You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
Stephen King has always been able to tell a good story, to crook his finger, lure the sucker in and then scare the pants off him/her. (Like this reader who can still remember finishing “‘Salem’s Lot” at midnight, alone in my dorm room…and the sleepless night that followed.)
And he’s always been able to create memorable and enduring characters, ones we can’t put out of our minds no matter how hard we may try. Examples range from the clown from “It” (SHEESH!) to
And to say Stephen King is prolific is the understatement of the century. The number of words this man has written? I can’t even imagine. I’m sure he’s probably experienced writer’s block, everyone has, but I can’t imagine where he found the time.
But in the last couple of decades? I’ve realized that he can also WRITE. “Bag of Bones” was my first clue. A ghost story, true, but on a different level than before. The words weren’t there merely to seduce the reader into letting his/her guard down until the monster jumped out of the closet, they were there to evoke feeling and thought, and to develop real flesh and blood characters.
I was a late-comer to “The Dark Tower” books (which really meant I didn’t have to endure the long wait for Book 4 that had my friends gnashing their teeth in frustration). I listened to the first 6 books on tape…and then rushed out to get Book 7 as soon as it was available. This saga, richly detailed, full of characters that we truly get to see inside and out, impressed me to no end. And the way the books intersect the real world in a way SK couldn’t have imagined when he started 30 years ago – I loved it.
Oh – and “The Green Mile”… Every time I look at my 6 little “Green Mile” books – I could myself as incredibly lucky that I was around at the time he was releasing them one per month. True, at the end of each month, I was howling for more, but I wouldn’t have traded that experience for anything.
Now – about his current book. I put a marker in “Duma Key” at page 67. That’s when I was hooked – I was in this book for the long haul – no looking back. (Though a bout with a week long flu kept me from finishing it as fast as I wanted.) Edgar Freemantle undergoes a life shattering accident…one that forever changes him and the lives of those around him.
To build a new life, he heads south, to Duma Key, Florida, and then the blessings and curses begin. Blessings of healing and new friendship, and curses…well, this is a Stephen King book.
Edgar is bewitched by the island, by the sun setting into the Gulf of Mexico, by the pink house he rents, and by the talents he never knew he had. He reaches deep into himself for the strength to heal and to come back from the very dark place he inhabited after his accident.
“I remembered him that day at Lake Phalen – the tatty briefcase, the cold autumn sunshine coming and going in diagonal stripes across the living room floor. I remember thinking about suicide, and the myriad roads leading into the dark: turnpikes and secondary highways and shaggy little forgotten lanes.”
This is a book about grief, love, frustration, anger and joy. Of all the emotions Edgar experiences in his long journey, the one that I could relate too most strongly, was that of a father’s love for his child. He freely admits to himself that he loves one of his daughters more than the other, but as much as that might bother me, it is honest, and his love for Ilse is a wonderful thing to watch. His worry about her is also very powerful.
“I felt uneasy about Ilse – the way parents are always uneasy about the problems of their children, I suppose, once they’re too old to be called home when it starts to get dark and the baths are being drawn…”
In short, a book about people and about the complexity of human life. True, it’s also a book about the undead and talking dolls…but that’s the fun of it.
And when it comes to further Stephen King books? I told you he had me at Page 67. I’m in, I’m all in…
And he’s always been able to create memorable and enduring characters, ones we can’t put out of our minds no matter how hard we may try. Examples range from the clown from “It” (SHEESH!) to
And to say Stephen King is prolific is the understatement of the century. The number of words this man has written? I can’t even imagine. I’m sure he’s probably experienced writer’s block, everyone has, but I can’t imagine where he found the time.
But in the last couple of decades? I’ve realized that he can also WRITE. “Bag of Bones” was my first clue. A ghost story, true, but on a different level than before. The words weren’t there merely to seduce the reader into letting his/her guard down until the monster jumped out of the closet, they were there to evoke feeling and thought, and to develop real flesh and blood characters.
I was a late-comer to “The Dark Tower” books (which really meant I didn’t have to endure the long wait for Book 4 that had my friends gnashing their teeth in frustration). I listened to the first 6 books on tape…and then rushed out to get Book 7 as soon as it was available. This saga, richly detailed, full of characters that we truly get to see inside and out, impressed me to no end. And the way the books intersect the real world in a way SK couldn’t have imagined when he started 30 years ago – I loved it.
Oh – and “The Green Mile”… Every time I look at my 6 little “Green Mile” books – I could myself as incredibly lucky that I was around at the time he was releasing them one per month. True, at the end of each month, I was howling for more, but I wouldn’t have traded that experience for anything.
Now – about his current book. I put a marker in “Duma Key” at page 67. That’s when I was hooked – I was in this book for the long haul – no looking back. (Though a bout with a week long flu kept me from finishing it as fast as I wanted.) Edgar Freemantle undergoes a life shattering accident…one that forever changes him and the lives of those around him.
To build a new life, he heads south, to Duma Key, Florida, and then the blessings and curses begin. Blessings of healing and new friendship, and curses…well, this is a Stephen King book.
Edgar is bewitched by the island, by the sun setting into the Gulf of Mexico, by the pink house he rents, and by the talents he never knew he had. He reaches deep into himself for the strength to heal and to come back from the very dark place he inhabited after his accident.
“I remembered him that day at Lake Phalen – the tatty briefcase, the cold autumn sunshine coming and going in diagonal stripes across the living room floor. I remember thinking about suicide, and the myriad roads leading into the dark: turnpikes and secondary highways and shaggy little forgotten lanes.”
This is a book about grief, love, frustration, anger and joy. Of all the emotions Edgar experiences in his long journey, the one that I could relate too most strongly, was that of a father’s love for his child. He freely admits to himself that he loves one of his daughters more than the other, but as much as that might bother me, it is honest, and his love for Ilse is a wonderful thing to watch. His worry about her is also very powerful.
“I felt uneasy about Ilse – the way parents are always uneasy about the problems of their children, I suppose, once they’re too old to be called home when it starts to get dark and the baths are being drawn…”
In short, a book about people and about the complexity of human life. True, it’s also a book about the undead and talking dolls…but that’s the fun of it.
And when it comes to further Stephen King books? I told you he had me at Page 67. I’m in, I’m all in…