I love it! My review of The Institute was banned by
Here is the review in full:
Classic King
This isn’t my favorite King, but if page-turning suspense counts for something, it’s very good. King is, after all, a master storyteller. I just had to keep turning the pages. Some of his books are better at evoking small-town life, family dynamics, multifaceted relationships, or just plain creepiness, but in terms of getting the reader to root for the protagonist, Luke, and making the situation as dire as possible, he succeeds admirably with The Institute.
But The Institute also exposes King’s current weaknesses. His editors must be reluctant to cut anything, which leads to some irritating repetition. There are numerous instances where Luke’s inner monologue is presented by an omniscient narrator who qualifies and retracts as he blathers on. It might sound something like this: “The old woman reminded him of a quiet and kindly grandmother, or maybe not a grandmother, more like a nosy neighbor who keeps her mouth shut and her ears wide open in order to glean information. After all, you didn’t learn anything new by talking.” That’s my sentence, not his, but it serves as an example. Half of that sentence is extraneous, and this reader found passages like it, annoying enough to break the flow of the narrative.
One of King’s hallmarks has been a knowledge of cultural touchstones, and how to use them to give a story an immediacy and context. Television shows, music, and historical events are referenced, to ground the narrative in culturally shared experiences, and place the action firmly in a particular decade. Unfortunately, many of his references are no longer relevant or accessible to a younger generation, at whom the book seems to be targeted.
Lastly, if I were his editor, I’d cut some of the scatological references. It’s damn near a pathological obsession, and it gets awfully old when you know it’s coming, as surely it must if it’s a Stephen King novel. I’m not a prude, and a well-placed shit or piss is not going to shock me, but the constant shit sandwiches, crapped pants, wet crotches, and peed beds are just irritating at this point. Or maybe that’s just me.
Nonetheless, here King takes on some big themes — the powerless versus the powerful; injustice; the dangerous mindset of the zealot; the need to question authority. He might have mined these themes in a novel about a Nazi extermination camp, and I’m sure he’d make it terrifying, but by setting it in the U.S. in the present day, he gives himself the latitude to explore our contemporary moral vacuum, the constant struggle of good versus evil, logic versus magical thinking, and the responsibility that comes with real freedom. Kudos to King.
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