25. Common Sense

One of the things that disappointed me the further I got into this novel was the fact that Stephen King really made Ben Mears and his clan seem rather dumb, if you will. I know that this might be kind of irrelevant to the whole picture, but I felt that it took them forever to realize that Straker and Barlow were actually really intelligent people. I mean, it's common sense to know that Straker and Barlow knew what they were doing when they arrived in the town. Barlow has been a vampire for hundreds of years. He knows what he is doing and he didn't come unprepared for the suspicions of a small town like 'Salem's Lot. I'm sure he's seen it many times before. Near the end of the book is when Ben finally said the following:

pg.356

"He's anticipated us...He's been four jumps ahead every mile of the way. Did we - could we - actually think that he would be blissfully unaware of us? That he never took the possbility of discovery and opposition into account?"

"It's about time" is what I wanted to tell Stephen King. But I guess that was part of his tactic when writing this. He had to drag out the drama. I think that in this case, it might have been better for him to cut down on some of the dramatic effects in order to keep his readers from losing their interest in the main character, Ben Mears. It made me think a little less of his intelligence. It also slowed down the tempo of the book. Maybe Stephen King wanted to slow down the tempo a little bit so he could lead into the ending with more suspense.