Under The Dome

Under the Dome starts with the premise of trapping a group of people in a particular place, then watching them fall apart. None of the residents know how or why they're trapped within the confines of their town, and that, plus the realization the world outside can't help them, and they don't know when or if the barrier will be lifted slowly panics most of the populace.

Of course, there's always people ready to take advantage, in this Second Selectman James Rennie, who sees the crisis as a golden opportunity to a) gain more control, and b) hide the evidence of his illegal dealings behind convenient scapegoats. A lot of it feels like commentary on our world, though whether that's intentional by Stephen King, or me reading things into it, I'm not sure. I tend to think it was planned. There are people who take it as a sign the people of the town are being punished by God, there are folks who dismiss the idea that resources might need to be rationed, and there are folks who try to hoard everything for themselves, because they consider themselves better than the rabble they lead, Rennie being a prime culprit there. And there are plenty of people who know Rennie's up to no good, but can't bring themselves to do anything about it.

It reminds me of Needful Things, except I think this shows the good side of humanity (as well as plenty of the bad) more than that story did. Plus, there's no force at work trying to actively destroy everything. Rennie certainly doesn't want to be king of a scorched hill, and the forces behind the dome are indifferent. Some of what happens is poor planning, some of it's dumb luck, some of it is the inevitable result of surrounding oneself with yes men. I don't know how feasible what goes on inside the dome is. I didn't have any trouble accepting how things went, but I tend to expect the worst anyway.

One issue with the book being so long (almost 1100 pages) is it takes a long time for some the villains to get their comeuppance. I kept waiting for Rennie to be put out of his misery, and it kept not happening. It's interesting to watch the protagonists keep handling things in mostly the wrong way. When they do confront Rennie or his subordinates, they do so angrily. They demand things, accompanying their demands with threats or outright violence. That never works, they wind up beaten, arrested, or both, and Rennie tells the townsfolk the person in question is some dangerous element, and people largely accept it. The only guy who seems smart enough to remain calm and pleasant is Dale Barbara, and since he's an outsider, people don't wind up trusting him as much as they do people who had lived in town for a long time.

The parts that stay with me the most are a couple of scenes where King provides this 3rd-person overview of some event. At one point townspeople gather at the edge of the dome to appeal to the Lord, lead by one of the pastors. At the same time, same place, a teenager, convinced the government is behind it, has a protest going. And a local businessman decides to have a Dome Party Celebration to get rid of some items he bought too many of. The description of the whole thing reminded me of one of those"How to" cartoons Disney would produce starring Goofy. The ones where Goofy would be trying to demonstrate how to camp, or the perfect workout, but things don't go as smoothly for him as the voice narrating things implies? Probably because whenever those scenes happen in the book, you know it's going to be a disaster. Under the dome, large groups of people equals bad news.