J.P. Linde takes "The Stand"

So, I am reading Stephen King’s The Stand for the 3rd time. My Captain Tripps history goes back over 40 years, reading it for the first time in 1978. Twenty years passed, and the complete and unabridged version had just been released so naturally, I had to read it again. Thirty years later and and this will be my 3rd time (again the complete version) for Linde Family Book Club (which meets by phone every other Sunday at 4 pm if you’re interested in becoming a member). To say this opus of horror is one of my favorite books is an understatement. To say it is one of my favorite novels, might be. For the record, East of Eden by John Steinbeck is my favorite novel. I hate to get all nitpicky, but I think there is a fundamental difference between favorite book and novel and that’s what we are going to explore today on snob corner. 
 
For sheer literary beauty, Steinbeck’s novel is unsurpassed. The prose is nothing short of hypnotic and the story is so rooted in the human condition that you can’t help but learn about yourself and your fellow man. Grapes of Wrath was once my favorite novel as was Cannery Row but, that is the wonderful thing about favorite authors and novels, they can change depending on age, status or mood.
 
But King’s classic story of good versus evil remains a book I can’t help returning to. The Stand is just a damn good yarn, pure and simple and there is no shame in preferring it over other literary giants. Hey, don’t get me wrong. There is some damn good character work in King’s work as well. M-O-O-N that spells good character work. 
 
I find myself drawn into the story easily because it has one foot grounded firmly in reality while the other languishes about freely in King’s fertile imagination. The Stand is mythic in structure and holds one’s interest from page one. High praise indeed. There are only two other books that I have read as often. Each are about as long and of both, I would say the same things. If you are interested, they are Lord of the Rings by J.R.R Tolkien and Herman Wouk’s The Winds of War. These two also happen to share certain things in common. Both are damn fine yarns (one based in history), both are epic in scope and both concern the battle between the forces of good and evil. 
 
So, Linde, what’s the big diff between greatest novel or greatest book? Or are you just a snob? Well, I am definitely a snob but let me try and break it down in just one single one line of King’s prose. 
 
And I am quoting directly here:
 
“Baby can you dig your man?”
 
Do I need to go on?
 
“He is a righteous man!” 
 
I think this one quote sums up my entire argument. It’s not a big deal really. Afterall, the lyric of Larry Underwood’s hit song is merely a device to get Larry from nobody to somebody, to survivor of a global pandemic. However, my guess is the total time it took the author to come up with this lyric must have been a literal nano second. 
 
I am only suggesting that the author of what I consider to be the greatest novel may have taken a bit more time before settling on the above choice.
 
But…
 
When you are concentrating on telling a great story, you do not always have to spend hours finding the perfect words to tell it. Hell, that may even slow you down. The choice merely has to be not so glaring that it takes you completely out of the story. There are thousands of such examples in literally hundreds of Kings’ other stories and yet they are some of the most popular that have ever been written. And, for good reason. Sometimes word (or lyric) choice is not all that important when writing a book that was meant to be read three times.