Insomnia by Stephen King (review)

I have just finished the book Insomnia. I have suffered from insomnia. Much like the main character in Stephen King’s book, I found myself waking up after five hours or four hours of sleep, or less. It would be nice if, like in King’s world, the insomnia gave me superpowers! One wonders if Mr. King has himself had bouts of insomnia, and said to himself, “wouldn’t it be great if . . .”

After the death of his wife, Ralph Roberts finds sleep to become ever more elusive. He gets less sleep every night. But he is also starting to see things, things that no one else is seeing. One might argue that hallucinations might be a side effect for someone who is chronically sleep deprived. But Ralph and his friend Lois are seeing the movers behind the scenes that pull the levers of reality. These would be supernatural movers, similar to the Fates. If one of these movers cuts your string, you’re dead, just like what happens to marionettes if you cut their strings.

Ralph and Lois are given an assignment by two of these entities. They must stop a madman from killing a large group of people. They know when it is going to happen. They know how the mad man is going to do it. It is up to them to figure out how to stop him. But, in addition to seeing things, Ralph and Lois are discovering other superpowers. Among other things, septuagenarian Ralph and his friend Lois are getting younger. It must be nice. All I have ever got from lack of sleep is brain fog.

The story also touches on fanatics, and what it is like to try to reason with a fanatic. Fanatics don’t want an exchange of ideas. They don’t want to hear your opinion unless you parrot what they say. In this sense Insomnia, which was written in 1993 is very pertinent to today’s world.

Along the way, I was reminded again how good a writer Stephen King is. He makes us care about people, not just the protagonists, but forgotten people and stray dogs that most of us don’t think twice about. Now Stephen, if we could just work on making those superpowers a reality, that would be great.

Star Liner

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