I stumbled upon this little novella of Mr King amongst the ‘suggested for you’ Kindle books. It surprised me a little to see a King novel that I both haven’t read AND haven’t heard of, but there it was on the list.
So I quickly purchased it and gave it a whirl.
In typical fashion, Elevation takes place in a small town in Maine: Castle Rock.
Here we meet Scott Carey, a single middle aged white guy, who works at home and gets angry when his neighbours’ dogs poop on his lawn. He’s got a nice little routine for himself, doesn’t put himself out there for anyone, and is a fairly inoffensive fella.
Until one day, he starts losing weight. But this isn’t Thinner! No gypsy curses to be found here. It’s an unsettling situation, as while Scott’s weight drops, his appearance remains unchanged. He loses weight at a steady pace, no matter what he eats or how much he’s holding as he stands on his scales. Each day, the numbers on the scale go steadily down. It’s as though he’s losing density. He still has a paunch, but he’s got more energy as more weight slowly falls off.
Meanwhile, his neighbours (those with the pooping pups) have opened a restaurant in town. As Scott’s weight drops, so do their customers. Their business is failing and it seems as though it’s attributable not to the quality of the food, but to the fact his neighbours are women in a committed relationship. While the town may accept their vegetarian Mexican food, they just can’t accept the two lesbians making and serving it.
This is a weird little story about how those two, seemingly unrelated issues, collide. It’s trying to be about overcoming small town small mindedness. It’s trying perhaps to be a little more profound than it is… But I liked this weird little jaunt into Castle Rock. And as all my focus right now is on getting marathon-ready, any book with a running race in it will gel with me.
I’ll give this one a solid 3 frijoles out of 5.