Stephen
Kings Rage is the only Stephen King novel that you can’t walk into a bookstore
and find on the shelves. Rage was the first novel that the author published
under the pseudonym of Richard Bachman. The book was first released in 1977 and
it was also included in the omnibus collection of; The Richard Bachman Books in
1985.
The book's
plot is very different from most Stephen King or Richard Bachman books. Rage,
tells the story of Charlie Decker, a high school senior, who is called to the principal’s
office following a violent incident involving Decker, his chemistry teacher and
a pipe wrench. Charlie is expelled from the school and storms out of the principal’s
office, gets a pistol and steps the locker ablaze. He then returns to his
classroom, shoots his algebra teacher and takes his classmates hostage.
What follows
is the four hour standoff and negotiations between Charlie Decker and the
authorities outside while, inside, the Decker’s classmates begin to relate to
Decker in a definite case of Stockholm syndrome and point they even stop a
fellow classmate from escaping and beat him.
Stephen King himself asked his publishers to withdraw
the book from print because he felt that the story was too similar to some real
classroom shootings. At first, the book was still available as a part of the
collection, The Bachman Books, but current editions of that collection also now
do not include rage.
There have
been several occasions where Stephen Kings Rage has been connected to real high
school shootings, including the case of Jeffrey Lyne Cox, who held classmates
hostage in California with a semi-automatic rifle. A copy of The Bachman Books,
which included Rage, was later found his locker. The case of Barry Loukaitis,
from Washington, where the student shot his algebra teacher and fired on the other
students and in December 1997, Michael Carneal shot eight of his fellow
students at a prayer meeting in Kentucky and a copy of Rage was found in his
locker too. It was this final incident that is said to have finally motivated
King to have the book taken out of print.
Though the
book may not be seen as one of Stephen King’s greatest, but it does explore the
phenomena of high school shootings and what causes a very small minority of
young people to do such evil and how thin the line can be between internalised
pain and that pain exploding violently.
Buy Stephen Kings' Rage here:
Rage, the novel by Stephen King, is now out of print at the author's request, but you can still buy copies the very collectable Rage here:
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Eight bestselling books that have been banned, rejected or thrown away.
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