Let The Long Walk Begin...

"They're animals, all right. But why are you so goddam sure that makes us human beings?"

Humans presented as the true monsters is what all the best horror stories entail. Stephen King, no doubt raised on a diet of Rod Serling, Shirley Jackson, and Ray Bradbury, learned such a notion from the best, and he too has explored with wit and depth how malevolent and miserable human beings can be, and are to each other.

King might not be as verbose or fragrant in his prose as his predecessors, but he knows how to push you, headfirst, into the pool of facing reality through a warped lens. So realistic are the worlds and the people he creates that deja vu sets in --- you have encountered such a surreal moment, you're acquainted with that abusive asshole, you've passed through that weird town or even lived in it for a time --- and that dahhling, is the horror in itself, how fiction begets truth.

This aspect is what I've always liked about King's works ever since my Mom (a King fangirl before it was in vogue to be so) allowed me to read and watch the film adaptations of 'Salem's Lot, Carrie, and The Shining as a kid. I was drawn to how a vampire could just move into a small community and separate the strong from the weak, how a meek high school girl's menstrual cycle emboldens her and sparks cataclysmic horror, how a family would just willingly stay at this strange isolated resort, and cave into their own mental madness. For all it's fictitious elements, it all still felt real. What King laid out had definitions, but various shadings, and you can bet even my precious R.L. Stine and Christopher Pike paperbacks began to lose their luster due the types of complexities King coaxed out of his works.

I'll be honest: I haven’t read a lot of King's works, post-1990s that is. I got turned off after Dreamcatcher (farting aliens? Go home Uncle Stevie you are drunk...), and have been content with sticking with the classics. I know. I know. I might be missing out on some gems he wrote (11/22/63 has me intrigued), but I prefer my King old school, so I went old school with The Long Walk, one that he wrote under the Richard Bachman moniker, and was treated to one of his best nightmares set to paper.

The Bachman years dealt with King trying to distance himself from Stephen King: The Brand, and where he could rework and release unpublished material so it wouldn't rot in the depths of his desk. The Long Walk is said to be the first book King wrote, this back in the 1960s when he was in college, and such a fact lends to why this book doesn't feel quite as fleshed-out or rich in character and dialogue as his future works would, but some of the bare nakedness of this heightens the ominous intensity of the plot, as well as provide the reader to put themselves into the literal worn shoes of our doomed travelers, and oh boy, it's brutal.


The Long Walk is a simple story, set in a dystopian environment. Whether its past, present or future is up to interpretation. All that is known is that on the first day in May, 100 teenage boys meet for a race known as "The Long Walk", and whoever is the last boy walking receives an elusive prize. The walk is seen as a spectacle as it's broadcast as entertainment, and treated as if it's the NBA Finals, with tailgating, bets placed, and hometown pride extended towards a specific walker. Of course there are rules to this walk. Each contestant has to maintain a pace of 4mph or more, less than that and he receives a warning. If the contestant can walk faster than 4mph in an hour, then that warning is revoked. Every boy is given three warnings, but if they use up all three, they are shot in the head, and  well, are out of the walk. King would explore a similar theme of "death as entertainment" later on in The Running Man, but in The Long Walk such a game is not played up for futuristic effect, as this walk feels as if it could start tomorrow, and include your brother, cousin, friend, etc.

While reading you may feel like I did: spent, exhausted, and rattled. Drudgery it becomes in spots as King's realistic approach forces you feel your feet pounding the pavement, cringe as your back is killing you, hold back a scream as your tendons feel like they are going to twig snap at any moment. King brings the horror at a central point: within. He completely holds your psyche hostage, constantly posing a question of how our bodies, our minds can endure --- but to what point? Some of the deaths are horrifying, every single one heartbreaking, grotesque.

We also bear witness to the flip side of trauma, how humans naturally bond together in dire, desperate times and the complexities that come with that when the possibility of instant death looms. King twists that knife as in the midst of horror the boys oscillate between having empathy for one another, and desiring death for one of their fellow walkers. We are privy to this through our hero, Garrity, who is seen as a moral character, someone who doesn't want to do harm, but finds himself conflicted whenever he befriends other boys on the walk. The bonds between these boys is definitely fragile, where at a gunshot's notice, they are forced to sacrifice their rapport with each other in order to save themselves.

I'm reminded of something my Dad once told me: "A lot of people don't want to see you do well". It's a cynical thought, but it does fit in how we as humans react when faced with absolute horror, that whatever happens, we're glad when it happens to someone else --- not us. You can bet that most of the boys, whether they took a warning to aid another, or shared a food ration, do feel some form of relief when after a gunshot rings out, they are the ones still walking. King is reminding us in these conflicted moments, that even the most empathetic person can find themselves doing things that are out of context of their character, especially when a gun is being poised at their skull. Talk about horror...

Considering this was the first novel that King wrote, writing it at the time of the Vietnam War, I can only assume that there is an allegory here about innocent young men walking to the gallows due to an unnecessary war cooked up by unseen, but all-powerful government officials. King may be saying that these young men drafted for combat are nothing but pawns used to fulfill a hollow need, and considering the lack of ticker tape and celebration that Vietnam War vets received when they came back home, that is all but true. Throughout the characters in The Long Walk try to conclude as to why they are walking, and though there are many answers, none of them can give a clear or reasonable explanation, as it seemed the walk was the only option. In a way these teen boys were like those being drafted during Vietnam, they were naive at what was to befall them, just as much as they were backed into a corner. Walk or die.

King also makes a salient point about how grotesque our society can be when we uphold such violence. How we relish in making a show out of pain, hate, and death. Long before reality shows and our gruesome politics as of late, the walk is painted as the ultimate form entertainment. Every time a gun shot rings out, people don't weep, they just sit by in shock, or keep on cheering wanting more carnage. Nobody wants to stop it, they want to feed on it, cheer it on, excuse it, and relish that they aren't the ones being shot at.

While reading, a part of me wanted to know how the world devolved into forcing 100 boys on a death march. What was the Major, the commander of this walk, all about, who was he and how did he come to? What exactly was the prize for winning? Then again some of the answers are in our own reality.

A "long walk" is what happens when you have society that doesn’t legitimize what we're actually seeing in order to revise the actual narrative --- you see a young black man running from a cop, but we're told the black man is the "criminal" even when he's unarmed and the cop is the one shooting; when the woman is raped, we're told she asked for it cause she wore a short skirt; we see a political leader tell us the new law he's trying to pass is fantastic, but it's a law that dehumanizes the citizens he's supposed to be responsible for --- see how dangerous this type of revision can be? King is pointing this out with The Long Walk, how easy it is to romanticize and manipulate such abuse, and normalize it.

What is a little frustrating is that throughout this horrifying ordeal, you're waiting for the revolt, for someone to stand up and call out the bullshit and organize a resistance, for these boys to stop zombie shuffling and plot to overthrow. Some try, but they just keep walking cause that's all the choice they do have. Walk or die.

So is it better to walk or die? You might find yourself asking the same question at the end of this, with a sensible conclusion not within grasp.

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from the margins 

• Rating: ****1/2
• 370 pages
• Published April 1st 1999 by Signet; First published July 1979

• I gave a hard eyeroll and a pass when a trailer for a Pet Semetary remake premiered last week cause do we really need that? But interest in King again, this by way of Hulu's homage series Castle Rock, and the money maker that was the 2017 IT remake (which I personally didn't care for), has prompted the Hollywood machine to finally take The Long Walk into consideration for a film adaptation. Yay? 
• Odd that I went through this whole review without even a mention of The Hunger Games franchise, but it's quite obvious author Suzanne Collins cribbed a few ideas from The Long Walk to create the fictional dystopian world of Panem, and its horrific ultimate fight for survival.