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This book has almost no plot. However, King's prose saves the day a lot. Despite almost no plot, it was not a torture to read about (except very rough and meandering first part). King has great character work, great situations, great setting - but no plot. And somehow he is able to pull that off so I don't hate the book. That is a very high achievement to me, subjectively. Also objectively to write a book of 1,200 pages with almost no plot, you have to be a genius.

I still think this book needs to be trimmed. Maybe not the original 400 pages trim, but quite a substantial amount. As I mentioned above, Part I was quite meandering and I suffered a bit reading through it. It had very small chapters, always jumping between the characters, telling their backstories, sad live stories at the current time, and making sure we know that everybody around them is getting sick with the flu. There were some good scenes, and some people would call that breathing life into characters, or character development. But there's a degree where all these little and unnecessary details are too much. And that was definitely the case with the first part in The Stand.

Also, for 25% of the book almost nothing happened, and despite all these great deep characters I didn't feel like I could be attracted to characters or sucked in into the story if nothing happens. There were also pages and pages of unnecessary information, that bogged down the narrative. What was the purpose of telling us short stories about how people, who are not even the characters in the book, died, if you already have like 15 characters that I need to keep track of in my mind, and still nothing happened. Throwing more names in the span of 10 pages does not help me to enjoy the atmosphere more, no no.

Anyway, after this rough Part I, Part II picks up and we have longer chapters following the characters on their way to the West. And here, I think, is where King shines. The situations he puts characters are awesome, and they say much more about the characters and the way they process the world, the way they feel and think than any of the meandering flashback-ridden pages of Part I.

By the time I reached the end, I didn't expect a great ending. And as most people know, The Stand does not have a great ending. However, the fact that this fat book had almost no plot kinda prepared me for that and I actually didn't dislike the ending as much as I thought I would. The only thing I want to say about the ending, and plot related things in this book in general: I didn't like that much of what happened in The Stand and actions of certain characters felt not earned in any way; they happened just because, by the grace of God (should I say by the Hand of God), or because, seemingly, Randall Flagg was influencing people (left me feeling like characters have no agency of their own) or because book had to end. It is very underwhelming to read all these great situations and character actions/choices when they are not really their choices, or at least some of them are not. Some shitty characters are shitty just because, and then they are okay also just because. No real explanations or development. There are also so, so many plot coincidences towards the end, that I felt a little bit annoyed at that thing. But it kinda fit with the theme of everything happening just because it had to happen in order to finish the book, so I just went with it. It sounds not very enjoyable, I know, but I guess everyone will tell you, that it is not the plot that this book is perfect at, it's the characters. So I guess I had nothing else left to do, except to forgive and forget all this plot related nonsense I am writing about now.

A little bit of spoilers about little plot King has in The Stand: (view spoiler)[ Examples of all the above: Harold kinda becoming evil-plotting shit, making an explosion, just because, no real reason or development for that, maybe just because of his Flagg dreams, and then later he's good and redeemed again, also just because. Nadine, doing stupid shit only because Flagg is in her dreams, making out with Harold and doing inexplicable evil together, only then later to provoke R.F. to his face and die, I guess, on her own will. Well why didn't she do that before she decided to bomb all those people just because? Stu falling off and breaking the leg, so he can survive the mushroom cloud. Kojak, suddenly able to understand everything in human tongue and bring food (okay, this I can believe), and wood for the fire (meh). Trashcan man, bringing A-bomb right in the needed moment, and Hand of God, made out of Flagg's fire, setting it off only just because book needed to end and no other reason (hide spoiler)]

Another big letdown to me, is the man himself, Randal Flagg. He was supposed to be an embodiment of evil, a demon walking the earth. Then we got to see him closer in Part III, and man. (view spoiler)[ He's a pathethic neurotic bitch, he screams and loses his temper and all his plans go to hell. Partly because of that, partly because the book had to end, but I talked about it above. It is very underwhelming that main villain (who can create fireballs and control animals) was defeated just because (book had to end), and not by the actions of main characters or some kind of elaborate plot or something else that would feel earned. No, it just happened on its own (hide spoiler)]

At the end of the day, there's no real stand in The Stand. No one stood up to anyone. What we have, is a book full of great situations and character development, full of great setting and atmosphere. We can see how society falls apart and how it tries to build itself anew. But no, there was no stand here. Things just happened on their own, with no real agency of characters at work.