Roadwork

Title: Roadwork

Author: Richard Bachman

Published in: 1981

Date read: 20th February 2021

Score: 4/5

Genre: Crime, Psychological

Plot: (Warning, may contain spoilers):
"Roadwork" by Richard Bachman (Stephen King), published in 1981, is a bleak and tragic psychological novel that explores themes of a man's rebellion against an impersonal system, the nature of personal space, and the descent into madness driven by grief and perceived injustice. It stands out among King's works for its relentless focus on human psychological breakdown rather than supernatural horror.

The protagonist is Barton Dawes, a middle-aged, seemingly ordinary man working at a laundry company in a nameless city. His life, already fractured by the recent death of his young son from cancer, is about to be utterly destroyed by an impersonal force: a massive freeway extension project. This project requires the demolition of his home and the twenty-year-old laundry building where he works.

While his wife, Mary, and his colleagues accept their fate and prepare to relocate, Barton reacts with a quiet, simmering fury that slowly escalates into full-blown madness. He refuses to move from his house, believing it to be the last anchor in his disintegrating life and a symbol of everything he has lost. The compensation offered for his property feels like an insult, trivializing his history and his grief.

Barton begins a solitary, increasingly desperate war against the road construction project and the nameless bureaucracy behind it. His actions start small: painting defiant messages on his house, delaying appraisers. But as the demolition deadline looms, his resistance turns violent and irrational. He buys an arsenal of weapons, becoming obsessed with defending his property and his perceived personal sovereignty against the relentless encroachment of progress.

His relationships crumble. Mary, unable to cope with his escalating delusion and violence, eventually leaves him. His colleagues and friends are alienated by his increasingly paranoid and aggressive behaviour. Barton's actions are driven by a deep, unspoken grief for his son and a feeling of powerlessness in a world that seems determined to erase his existence and memories.

The novel is a claustrophobic study of a man unravelling, losing his grip on reality as his obsession consumes him. He becomes a symbol of the individual crushed by the indifferent machinery of the state.

The climax sees Barton Dawes barricaded in his home, armed with his newly acquired weapons, as the demolition crews and police prepare to forcibly remove him. What begins as a stand against eviction transforms into a tragic, self-destructive siege, as Barton chooses to go out in a blaze of futile, desperate defiance, making a final, violent statement against the forces that have dismantled his life. "Roadwork" is a stark and powerful exploration of how a seemingly ordinary man can be pushed to the ultimate edge.

Comments:
This whole book screamed Anger. It was written in a way that made me angry on Barton's behalf. Not my favourite style from King but still an enjoyable book.

Books that we've read by Richard Bachman (6):
Rage (1977), The Long Walk (1978), Roadwork (1981), The Running Man (1982), Thinner (1984), Blaze (2007)