The Dark Tower: The Wind Through the Keyhole

I'm mixing things up a bit. Stephen King spent more than thirty years writing the seven books that constitute his Dark Tower series, going in chronological order and wrapping things up in 2004. But then in 2012 he released this little 400-page nugget taking place between the fourth and fifth books. I guess technically that makes this the fifth book, and the old fifth book, Wolves of the Calla, the sixth book - and I guess the whole series is now eight books long - but it's so much easier and cleaner just to treat The Wind Through The Keyhole as an addendum to the series rather than a key component. Because really, that's what this is. Sure, it's 386 pages long, but only about 50 of those deal with Roland and his ka-tet between the events of Wizard and Glass and Wolves of the Calla. Another 135 dealt with Roland's past, and the final 200 or so - the majority of the novel - were spent on a Mid-World fairy tale of sorts. More on all this shortly; it's time for bullets!

• So first of all, yeah, this really wasn't a Dark Tower book. If I'm being cynical - and when it comes to Stephen King, I always am - then I'm accusing King of coming up with a so-so fantasy novella, then deciding to set it in Mid-World and frame it with Dark Tower characters in order to appeal to a wider audience. And it worked! Within weeks of the book's release, all three blog members who'd read the series had also read the book and made their posts. Quickest "Hall of Fame" entrant we've ever had.
• The structure of the book was that of a story within a story within a story. Nested stories are a fine format to use, but I've never personally been a fan, for whatever reason. A small tale or character history told amid a sprawling epic is fine, but when the bulk of the story you're telling is essentially about someone telling a story, why bother with the framing device? Wait, I'll stop and let "me back in 2010 reviewing The Turn of the Screw" take over: "...And just like that, the group of people I had come to appreciate had vanished away as nothing more than some kind of meaningless prologue. I've already said that I've already said this, and in fact I said it rather recently when reviewing another turn-of-the-century novella (Heart of Darkness), but what the fuck is up with this story-within-a-story bullshit? There are many instances in literature and storytelling where the double-layered story works well as a plot device, but you can't just bookend a story irrelevantly with a second narrator who tells the tale. That's just bad writing!" Wow! Now I've already said that I've already said that I've already said it!
• Having copied and pasted all of that, I was actually okay with the way Stephen King went about his business here. I still think a pure Roland backstory would have been more germane to The Dark Tower all in all, but the combination of this book's three nested parts did help with the world-building and characterization I've long accused the series of lacking.
• Stephen King would prefer that you call this book - brace yourselves - The Dark Tower IV.5. Just tossing decimals after Roman numerals like it's not a heinous abuse of two distinct numbering systems. Please, if we must assign a number between four and five to this, can we go with The Dark Tower IVS instead? I mean, come on, Stephen. The Romans had ways of saying "and a half." Use Google.
• Let's start in the middle and work our way outward. The Mid-World fairy tale, the "Wind Through the Keyhole" story at the center of The Wind Through the Keyhole - did I like it? Meh. It was fine, and in its brevity alone it was more tolerable than all kinds of King's work I've read. But I can't say I'll remember it for its plot, its characters, or anything else about it. At best, it serves to build Mid-World's history and lore, which is nice, but has nothing to do with our characters or their quest to reach the Dark Tower.
• The middle layer was easily my favorite. Young Roland, fresh off the dual tragedies that he endured in Wizard and Glass, is sent on a quest by his father to a town plagued by a shapeshifting murderer. It's the type of stuff King excels at - small town settings, creepy vibes, gory deaths. But most of all I loved that Roland narrated this portion in the first person. Finally, at long last, we're getting the series protagonist's thoughts straight from his own mouth. One minor grievance I had with the Wizard and Glass flashback was that Roland was ostensibly the narrator, yet the events were told in the third person and from multiple points of view. Like, how does Roland know what Rhea of the Coos was doing in her little witch hut before he even arrived in that town? Because that's where his own flashback opens up. A nitpick, sure, but my larger point is that King's doing it right this time around. Hooray!
• The outermost shell of the story just involves the ka-tet taking shelter from a vicious storm that sounds exactly like the climactic super-freeze from The Day After Tomorrow. King calls the storm a "starkblast," which is a reference to the Starks and their house words - "Winter is coming" - from A Song of Ice and Fire. Neat! As a framing device around a framing device, this story layer was somewhat barren of content, but it was still nice just to see the characters interacting and working together to save one another's bacon. I imagine that for King and his long time readers there was a nice nostalgic aspect at play here, but even without that added emotional pang, I enjoyed the whole ordeal just fine.
• Sween wondered in his post if reading the series in new chronological order - like I am - would leave readers frustrated by back-to-back flashback books, wishing the plot would churn forward toward the Dark Tower again. I can only speak for myself, but, honestly? Not at all! Roland's Dark Tower quest has always been ill-defined and non-exciting to me; it's the deeper character moments that I've enjoyed so far, and since these last two books were full of them, I'm enjoying the series now more than I was at any point during the first three books. But that's just me!
• Trev asked in his post if the Covenant Man in the fairy tale was supposed to be the same "Man in Black" from Roland's world. Sween didn't think so, but I do - mostly because he leaves a note for Young Tim signed "RF/MB," which I took to stand for "Randall Flagg/Marten Broadcloak," which are both aliases for the Man in Black, unless I've missed something. I dunno. I'm not sure what it would even entail if the Covenant Man was the Man in Black. That guy has always been an enigma to me, and I have no idea how many people he is at this point, or what extent his powers have, or what his intentions are, or whether or not he wants Roland to make it to the Dark Tower, or even whether or not he's still alive. I blame the unprecedented shittiness of The Gunslinger for all of this. Fuck that book.
• Marissa said in her post that she liked the throckens in this book. I thought those were just billy-bumblers! Are they not?
• Look at me, guys, discussing the series with you all, two and a half years after you've all finished it. Isn't the blog great?

And that's a wrap. Long post! I'll be back soon enough, I'm sure, but that's enough Stephen King for me in 2014. The adventure continues a few months from now!