Mr. Al Silverman
Penguin USA
375 Hudson Street
New York, New York 10014-3657
Sep-19-1994
Dear Al,
I read The Weatherman with mounting excitement and a sense of involvement which few novels can elicit in me these days. It has one of the highest take-off points of any novel in recent memory—the first forty pages of this book would serve as the climax of most books—and from there it just keeps on shooting the thrills and suspense. I found myself thinking of Nelson DeMille at points, but Steve Thayer is funnier than DeMille, and The Weatherman ends up being a kind of Midwestern Bonfire of the Vanities, with a generous dollop of Theodore Dreiser thrown in for seasoning.
Thayer’s style is actually reminiscent of Dreiser’s—not much of a compliment, many would say, but I always liked the way Dreiser wrote; there’s a strong sense of “what you see is what you get” in his fiction. He said in style as well as substance that this is all there is, there ain’t no more, I’m telling you everything I know, not holding back a damned thing, and every word is true. There is much the same sense about the Thayer novel. The style is plain, almost ugly, but there is that bright leavening of humor and the clear sense that the man knows everything he’s writing about—Minnesota history, Minnesota politics, and, most of all, Minnesota weather. His understanding of the broadcast news business—as brainless as a deep-sea squid, and every bit as hard to kill—is the keystone of the book, and I intend to recommend it to everybody I know in that field.
Basically, Al, what I’m edging around is that I suspect this book is Literature, and that it may be around for awhile. I think it’s also got a good shot at hammering the best seller lists, with shrewd marketing (“The Weatherman—He Looms!”) and lots of in-house enthusiasm. I’m certainly enthusiastic; as a rule, nobody sends me books this good. I usually get stuff like Touch the Testicles of Dracula and Where Are the Rug-Rats? This is a wonderful story, one that will stay in my memory for a long time.
Stephen King
Bangor, Maine
By fax