Explosives (novel)

Sprengstoff (in the original: Roadwork ) is the title of a novel by the American writer Stephen King , which was published under his pseudonym "Richard Bachman". It was published by NAL Verlag in 1981 . The German translation by Nora Jensen was first published by Heyne Verlag in 1986.

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The protagonist of the book is Barton George Dawes, manager of a laundry (already known from Carrie ). Together with his wife Mary he lives in a small house in a small town that is not named. The city administration informs the couple that their house will give way to the construction of a new motorway. The laundry is also affected, and Dawes is tasked with organizing both moves. As it turns out, Barton Dawes has not overcome the death of his son, who died three years earlier, and does not want to vacate his house, with which he still has so many memories. Mary leaves him, he also loses his job in the laundry because he has not looked for a new company building and the company now has to be closed.

As the plot progresses, Dawes does more and more irrational things: he buys a rifle, deliberately fails to move his company, takes drugs, and sets off an arson attack on the highway construction site after his attempt to obtain explosives has failed. He suppresses an inner voice (which he calls "Freddy"), which warns him of these self-destructive acts, until it finally falls silent. It becomes clear that he regards his life as a failure on all levels.

Finally (on the last twenty pages) there is a showdown: The alerted police who are supposed to vacate the house are fired at by him with a .460 Weatherby Magnum rifle . Barton George Dawes is preparing for his last media-effective criticism of the construction of the highway. During the ongoing police siege, Barton puts on a The Rolling Stones record. In the background the line of text “You can't always get what you want” ( Eng .: “You can't always get what you want”) from the Stones piece of the same name can be heard when Dawes activated a bomb and passed his house blowing up running television cameras.

Literature and web link

• Stephen King: Sprengstoff , Ullstein Tb, ISBN 3548263313
• Detailed table of contents in KingWiki