Available at the Worth County Partnership Library, located on the south side of the school. Open weekdays from 1:30-5:30 and when school is in session.
"Doctor Sleep" compares and contrasts the best of human nature with the worst. Dan Torrance is capable of both. He leaves a drug-addicted mother and her small son in the hands of her abusive older brother as he drifts from town to town looking for work. But he also has an uncanny ability to comfort dying people as they are about to pass to the next life -- hence his name, "Doctor Sleep."
Finally, Dan finds a home in small town New Hampshire, where he finds a steady job, support at the local Alcoholics Anonymous, and stability. But the story has just begun. "Doctor Sleep" is a story about the conflict as Dan battles himself. A sinister order, older than even Babylon, is driving around the US in their RV's and trailers. They seem like innocent American families driving around the Interstates and blending in with the country. All their papers seem to be in order and they are multimillionaires.
But things are not as they seem. This order is in actuality, a group that kidnaps and murders talented and gifted children. Now, they have their eyes on Abra, a young girl more talented than anyone in recent memory. Dan must come to terms with his past in a way that few people can, or he will not succeed in defeating this order.
The book is organized around the tenets of Alcoholics Anonymous and its 12 steps. As characterized in "Doctor Sleep," six out of seven members walk out the door at some point and return to their drinking. It is the seventh person whose life is miraculously transformed which causes the organization to thrive. AA is about people helping people. The two men who take Dan Torrance under their wings and hire him, Billy Freeman and Casey Kingsley, remark that he needs them more than they need him. Yet it turns out that Casey needs Dan just as much as Dan needs Casey.
As sinister as the stories are that we read about the insidious spying and tentacles of the police state, Stephen King can always dream up something that is much more sinister that has nothing to do with Big Brother. Some of the moral turpitude that we come across in his book is not fit to describe in a family-friendly publication. But exploring the depths of human depravity and exploring the limits to which one can fall and still recover is essential for the plot of the book.
We all are born with both gifts, failings, and are blessed with people who see our potential even when they are complete strangers. The moral of the book is that in order to completely turn one's life around, one must face up to even the most awful things that one did, no matter how horrifying they were. To do otherwise could result in falling off the wagon and going back to the bottle. But it turns out that most of us have all been there at some point -- making bad choices, hitting rock bottom, and having to make changes in one's life.
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