I then realized that I had never read one of King’s books to make my own opinion. I must confess that I was of the same opinion until I heard the renowned Argentinian author Rodrigo Fresán commending “The Shining” as a specimen of “the great American novel”, in his cultural column in the right-wing Spanish newspaper ABC. Stephen King is now fashionable, but for a long time he was considered to be a commercial author of dubious taste, who churned out books that were only fit for the crude entertainment of braindead adolescents. In 2003 the author of the Western Canon, Harold Bloom, dismissed the choice of King US National Book Foundation award, but now prestigious media outlets like The New Yorker or the New York Times Book Review are sing the praises of this author from Maine. Similarly, Hitchcock, the “Master of Suspense”, if it had not been for certain French critics, “Vertigo” (1958) would have never been considered the best film in the history of cinema, demoting “Citizen Kane” (1941). With “The Shining” (1977), King went from being the “Master of Horror” to become the author of the “great American novel”. In it Ewan McGregor plays the role of the little boy in the original film, now grown up.
Now the sequel of the book has been released – “Doctor Sleep”. The obsession with the novel by Stephen King – taken to the big screen by Stanley Kubrick – has led some people to discover their darker side. In the “The Shining”, the monsters and ghosts are real and they live in us.
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