From a Buick 8

Cabbage is not one of my favorite vegetables. And when I read about the stale cabbage-peppermint smell that floats out every time the Buick 8 snaps open its trunk I wrinkled my nose and let out an "eeeeewwwww"...

Please don't think I have gone nuts. I know what I am talking about and it's about Stephen King's "From a Buick 8". I am reading Stephen King after a long time - I had read his "Thinner" almost 2 years back. But that's because I very well remember the feeling of being left shaken and stirred after watching his "Carrie" and "The Tommyknockers". "Thinner" didn't exactly help the matters. So now the Buick.

For those of you who haven't read this book, here's the story in a nutshell. A Buick Roadmaster drives up to a gas station somewhere in rural Pennsylvania. Its driver goes missing soon after the attendant starts filling the gas. The PSP (Pennsylvania State Patrol), on investigation of the vehicle - which doesn't have any number plates either at the front or at the back - find that there are a few more things that are weird and alien about the car. The car gets relegated to shed B and the troopers get back to their business. But the car has other plans - like throwing out intense lights (what the troopers come to call as 'Lightquakes'), dropping the shed temperature drastically, popping out strange other-worldly creatures and making a trooper or two disappear. And in the midst of all this, Trooper Curt Wilcox and Sarge Tony try their level best to get to the bottom of this mystery.

A thoroughly enjoyable read - except for the rambling philosophical passages that keep coming at regular intervals! Somehow I feel that they diminish the "Horror Quotient" of the book. And all the while I kept on saying to myself "why the hell don't these troopers destroy the car?" I got the answer in the end and I was like "damn, it makes sense". :-)

The epilogue contains author's note about how he thought of this story and makes for a fascinating reading. How I wish I could go and check out that Jenny station that King saw on his road trip :-) One questions remains unanswered though - why the combination of cabbage-peppermint for the smell? Was it perhaps the result of some failed kitchen experiment? ;-)

Oh, I did google for Buick Roadmaster to check out what it looks like. I love cars. But I think after reading this book I will not be caught dead in the vicinity of any car - with or without its trunk open - after dark. And the pun is intended:-)