REVIEW: Cell

Cell
by Stephen King
Read by Campbell Scott

At first I thought that a strong reader might not be needed for this book, but as it dragged on, and he droned on, it was apparent that the reader affected my experience on the whole. He droned, as I said, with a nasally flat intonation, which was infrequently interrupted by overdubs that sounded like someone else. There is little differentiation between characters, and the enunciation leaves a lot to be desired. Although an accomplished actor, seen recently on TV in Damages, Mr. Scott is not a real strong voice in this work.
Though King never uses the word zombie, this story would probably make a good zombie movie. The ending would have to be changed for the movie masses, but the cell-phone-as-WMD idea is certainly timely. Endings are an apparent weakness of King’s. He often claims that the story tells itself, that he is just the scribe, but it seems to me that NOT using the pop culture word of the day is a distinct choice.
The characters are authentic; certainly a strength of King’s, but something is still missing. The narrative always seems to be on the verge of exploding into either action or social commentary, but never quite succeeds at either. The end result is an uncertain series of scenes with very little resolution. Perhaps that was King’s intent, but it is ultimately unsatisfying.