Dead Zone (Signet) (Mass Market Paperback)

Like King's epic "The Stand," the story of Johnny Smith takes as its genesis the idea of "not the potter, but the potter's clay." Johnny Smith is just a young school teacher out on a date with Sarah Hazlett at the cheap carnival that has come to town. Things are going well for the couple when they stop to play the wheel of fortune and Johnny predicts the number that is going to up next, time and time again. The experience upsets Sarah, but things go from bad to worse: on the way home Johnny's cab is in a horrible accident and he goes into a coma. When he comes out of it five years later he discovers the world has changed: Nixon has resigned, Sarah has married someone else and there are strange new devices called Flair pens. But Johnny has changed too. Now when he touches somebody he can tell them things, such as where they lost their wedding ring, that their kitchen is on fire, that their long lost mother is alive and well. Johnny Smith is an ordinary man with an amazing gift that terrifies not only others but himself. Certainly, this is an engaging premise: if you were a mind reader what would you do?

But what makes this one of King's best novels is that he ups the ante for his reluctant hero. At a chance meeting during the New Hampshire primary Johnny shakes hands with Greg Stillson, a political thug who is running a low brow populist campaign. In that moment Johnny knows, he absolutely KNOWS that Stillson is going to become President of the United States and start a nuclear war. "The Dead Zone" now becomes about the fact that with great power comes great responsibility as Johnny has to convince himself not only that he should act, but that doing so would be any good. The narrative/argumentative structure of this novel is one of King's best as events concerning Johnny's power lead him step by step to his fate. This is a compelling tale, well told (with the exception of an unnecessary mention of "Carrie"), and more than adequate evidence of why King is one of the best selling authors on the planet.

If you could go back in time to 1932 and meet Adolf Hitler, would you kill him? That's the question that ultimately comes to consume Johnny's mind as this story nears its end. Would you sacrifice yourself for the lives of so many other people, virtually all of them strangers?

John Smith is just an ordinary fellow; he's got a job he enjoys, he's fallen in love with a good woman, and he's as happy as he's ever been. Then The Accident happens, and Johnny wakes up to learn that his world will never be the same. He's been in a coma for well over four years, and he faces a painful road to recovery both mentally and physically. His girl has married someone else, his mother has gone off the deep end of religious zeal, he faces painful, scarring surgeries in the brutal months ahead, and he really struggles to find a reason for living in such a harsh new world. He has gained something from the awful experience, however, and it's both a blessing and a curse. At times, he can see the future just by touching a person or an object. It's a frightening power, one that alienates him even further from those around him. When word gets out, he finds himself deluged with pleas for help from people all over the country. All he wants is to live an ordinary life again, but his psychic powers make this impossible. His mother believes God has special plans for Johnny, and in the end he thinks she may be right. He alone, as things turn out, can save his country and maybe the entire world from devastating future destruction wrought by a madman.

Smith is one of King's most sympathetic characters. He's one of us, really, and we suffer along with him as he starts life anew. His physical problems are horrendous, but they pale in comparison to his emotional loss. He's lost his girl, yet he can't even blame her for thinking he would never recover and thus starting her life anew in someone else's arms. He doesn't know what to think or do about this strange power he has developed; it scares people, and it scares him - yet he knows it allows him to do some good things for people. He also knows he can't run away from it. The problem is that no one really believes his predictions until they have proven themselves to be accurate. That is why he has to make the most heroic, most gut-wrenching decision of his life completely on his own.

John Smith is a fabulous character, and The Dead Zone is a truly masterful modern novel. While some of the subtext of the story is rooted in the 1970s, this really is a book for all seasons. It will never make my list of King's top five novels, but it's one of the most compelling stories you'll ever read.