Lori > Recent Status Updates

Another slow read begins

Last few chapters deal mostly with Frankie "getting right" with god. But the bigger outlook here, IMO, is reconciling oneself to circumstance and not allowing it to cow or subsume your better self.
Appreciating Rena's growth as a human being

Next in the slow read club. Enjoying this, though mostly Frankie's story more than Lorena's.
I can't help but think about this with a 21st century lens, and find some of the action feels not wholly true to the 1930s. Not a big detraction, but it's there.

Abandoning

Another slow read begins, thru ch 8
Vain and shallow the character of Emma comes through early on. Reminds me of so many current American "celebrities," where status and wealth are of utmost importance and dictate one's value

Thru ch 56: character conflict prevails. Harold and Nadine are, per Harold, outsiders, and (he says) outsiders hatch plots. Snd the angst for sending Tom to the west? Whoo boy. Rebuilding America vs creating new world order at play here. Eerie connection to today's world of 2026.

Chs 47-51: again with the Lovecraft references!
Of note: that tech was predominant in LA and San Francisco, and these are the people who most see the world in black and white. Very prescient in today's world.
And: "The beauty of religious mania is that it has the power to explain everything...To the true religious maniac, it's *all* on purpose."

Chs 46 & 47 provide an examination of women and their role in society. While Frannie deplores the "women as chattel" ethos that's maybe resurfacing, she nonetheless decides she "needs" a man. Sigh

Chs 43 & 44 bring a lot of movement forward in character development and some foreshadowing.

Christie carefully lays out class distinctions and sets up the "otherness" of characters navigating the chaos left from war. A note: the small stature but BIG personality of Aristotle.

Starting another slow read

In this last bit of 1st "book" we finally have momentum with additional character development, and survivors moving out of the chaos that was left from the sickness' toll.
Interesting updates (by King) that IMO don't always stand up. And loving the "Easter eggs", eg Harold running while mowing :: Lawnmower Man
Still noodling on King's treatment of women, but not liking it albeit from our new "enlightened" times

This section mostly world and character building.
The 70s framework should have been left alone: it works. The "updates" to modernize when republished, do not work.
With this even more modern reading, the bigotry is not unfamiliar but the words of it are jarring
Amazing: all of this happens within one week. One week! I can't help but think that now, 40 years later, it would take longer. Perhaps not

A challenge: some of King's updates do not make sense. I wish he'd left it all in the 70s. While today's newer/younger readers may not know some of the references, they also certainly don't know 80s references which, in my opinion, jar with some of the nuances that existed in the 70s but not the 80s.

Of note: chapter 16, especially as I already "know" the book/ending, feels like one long foreshadowing.

Doing a slow read of this after finishing my first read (and loving it!) in 1980.
As of 1.26.26 through chapter 25.
Themes I find fascinating: morality vs feeling; faith + judgement
King's treatment of mothers: I appreciate Larry's mother who knows exactly who her son is and loves him anyway