Back in 1988, when I was researching my book, THE STEPHEN KING COMPANION, I spent time at the Special Collections at the Fogler Library at Orono, Maine, where the original, typed manuscript of BLAZE had been deposited, along with a number of other unpublished novels. This was what King calls a "trunk" novel, meaning it's a book that he never published; he wrote it and put it in the trunk, thinking it was unpublishable.
Well, when I read it, page by page, from first until last, I felt differently: Unlike, say, SWORD IN THE DARKNESS (a novel about a race riot), which is another trunk novel by King, BLAZE shone with a gritty kind of storytelling that marked King's early fiction. Clearly a homage to John Steinbeck's novella "Of Mice and Men," the story centers on Clayton Blaze Blaisdell, who is party to the kidnapping, along with his party George Rackley; Clayton, whose checkered past -- in and out of orphanages and foster homes -- strikes a sympathetic tone with the reader, as he finds love (albeit one-sided) where he least expects it: the infant he has helped abduct. (You may recall the famous Lindbergh kidnapping in all this, as I did.)
The most difficult thing in fiction is to make the bad guy seem sympathetic, but King pulls it off. In spades. Just as we feel for Lenny in Steinbeck's "Of Mice and Men," so, too, do we feel for Clayton, who is a criminal on the run; he has stolen the infant but, in the process, has stolen our hearts, as well. That is the art of fiction, the art of storytelling, and King's always had that gotta-read-the-next-page-to-see-what's-happened quality.
In King's fiction, the character comes first; the story then comes out of the character. King's modus operandi has always been that if you grow to care about the character, the story will mean something to you; but if the characters in the novel aren't sympathetic, you won't care about their fates and, by the extension, the book itself. So King starts with compelling characters believably motivated and pursuing their own ends.
What most readers probably don't know is that King's royalties on this book go to fund one of his foundations, set up for indigent creators who find themselves in dire financial straits due to no fault of their own. The Haven Foundation is the beneficiary of King's sales, and it's the only foundation of its kind. It's also King giving back to the community that supported him, which speaks of King's enormous generosity. (Wouldn't it be nice if the publisher matched King's donation dollar for dollar? Then the publisher could give back to the community, as well.)
At the Amazon discount, you can't afford NOT to buy this book if you're a King fan or you're a fan of good old-fashioned storytelling. And, as a bonus, your purchase will help, indirectly, freelance writers who these days are the true mavericks, the last of a dying breed. (Long story here, and this isn't the time or place to talk about it.) Suffice it to say that fans who want a taste of the early King will find their appetites more than satisfied with this relentless and unstoppable storytelling engine that propels the reader from first page to last: BLAZE is a meteor cutting a bright swath across the heavens, and you'll find a lot to mine in this early but wholly satisfying story by America's storyteller, Stephen King.
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