Agony (novel)
Qual is a novel by Stephen King , which he wrote under the pen name Richard Bachman . It was released in 2007.
General
By Richard Bachman's unmasking as a pseudonym of Stephen King 's agony the second novel, yet published the King and Bachman; before that came regulator . King said with a wink that he had found this manuscript in the attic. The original called Blaze has been available since May 29, 2007; the German translation has been available from Heyne-Verlag since August 2007.
origin
Qual is one of King's earliest novels, as he wrote it back in 1973 and thus before Carrie . The book dedicated to his mother is based on Steinbeck's Von Mäusen und Menschen , which King admires very much. In its original form, Qual had 173 pages and around 50,000 words; the English first edition is shortened to 291 pages. The manuscript was once rejected by Doubleday publishers , although King was just having a great success with Carrie . According to King's afterword to Qual , he never sent the novel to a publisher.
At the end of 2006, King's website said that he had to completely rewrite the first 100 pages of the manuscript in order to make it more contemporary. The book appears under the pseudonym because it was written at the same time as the other Bachman books. King himself describes the novel as a tear suppressor.
content
Clayton "Blaze" Blaisdell, after being abused by his father, is a mentally retarded man who develops a split personality after the death of his only friend, the petty criminal George: His former partner still "lives" on in his head and talks to him. To raise money, Blaze kidnaps a child under George's instructions, but quickly develops a relationship with him.
Web links
literature
- George Beahm: Stephen King from A - Z . Missouri 1998.