones dealing with crime and violent acts, I wonder whether the writers who dreamed up these fictional scenarios were aware of the many mentally or morally disturbed viewers who might take those ideas and copy them in real life. Insomnia has someone flying on a suicide mission in a plane with the intent of crashing it into a crowded building where a rally is going on. I wander what Stephen King felt seven years later on the morning of September 11, 2001, when this idea was implemented on a much more massive scale. Is there any concern felt by writers that the villains of this world might just adopt some of their material? Not that this sort of thing was original in Insomnia: it goes back to the desperate Japanese suicide kamikaze attacks against American ships during the final months of World War II. By the way, the excellent 1975 Robert Redford spy thriller Three Days of the Condor takes up this concern of life imitating fiction as well. Anyway, I've read Insomnia three times now...that's probably enough, especially considering all the other books out there waiting for me. But I still think that King did a wonderful job with his characters and his empathetic treatment of the elderly...
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