In my years as a participant in long-distance runs, I only dropped out of one race. That was the 1983 Columbus Marathon when grinding pain in my knees forced me to quit near the 20th mile. Had I been one of the boys in Stephen King’s The Long Walk, I wouldn’t have had the option of quitting, unless I wanted to “buy a ticket” and be hauled away in a body bag.
The Long Walk is one of King’s earliest works, written before his breakout novel Carrie. The story takes place in a dystopian future America, where people expressing unpopular views get “squaded” and where a shadowy military man known as “the Major” oversees The Long Walk, an annual event. The walk, involving 100 teenage boys called “Long Walkers,” starts at the Maine-Canada border and proceeds south through Maine, New Hampshire, and even Massachusetts. It proceeds up and down hill, and through drenching rain, cold nights, and sweltering days. It doesn’t end until only one boy is left, and as a “prize,” he receives an undisclosed amount of cash and the right to do or get anything he wants, perhaps for the rest of his life.
At the center of King’s story is 16-year-old Ray Garraty, number 47. Much of the plot revolves around Garraty’s feelings about his mother, his squaded (missing) father, his girlfriend Jan, and a childhood friend who died in a bicycle accident. Early on, he forms friendships with several other Long Walkers, most notably Peter McVries, who has a facial scar he doesn’t want to talk about. Not every Long Walker is open to friendship. Obnoxious Gary Barkovitch ridicules those around him, threatening to “dance on their graves,” while loudmouth Collie Parker enjoys being sarcastic and dissing Maine, Garraty’s home state. Some characters are only known by their last names. Most notable among these is Stebbins, a loner who can be philosophical at times and who hides a brutal secret.
Some of the characters are both nameless and faceless. That includes the Major who hides his eyes behind reflector sunglasses, and the carbine-toting soldiers who ride on halftracks and gun down Long Walkers who, after three warnings, either quit or can’t maintain the required 4 MPH pace. Perhaps the most frightening character is the “Crowd,” the mass of humanity that surrounds the Long Walkers, especially in larger cities. King treats it as a living, hungering, clawing creature with almost God-like powers. “Crowd was to be pleased. Crowd was to be worshipped and feared. Ultimately, Crowd was to be made sacrifice unto.”
King does not explain why the boys volunteered for the Long Walk, knowing they would likely die. There are suggestions that some of the boys have a subconscious death wish, but King does not elaborate on that. Nor does he explain how America came to be a police state. People seem to accept it as an unalterable fact of life. Moreover, although some of the boys express hostility toward the Major and the soldiers, only one ever takes action against them.
As in his later work, King uses vivid imagery and clever turns of phrase to make the Long Walkers and their growing misery seem real. “His spine was icy fire. But his feet had headaches and the blood was coagulating in them and swelling them and turning the veins to al dente spaghetti.” King uses adverbs freely in this novel, something he advised against later, but they certainly do no harm. In fact, phrases such as “Garraty dozed fitfully” and “His tin face was hectically flushed” add both color and clarity to the narrative.
Except for the ambiguous ending, I enjoyed The Long Walk. It’s my understanding a film version of the book is in the works. If I go to see it, you can be sure I’ll drive — not walk — to the theater.