Recommendations of the Editorial team
Stephen King – The Ranking
87. “The Dark Half” (1989, German: “Stark – The Dark Half”) ★ ½
The year 1989 was to be a very important one for King. His new novel, The Dark Half, was the first to be published following his withdrawal from cocaine and alcohol. And King wanted to say a proper goodbye to his pseudonym Richard Bachman. The alias was involuntarily exposed by an attentive reader and bookseller. King felt robbed of part of his artistic identity. The novel marked the departure from the fictional town of Castle Rock, which the 43-year-old considered to be exhausted. He would return to the enchanted place again in “Four Past Midnight” (1990) and “Needful Things” (1991).
Stark becomes real
“The Dark Half” is about a parasitic twin named Stark (actually Bachman), who is “absorbed” (i.e. incorporated) by his brother in the womb, but is later kept alive by him as a fictional writer. When the author Thad Beaumont wants to get rid of his pseudonym, the “dark half” cannot accept it. Stark becomes real. Rises from his “grave” and murders in his brother’s private environment until he takes him back into the family.
This is a book that must have been indescribably important to King. The “battle against inner demons”, the expectations of the readers, the fears of the writer. Being taken seriously as a genre author, the fear of blank paper. Only: None of this is of any use to the reader. “The Dark Half” is a tunnel vision story. To speak of luxury fear would perhaps be unfair, but the author has the problems exclusively for himself.
Good old Pangborn
Above all, something like this doesn’t happen to King otherwise, the structure is wrong. The reader learns from the beginning that George Stark walks among the living, while the other characters in the novel, the writer, his wife and the sheriff, doubt, deny, authenticate and then have to accept his existence. The derivation is of no interest to those of us in the know. Things get even worse when the frightened wife reads out loud again what her husband wrote down on paper in his dream madness. And what the reader has already experienced shortly before. This is dramaturgy from soap opera television. Emotions continue to run until we all understand the urgency.
At least King has created a rare sympathetic figure among the cops in Sheriff Pangborn (we will meet her again in a later novel). Finally a police officer from Castle Rock again, like the unfortunate Bannerman (whom Cujo once enjoyed).
Page 445 of 520
But at the latest when Sheriff Pangborn, at this point we have reached page 445 of 520, asks the question: “Can it be that George Stark really exists?”, then something has gone terribly wrong. Detective games are only exciting if you can guess.
The mythology of sparrows – they are considered messengers of death who take a person into the underworld – has its charm. The fact that the birds will actually murder is obvious and weakens the finale.
In the end, King almost manages to turn the corner. The “good” writer Thad Beaumont also reveals his dark side. Part of him would like to be as daring, brutal and smart as Stark. He, who reveals a certain cuteness, only wants his “brother” to send him on new adventures through writing.
The novel ends with Thad covering his face with his hands. A nightmare has been averted. But nothing is clear. Nothing at all. Maybe Stark changed something in him. Maybe he too will live out his dark side.