Salem's Lot

Finally reading a Stephen King is an enlightening experience. Salem's Lot appears to encapsulate much of what is great in King's work as well as horror fiction, a genre I have not dabbled much with besides Poe and Lovecraft in the distant past. Thus, playing catch up with a classic King tale of vampires in a small New England town was a useful learning activity. King's prose is direct, life-like, and builds its setting through nearly flawless exposition. The masterful use of suspense juxtaposed to seemingly excessive description of Salem's Lot and its residents works excellently to persuade readers to invest themselves emotionally into the characters of Ben, Mark, and others. Nonetheless, as a fan of Castle Rock, this novel excels in its depiction of small town life and its intersecting personalities, families, conflicts, and relationships. There is much more to the narrative than vampires taking over a declining Maine town. Themes of loyalty, sacrifice, courage, corruption, as well as war occupy a central role, as numerous references to Vietnam and other contemporaneous events make clear.