You Ought to Read “The Running Man”

It wouldn’t have been a weekend out in cottage country without an old novel, and this time around I decided to go with The Running Man. It’s one of the more notable books that Stephen King wrote as Richard Bachman, and it’s one of his better ventures into science fiction and social commentary.

You may have seen the movie, but if you’ve read the book as well, then I don’t have to tell you that the movie’s a loose adaptation at best. King himself noted that the version of protagonist Ben Richards found in the novel is “as far away from the Arnold Schwarzenegger character in the movie as you can get.”

According to On Writing, which is another book I really ought to get around to reading, The Running Man was written in a single week. King describes it as “a book written by a young man who was angry, energetic, and infatuated with the art and the craft of writing.”

The frantically paced and ultimately grim product of that week in the early eighties is definitely in keeping with King’s description, and certainly more compelling and provocative than the film. Do check it out.

Posted in You Ought to Read