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3.89 AVERAGE
3.89 AVERAGE
Ver enjoyable read, some great one liners, unexpected turn of events and a character you actually root for.
I really liked the plot and that it's like listening to Dolores talk rather than the story being narrated by an all knowing entity(?)
I borrowed this book from a friend, but I would buy it so that I can highlight and mark some parts of it and re-read them (I read it in Spanish, though, so I'd buy it in English)
I give it a 7.5/10 just because I'm not fascinated, but i did really like it as an interesting story without any fancy vocabulary or particular narrative. Just the story of a lady in an island... what a story.
I borrowed this book from a friend, but I would buy it so that I can highlight and mark some parts of it and re-read them (I read it in Spanish, though, so I'd buy it in English)
I give it a 7.5/10 just because I'm not fascinated, but i did really like it as an interesting story without any fancy vocabulary or particular narrative. Just the story of a lady in an island... what a story.
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
fyrst vissi ég ekki alveg hvað mér fannst, og var alveg lengi að ná henni. en svo þegar boltinn fer aðeins að rúlla og sagan fer almennilega af stað þá er hún alveg frábær. var eldsnögg með seinasta helminginn.
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Found this book hard to get into at first given the structure — it’s first-person, told as the titular protagonist giving a statement to the police. By the end, I really enjoyed it. Claiborne and Vera will stick with me for awhile, I think. One of King’s better novels for sure.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Incest, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Dolores Claiborne
This was my sixth Stephen King book, and since I’ve loved all of them he seems to be worming his way into my heart as a favourite author. In Dolores Claiborne he tries his hand at a different style, what I am calling Super-First-Person. Every word on every page (except a very short epilogue) is from the mouth of Dolores, taken down by a stenographer during a police interview. There is no narration, stage-setting or introductions, other as she speaks them, and no third person prose. In fact, there are no chapters. The whole book is told as a stream of consciousness. Sometimes she jumps forward in her story, sometimes back. Sometimes she asks for a glass of water. It is deeply immersive and makes for a surprisingly smooth ride.
Dolores’ tale is this: she is being interviewed because of the death of her long-term employer Vera Donovan, who bequeathed her a staggering sum of money after a suspicious death. And Dolores tells her interviewer right off the bat: she didn’t kill Vera, but she did kill her husband thirty years ago. She then dives into the complex and antagonistic relationship she had with Vera. Although they seemed to hate each other, they respected each other and often relied on each other. There was antagonism but there was also care and commitment to each other.
She then unravels the story of her husband. To put it briefly, he was sexually abusing their daughter and then cleaned out their bank account. She was trapped with him and saw killing him as a justified extreme to get out of the situation. She planned it, pulled it off (not without extreme difficulty) and has lived with the mental toll ever since. She waited for the upcoming total eclipse, knowing everyone on her provincial island would be occupied and distracted, then set her plan in motion. Her crime was born of an extreme maternal desire to protect.
It’s gripping stuff as you can imagine, and the fact I was so hooked on it was possibly why I haven’t been drifting off to sleep very well lately. Finally Dolores brings the story back around to Vera and one last revelation is uncovered.
I was uncomfortable with King’s use of sexual abuse as an impetus for revenge. By itself it’s not concerning, but taken as part of a wider convention where women are cast as victims of violence to spur them or their avenging male saviours to action, it leaves a bad taste. It definitely felt padded by a couple of things though, as thankfully the daughter didn’t have to die in this book. Chiefly though, King’s avenger is herself a woman, and a woman of action too. She takes the situation into her own hands and is clever, courageous, and kind. In fact, there is some domestic abuse directed towards her earlier in the book, but she gives it back as good as she gets it and sets her husband straight. I’m not suggesting that these amount to a story that isn’t exploitative of an unfortunate narrative paradigm; but the taste it left far from spoiled the book.
So to cap it off: Another excellent page-turner from King, another reminder why he is so well-loved.
I picked this up in the Watchet book-swap, in the bus stop by the railway bridge.
This was my sixth Stephen King book, and since I’ve loved all of them he seems to be worming his way into my heart as a favourite author. In Dolores Claiborne he tries his hand at a different style, what I am calling Super-First-Person. Every word on every page (except a very short epilogue) is from the mouth of Dolores, taken down by a stenographer during a police interview. There is no narration, stage-setting or introductions, other as she speaks them, and no third person prose. In fact, there are no chapters. The whole book is told as a stream of consciousness. Sometimes she jumps forward in her story, sometimes back. Sometimes she asks for a glass of water. It is deeply immersive and makes for a surprisingly smooth ride.
Dolores’ tale is this: she is being interviewed because of the death of her long-term employer Vera Donovan, who bequeathed her a staggering sum of money after a suspicious death. And Dolores tells her interviewer right off the bat: she didn’t kill Vera, but she did kill her husband thirty years ago. She then dives into the complex and antagonistic relationship she had with Vera. Although they seemed to hate each other, they respected each other and often relied on each other. There was antagonism but there was also care and commitment to each other.
She then unravels the story of her husband. To put it briefly, he was sexually abusing their daughter and then cleaned out their bank account. She was trapped with him and saw killing him as a justified extreme to get out of the situation. She planned it, pulled it off (not without extreme difficulty) and has lived with the mental toll ever since. She waited for the upcoming total eclipse, knowing everyone on her provincial island would be occupied and distracted, then set her plan in motion. Her crime was born of an extreme maternal desire to protect.
It’s gripping stuff as you can imagine, and the fact I was so hooked on it was possibly why I haven’t been drifting off to sleep very well lately. Finally Dolores brings the story back around to Vera and one last revelation is uncovered.
I was uncomfortable with King’s use of sexual abuse as an impetus for revenge. By itself it’s not concerning, but taken as part of a wider convention where women are cast as victims of violence to spur them or their avenging male saviours to action, it leaves a bad taste. It definitely felt padded by a couple of things though, as thankfully the daughter didn’t have to die in this book. Chiefly though, King’s avenger is herself a woman, and a woman of action too. She takes the situation into her own hands and is clever, courageous, and kind. In fact, there is some domestic abuse directed towards her earlier in the book, but she gives it back as good as she gets it and sets her husband straight. I’m not suggesting that these amount to a story that isn’t exploitative of an unfortunate narrative paradigm; but the taste it left far from spoiled the book.
So to cap it off: Another excellent page-turner from King, another reminder why he is so well-loved.
I picked this up in the Watchet book-swap, in the bus stop by the railway bridge.
So in the 90s King wrote 4 pro-women (and some of them pro-choice) books. I’m glad to say I liked 3 of them so far.
This one particularly somewhat reminiscent of Russian classical literature plot wise, while Dolores, our main character and the only narrator of this story (300 pages of this book are basically a monologue, no breaks, no chapters, no nothing) — is one helluva woman.
A great story that never slows down with a gripping plot about domestic abuse, borderline rape and how women turn into “bitches” to survive in this masculine world.
I’m more into modern King, but with “Billy Summers” my respect for him as an author nosedived immensely.
He should revise his older works (like this one) and learn how to write political/justice stories through plot, and not by making toothless “Orange Man Bad” jabs every other 3-5 pages.
This one particularly somewhat reminiscent of Russian classical literature plot wise, while Dolores, our main character and the only narrator of this story (300 pages of this book are basically a monologue, no breaks, no chapters, no nothing) — is one helluva woman.
A great story that never slows down with a gripping plot about domestic abuse, borderline rape and how women turn into “bitches” to survive in this masculine world.
I’m more into modern King, but with “Billy Summers” my respect for him as an author nosedived immensely.
He should revise his older works (like this one) and learn how to write political/justice stories through plot, and not by making toothless “Orange Man Bad” jabs every other 3-5 pages.
adventurous
emotional
funny
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
dark
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated