Reading the Chunksters discussion

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The Stand
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The Stand 08: Chapters 40-44
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Read it last night and we crossed a bridge now. Going from part one to part two, so the focus will be more on the survivors instead of on the dying I presume ;)
The chapters are longer, and give a better understanding of the main characters.
Harold still isn't my favourite character in the world, he has weasel-like qualities and he makes me feel funny in a bad way, someone to be careful with.
I think we're going to see trouble brewing between him and Stu, concerning Frannie.
I LOVED the Nick chapter, and the introduction of the most loveable character in this book. TOM!! M-O-O-N that spells being a great guy! :)
And I have to admit when Nick thought by himself that bad luck seemed to find him, I was glad he figured that one out by himself. I was happy when at the end his luck changed and they met Ralph.
Larry was being an SOB again and I felt sorry for Rita. Him not even being able to bury the body, was low to the ground.
And the easiness in which he apparently screws, or want to screw women. We begin by the girl in the Bronx who threw her spatula at him (BINGO!), then Rita until she died and now he wants to feel up Nadine?! I bet Lucy isn't safe either!
Larry.. Captain Trips' Don Juan!
Nadine and Joe, two new characters, are a bit of a mystery still. Why is Nadine acting so strange when they talk about Nebraska (and fainting in the end?). What happened to Joe? How does Lucy come into play?
Last but not least. Mother Abigail. It's apparent that she is the antithesis of Randall Flagg in being the good guy. With God speaking to her, I'm not sure she's being dilussional or there are truly divine powers at work against an apparent bad guy with magic powers (remember the floating!). But I'm glad Stu, Larry, Nick, seemingly everyone with good intentions, now have a safe harbour to go to.
And she still bakes her own bread! :)

Dear god, Nick has the worst luck on the planet. I'm glad Tom was able to help save him from the tornado.
Is anyone else under the impression that Joe might be somewhere on the Autism spectrum? That seems to make sense with his not speaking and inherent/prodigy-like musical abilities.
Nath, I'm beginning to see what you mean about Harold--he seems to think that he owns Frannie, though I'm wondering how much of that is from this new world order, and how much of that is from him having a crush on her from before. (He was her best friend's little brother, wasn't he?)
Actually, that seems to be something that might start to run rampant through the new society. Even little Joe seems to think he owns Nadine. The superflu might cause a resurgence of patriarchal society.
BTW, how is everyone keeping up with the accelerated schedule? This chunk seemed to be our longest ever, and I'm wondering if anyone found it difficult to finish.
I'm only a few pages behind, so I think I'm managing the new schedule pretty well.

As soon as I catch up I'll post my thoughts.

Also, I'm very, very curious about what Nadine is hiding, lying about her dreams.
@ Nath: Yes, Larry does seem to think with his man-parts way too often.

I still like Larry. Rita annoyed the hell out of me! I totally understood why Larry would be annoyed w/ her....from wearing the open toed shoes instead of actually conceiving of finding shoes you could walk/travel in.....all the pills. I think she actually survived longer thanks to Larry. I'm not sure that I could bury someone either. He felt bad about it, and as he left he was haunted of the fact that she was still lying there. It's not like he was being casual about it...."Oh, well, bye bye".
Tom Cullen is one of my favorite characters! M-O-O-N...that spells Nick! He is the most endearing character that I think I have ever read!

@Loretta: Nadine has been saving herself too, for someone. Mother Abigail mentioned it that she should give herself to Larry and come to their side. I wonder what's stopping her, because if Larry reads her body language right, she wants to, but something is holding her back.

I'm wondering what Joe's disability is. At first I was thinking he was deaf, but now I'm thinking that more likely he is autistic because he has some forms of high intellect with some behavior and communication deficits.
It will be very interesting to see how Lucy shakes things up between Nadine and Larry.
This section was also interesting because we start to see the intelligence and or skills of the remaining people. We know that Harold is assuming that more people are alive and he needs to make sure that he keeps communicating even in primitive ways. We also saw Larry put together all the clues in his head and he was perceptive that he was being followed but knew enough that he needed to let the people come out when they were ready.
I'm also really interested in the reoccurring dream and how we now know that someone it is connecting the remaining survivors. I am sure more of this will come into importance as the story continues!
Lastly, I apologies for being behind. I have a big portfolio assignment due for my last class and I'm also struggling with a head cold. I assume other people are also behind since the posts have slowed.


@ Everyone else: I got internet access at my new place today, and I'm (mostly) unpacked now, so i think I should be able to catch up and read weeks 9 and 10 over the next couple days. Sorry for the delay!


I lived here for a a few months a couple years back, so I'm excited to really get acquainted with the city.


LOL, and this totally reminded me to go change my location on my Goodreads profile.

BTW I finally got my book back from my sister's so I have finished the first 50 pages of this section. I am liking Nick more and more, he is such a caring person. Lots of innuendo by Mr. King in this section. I loved when he said that Nick was glad to be rid of Julie, but he wasn't really rid of her. Can't wait to see how she comes back into play.
I will post again when I finish mammoth Chapter 44


- Larry is getting better, but he still needs to grow up some and stop worrying what people think of him.
- Just who really is Nadine. She seems one of the "goods", but something about her has me worried.
- I can't wait until people start showing up at Mother Abigail's.
- Joe is an interesting character. I am waiting to see how he develops.

I've definitely been trying to figure out what's up with Joe. As I mentioned above, I thought at first he might be somewhere on the autism spectrum, but since he starts becoming so much more responsive as the chapter goes on, I'm really not sure...

Just a wonder

You might be right about the trauma leading to that behavior though. I've read through week 9 and haven't seen him again, so maybe once we do, we'll figure out if that's the case...





After I finished my finals, I was looking forward to catching up with y'all, then I got sick with what I thought was the flu, but it's looking like it may be this walking pneumonia that's going around. You'd think, being sick in bed, I could have caught up with my reading, but I really haven't had the energy.
And, yes, it is weird reading this book while sick, but atleast I'm past all the people keeling over from the flu phase of the book.

So, I finished this section last night, and, I did notice a few new things this time... the extra information we got about Harold in parentheses, for instance, so funny. That dude is pretty gross, I really don't like him. Still not a big Larry fan, even though I know he's changing for the better. Also, I enjoyed the introduction of Lucy Swann. I remembered her being in the story, but forgot how she was introduced. Joe, I forgot was Chinese. And the tornado scene with Tom and Nick was great. That feeling they both had while down in the storm celler. Wow! M-O-O-N spells spooky!
I don't often re-read any book, but I'm enjoying reading this a second time. I'm picking up things I either missed the 1st time or forgot...
Oh, yeah! I totally forgot about Nick doing it with that psycho in that town where they stopped for Pepto Bismol. Ew!

- Larry is getting better, but he still needs to grow up some and stop worrying what people think of hi..."
You are right to be worried about Nadine ;o)

I've definitely been trying to figure out what's up with Joe. As I mentioned above, I thought at first he might b..."
I think Joe was just severely traumatized, but it really isn't spelled out for us.

Nadine... hm. Jury is still out.
Lucy, for some reason, I got mixed up initially with the crazy psycho that Nick slept with. This suddenly adding new characters throws me off and I'm starting to have trouble remembering who is who.
I like Abigail so far, though. Although this good vs. evil clash could get a little weird.
Sorry for the delay in posting this weeks discussion link, we were trying to work out the kinds with the schedule. The revised schedule is not posten and I hope it works okay for everyone reading along with us. Please let me know if you have any concerns or questions.