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Roadwork (School & Library Binding)

by Stephen King (Author, Introduction), Richard Bachman (Author) "He kept doing things without letting himself think about them ..." (more)
3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
List Price: CDN$ 19.69
Price: CDN$ 14.02 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over CDN$ 39. Details
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Product Details

Product Description

Book Description

Originally written under the Richard Bachman pseudonym, Roadwork is now available completely repackaged and under all-time bestselling author Stephen King's name. In this gritty narrative, a lone man takes on the wheels of progress in a showdown of cataclysmic proportions. When a highway project puts him out of work and threatens to destroy his home, he has more than enough time on his hands to plot his revenge. Driving his wife and friends away with his obstinate refusal to give in, he pushes the powers-that-be to the limit, taking a stand against what he sees as a criminal act in progress. Building to a shattering climax, Roadwork is a suspenseful tale you won't soon forget! --This text refers to the Mass Market Paperback edition.


About the Author

Stephen King, the world's bestselling novelist, was educated at the University of Maine at Orono. He lives with his wife, the novelist Tabitha King, and their children in Bangor, Maine. --This text refers to the Mass Market Paperback edition.
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First Sentence
He kept doing things without letting himself think about them. Read the first page
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Customer Reviews

24 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
3.6 out of 5 stars (24 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars King's "mainstream" novel should not be overlooked, Jul 26 2006
By Daniel Jolley "darkgenius" (Shelby, North Carolina USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Roadwork (Mass Market Paperback)
I think it's safe to say that Roadwork is King's least-read novel, largely because it represented an attempt on King's part to go straight, to prove he could write a mainstream novel. Written in between 'Salem's Lot and The Shining, Roadwork was released in 1981 as Richard Bachman's third novel. I first read it as a young teenager, and I no longer remembered a great deal about it - except that, at the time, I did find it somewhat boring. King himself has never gone so far as to call Roadwork a good novel. Reading it again now, though, I was surprised by the sophistication and emotional power of the story. You almost have to have experienced some of the pressures of adulthood to really relate to the protagonist, Barton George Dawes, and it really doesn't matter that the story is imbedded in the socioeconomic worries of the early 1970s. In its essence, Roadwork is the story of a man pushed beyond his means of coping with change.

On the face of things, Dawes doesn't have it that bad. He has a good wife, a good job, and friends. Inside, though, he is suffering miserably - and has been since his little boy died of a brain tumor three years earlier. Having never allowed himself to grieve properly, his mind proves unable to bear the disruptions caused by a new local road construction project. He's worked for the same laundry since he got out of school, and it will have to relocate elsewhere because of the roadwork - and he is the one responsible for finding a new site. He's lived in the same house since he got married, and it too has a fateful date with a wrecking ball - and he has to find a new home for him and his wife. It's just too much for him, and he can't do it. He lets the deal fall through on the new laundry site, which costs him his job, and he doesn't even go looking for a new house. Haunted by dreams of his dead son, he's already a broken man - even before he loses his wife and basically his whole life.

We the readers basically watch Bart Dawes go insane as the days pass. We watch him lie to his wife and to himself, drink himself into nightly stupors, procure destructive objects from dangerous men, and plot revenge on those who have taken away the few things in life he could cling to. At the center of his problem is Charlie; George can't understand why his son had to die, and he can't bear the thought of his home, Charlie's home, being destroyed. The plot is somewhat analogous to that of the film Falling Down. Even as we watch Dawes do some terrible things, we can't help but sympathize with a man so beaten down by the cruel vagaries of life.

King has said that Roadwork was in some ways a product of the death of his mother. After working hard to raise King and his brother single-handedly, she died just as King's material success as a writer was beginning. The book served as a vehicle to let him work through his own emotional issues over his loss. Why does a loved one have to die? That question permeates this novel. It's a very personal story, but it is one almost any adult reader can relate to very well. King fans who have passed this novel by would do well to go back and give it a chance - it's much different from King's other novels, but it is a surprisingly impressive exploration of emotional disintegration.
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2.0 out of 5 stars does not work, May 7 2003
This review is from: Roadwork (Mass Market Paperback)
this is perhaps my least favorite of SK's horror/thriller. a guy lives where a road is planned. he has to move. his job and marriage gets endangered to, and he decides he wants the roadwork stopped. so he begins taking matters into his own hands. this book doesn't deliver. i got the feeling that the guy was an idiot who deserved what was coming to him, and very little the feeling that the road was to blame. the guy has just sort of given up. i don't feel taht much sympathy for him. i mean: his job is not that great and he endagers it himself, as an example. in the end it all was too little tied up with the roadwork. no great descriptions or psychology either.
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3.0 out of 5 stars Not King's Best Work, April 1 2003
By D. Hennemuth "Madrox187" (Newport, VT United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Roadwork (Mass Market Paperback)
I have read several Stephen King books, and I have become very fond of his work. Roadwork is written by King's alternate personality, Richard Bachman. This is the first book that I've read when King is writing as Bachman, and I'm niether impressed nor disappointed. "Roadwork" is about one man's struggle with life. He's broke, falling out of love, and miserable. When he finds out he has to move due to the construction of a highway, he gets...well...pissed off. This is a novel about retribution, and a vindictive middle aged man. It's very non-King, perhaps this is because he was writing as Richard Bachman. The book interested me, because it was one man, planning one act of revenge. It's definitely one of the more intriguing plots I've seen, but it was a little too shallow.
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 		 Most recent customer reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars A tale of the first energy crisis...
Roadwork starts off suspensefully, as a crazed man with a knack for carrying on conversations with himself buys a high-caliber rifle and a .44 Magnum revolver. Read more
Published on Dec 21 2002 by Joe Kenney

4.0 out of 5 stars Not what I expected, but good nonetheless
This early Bachman novel is a far cry from the normal Stephen King novel (but that was part of the point, wasn't it?). Read more
Published on Jun 27 2002 by Craig Clarke

5.0 out of 5 stars GOOD BOOK
So far "Roadwork" is my favorite King book. It descriibes the story of Bart Dawes, a man working for a laundrymat whose house and job are in the way of a new highway... Read more
Published on April 29 2002 by Nat

5.0 out of 5 stars Kings BEST!!
First of all I'm 14 not 12 like it says above this review. Second this is an awesome novel.King blows my mind with this book. Read more
Published on Dec 12 2001

5.0 out of 5 stars Our global consumer's society leads to violence!!
This is a Richard Bachman book. Here one male individual, due to some roadwork around his home, blows his top and gets destructive against this consumer's society that does not... Read more
Published on Aug 17 2001 by Jacques COULARDEAU

5.0 out of 5 stars There was bound to be a split decision on this one
There are really two classes of King readers. The first are the early-career lovers. These are people who like suspense (though I have yet to learn how you get that from a forum... Read more
Published on Aug 6 2001 by Brian Seiler

3.0 out of 5 stars Progress drives man insane, film at 11:00
A freeway extension is coming through town and causes our main character to lose his house, his job and his mind. Read more
Published on Jul 23 2001 by axiom20

3.0 out of 5 stars A book for people who enjoy test patterns
Roadwork is a novel with short snatches of interesting parts, buried in a whole lotta nothing. Some of the things just didn't make sense, and the unconscience dialogue form he... Read more
Published on Jul 6 2001 by That Guy

3.0 out of 5 stars Hes filled with problems, Roadwork
Roadwork by Stephen King. Is a book that will keep you interested and make you want to keep reading to see what happens. Read more
Published on Dec 11 2000 by Steve

3.0 out of 5 stars Hes filled with problems, Roadwork
Roadwork by Stephen King. Is a book that will keep you interested and make you want to keep reading to see what happens. Read more
Published on Dec 11 2000 by Steve

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