''Roadwork'' is a

thriller Thriller may refer to: * Thriller (genre), a broad genre of literature, film and television ** Thriller film, a film genre under the general thriller genre Comics * ''Thriller'' (DC Comics), a comic book series published 1983–84 by DC Comics i ...

novel by American writer

Stephen King Stephen Edwin King (born September 21, 1947) is an American author. Dubbed the "King of Horror", he is widely known for his horror novels and has also explored other genres, among them Thriller (genre), suspense, crime fiction, crime, scienc ...

, published in 1981 under the

pseudonym A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true meaning ( orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individual's o ...

Richard Bachman Richard Bachman is a pen name (as well as a fictional character) of American horror fiction author Stephen King, adopted in 1977 for the novel '' Rage''. King hid the link between himself and Bachman, until allowing for his identification in 1985 ...

as a

paperback A paperback (softcover, softback) book is one with a thick paper or paperboard cover, also known as wrappers, and often held together with adhesive, glue rather than stitch (textile arts), stitches or Staple (fastener), staples. In contrast, ...

original. It was collected in 1985 in the

hardcover A hardcover, hard cover, or hardback (also known as hardbound, and sometimes as casebound (At p. 247.)) book is one bookbinding, bound with rigid protective covers (typically of binder's board or heavy paperboard covered with buckram or other clo ...

omnibus ''

The Bachman Books ''The Bachman Books'' is a collection of short novels by Stephen King published under the pseudonym Richard Bachman between 1977 and 1982. It made ''The New York Times'' Best Seller list upon its release in 1985. History The book was released ...

''. The story takes place in an unnamed city of the

Midwestern United States The Midwestern United States (also referred to as the Midwest, the Heartland or the American Midwest) is one of the four census regions defined by the United States Census Bureau. It occupies the northern central part of the United States. It ...

in 1972–1974. Grieving over the death of his son and the disintegration of his marriage, a man is driven to mental instability when he learns that both his home and his workplace will be demolished to make way for an extension to an interstate highway. A film adaptation of the novel was announced in August 2019, with

Pablo Trapero Pablo Trapero (born 4 October 1971) is an Argentine film producer, editor, and director.Pablo Trapero
at the

Andy Muschietti Andrés Walter Muschietti (; born 26 August 1973) is an Argentine film director and screenwriter who had his breakthrough with the 2013 film ''Mama (2013 film), Mama''. He gained further recognition for directing both films in the It (novel), '' ...

(director of '' It'' and ''

It Chapter Two ''It Chapter Two'' is a 2019 American supernatural horror film directed by Andy Muschietti from a screenplay by Gary Dauberman. It is the sequel to '' It'' (2017) and the second of a two-part adaptation of the 1986 novel '' It'' by Stephen Ki ...

'') and Barbara Muschietti as producers. As the adaptation is no longer listed on the movie page of King's website, it is likely that the project has been canceled.

Plot

During a

man-on-the-street ( ) is a Latin phrase (originally ''Vox populi, vox Dei'' – "The voice of the people is the voice of God") that literally means "voice of the people." It is used in English in the meaning "the opinion of the majority of the people." In journa ...

news interview in August 1972, an unnamed man (later identified as Barton George Dawes) gives his angry opinion of a new highway extension project. The narrative then jumps forward to November 1973, with Dawes, seemingly unaware of the underlying motivations of his actions, visiting a gun shop and purchasing two high-powered firearms: a .44 Magnum revolver and a

hunting rifle A rifle is a long-barreled firearm designed for accurate shooting and higher stopping power, with a barrel that has a helical or spiralling pattern of grooves (rifling) cut into the bore wall. In keeping with their focus on accuracy, rifles ar ...

chambered for .460 Weatherby Magnum cartridges. The story gradually reveals that Dawes' son Charlie had died of a

brain tumor A brain tumor (sometimes referred to as brain cancer) occurs when a group of cells within the Human brain, brain turn cancerous and grow out of control, creating a mass. There are two main types of tumors: malignant (cancerous) tumors and benign ...

"no bigger than a walnut" three years earlier, and that Dawes is unable or unwilling to sever his emotional ties to both the industrial laundry where he works and the house in which Charlie grew up. The laundry and his entire neighborhood are to be demolished as part of the project. Dawes resigns his

middle management Middle management is the intermediate management level of a hierarchical organization that is subordinate to the executive management and responsible for "team leading" line managers and/or "specialist" line managers. Middle management is indire ...

job at the laundry after sabotaging the purchase of its new facility, and his wife Mary leaves him once she learns of both these actions and his failure to find a new house for the couple. Dawes then approaches Salvatore "Sally One-Eye" Magliore, the owner of a local used-car dealership with ties to

organized crime Organized crime is a category of transnational organized crime, transnational, national, or local group of centralized enterprises run to engage in illegal activity, most commonly for profit. While organized crime is generally thought of as a f ...

, in an attempt to obtain explosives. Magliore initially dismisses him as a crackpot, so Dawes assembles a load of

Molotov cocktails A Molotov cocktail (among several other names – ''see '') is a hand-thrown incendiary weapon consisting of a frangible container filled with flammable substances and equipped with a fuse (typically a glass bottle filled with flammable l ...

and uses them to damage the highway construction equipment. He is not caught, and his actions cause only a brief delay in the project. Dawes initially refuses to accept the money being offered by the city for the house under the

eminent domain Eminent domain, also known as land acquisition, compulsory purchase, resumption, resumption/compulsory acquisition, or expropriation, is the compulsory acquisition of private property for public use. It does not include the power to take and t ...

statute, but changes his mind after the city's attorney threatens to publicize his brief tryst with Olivia Brenner, a young hitchhiker who had previously taken shelter at the house. Magliore has Dawes' house checked for listening devices planted by the city and later agrees to sell him a load of explosives (malglinite). Dawes gives half the money from the house sale to Mary, gives $5,000 to an elderly man in a coffeehouse, and has Magliore invest most of the remainder on behalf of Olivia, now living in Las Vegas, after paying for the explosives. In January 1974, with only hours remaining before he is required to leave the property, Dawes wires the whole house and garage with the explosives and barricades himself inside. When the police arrive to forcibly evict him, he shoots at them, killing no one but forcing them to take cover and attracting the attention of the media. Dawes coerces the police into letting a reporter - the same one who interviewed him in 1972, though neither recognizes the other - enter and speak to him. Once the reporter has left, Dawes puts on "

You Can't Always Get What You Want "You Can't Always Get What You Want" is a song by the English rock band the Rolling Stones from their 1969 album '' Let It Bleed''. Written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, it was named as the 100th greatest song of all time by ''Rolling Sto ...

" by

The Rolling Stones The Rolling Stones are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1962. Active for over six decades, they are one of the most popular, influential, and enduring bands of the Album era, rock era. In the early 1960s, the band pione ...

, tosses his guns out the window, and sets off his explosives, destroying the house and killing himself. His last thought is that while the explosion is cataclysmic, it is no bigger "than, say, a good-sized walnut." Roadwork Editions

A short epilogue reveals that the reporter, Dave Albert, of the fictional television station WHLM, and his team ultimately won a

Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prizes () are 23 annual awards given by Columbia University in New York City for achievements in the United States in "journalism, arts and letters". They were established in 1917 by the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made his fo ...

for their coverage of the incident and uncovered the truth about the extension project: there was no real reason for it. Unless the city built a certain number of miles of road per year, it would become ineligible for federal funding of interstate construction projects. The city quietly began preparing to sue Mary for her share of the eminent domain payout, but dropped the suit in the wake of public outcry. Although the location is never specified in the book, the address M-, W- (page 170) and the mention that the local baseball team is in the American league (page 172) suggest that Roadwork takes place in

Milwaukee Milwaukee is the List of cities in Wisconsin, most populous city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. Located on the western shore of Lake Michigan, it is the List of United States cities by population, 31st-most populous city in the United States ...

Wisconsin Wisconsin ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest of the United States. It borders Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michig ...

Author's comments

In the introduction to ''The Bachman Books'', King stated: "I think it was an effort to make some sense of my mother's painful death the year before – a lingering

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving Cell growth#Disorders, abnormal cell growth with the potential to Invasion (cancer), invade or Metastasis, spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Po ...

had taken her off inch by painful inch. Following this death I was left both grieving and shaken by the apparent senselessness of it all... ''Roadwork'' tries so hard to be good and find some answers to the conundrum of human pain." King also described his disappointment with the work, and stated that he was of two minds about having it reprinted, but decided to proceed, in order to give readers an insight into his personality at the time. In a new introduction to the second edition of ''The Bachman Books'', King stated that he had changed his mind and that ''Roadwork'' had become his favorite of the early books.

Connections to other King works

The mangle in the laundromat where Dawes works is nicknamed "The Mangler", because of "what would happen to you if you ever got caught in it." King had previously published a short story called "

The Mangler "The Mangler" is a short story by Stephen King, first published in the December 1972 issue of ''Cavalier The term ''Cavalier'' () was first used by Roundheads as a term of abuse for the wealthier royalist supporters of Charles I of Engla ...

" (1972), in which a demon-possessed mangle kills workers in an industrial laundry facility. ''Roadwork'' relates a story about a .22 caliber,

single-shot rifle In firearm designs, the term single-shot refers to guns that can hold only a single round of ammunition inside and thus must be reloaded manually after every shot. Compared to multi-shot repeating firearms ("repeaters"), single-shot designs have ...

that Barton Dawes had bought as a boy: In ''

Apt Pupil ''Apt Pupil'' (1982) is a novella by Stephen King subtitled "Summer of Corruption", originally published in the 1982 novella collection '' Different Seasons'' with a more dramatic bent, rather than the horror fiction for which King is famous. ''A ...

'' (1982), Todd Bowden sees an injured blue jay on the ground while cycling; the bird's beak opens and closes slowly. In ''

Desperation Desperation may refer to: * Despair * Panic * ''Desperation'' (novel), a 1996 Stephen King novel set in the fictional town of Desperation, Nevada * ''Stephen King's Desperation'' (film), a 2006 TV movie based on King's novel * ''Desperation'' ...

'' (1996), the character Audrey Wyler recalls:

References

{{Authority control 1981 American novels Novels by Richard Bachman Fiction set in 1972 Fiction set in 1973 Fiction set in 1974 Novels set in the 1970s Novels set in the Midwestern United States Signet Books books