smokin'

There is a lot of smoking in this novel. Ben smokes, Susan smokes, Sheriff Gillespie smokes. Hell, even Straker smokes! Maybe it’s just the era of the early 1970s, but I think having a lot of the characters smoke speaks to their nervousness and high level of stress. It gives the novel a gritty feel. A real feel. It reminds of the novel The Killer Inside Me by Jim Thompson. A suspenseful murder mystery surrounding a sociopath that involves a lot of smoking. That novel has a very stressful feel about it, and so does ‘Salem’s Lot. The sheriff, Gillespie, seems to always be smoking a pall-mall. Having the sheriff constantly smoking is an interesting device King uses. He appears to be the most stressed out member of the town. And if the sheriff is the most stressed out character in the town, something mustn’t be right. Something bad must be about to happen…. Or maybe all the mention of smoking is just a simple marketing ploy. As a former smoker myself, whenever I see, smell, or read about smoking I want a cigarette. King’s novel caused me to think about this as a possibility because of his use of real brand-name cigarettes, i.e. Parliament and pall-mall.