Рецензия на книгу

• 

  toliay

  19 мая 2026

  An unexpected epiphany

  This is not strictly a review more of a note on the impact this short story had on me. This impact was significant enough for me to want to share it with other people in writing form.

  As a writer, Stephen King exemplifies the saying "A writer always writes about him or herself". King certainly writes about what he knows and never about what he does not know. One well-known example is him going back to the state of Maine in his works one way or the other. Never having been to the United States, I feel a certain familiarity to the state of Maine of 1940s-1970s as if I had lived there just long enough to develop a light nostalgia for the place. This, among other things, makes King a good writer.

  Another one of Stephen King's virtues as a writer is his word craft. The images of characters, places, and feelings King crafts with his words are always detailed, alive, and yet ever so light. It was as if he found a quick shortcut to readers' imaginations.

  And yet at times I am querying why would Stephen King go on and on about stuff like land ownership backlog, business transaction history, loan agreement details, and shopping lists.

  But while I was reading the "Uncle Otto's Truck" story, it clicked for me. This story is pretty heavy with business talk and it makes up for more than a third of the entire narrative. So, why tell the story of business and property in so much detail? Well, because it's ... American. It is so very American. And yes, it sounds dull and obvious. But the culture gap has never been so exposed to me until I understood why King often writes like this. People born and raised in the U.S. would rarely flinch at stuff like this, I imagine: "Well, duh! No shit!". But I was amazed nonetheless. It is one thing to be throwing around a cliché or two when thinking of an American character or setting. It is an altogether another thing when you read how the writer describes an American character or setting and you smash into a culture barrier that feels as real as a brick wall.

  0

  4