Palaver's Stephen King blog

“You’re in my house now, the house of the wolf and the scorpion and you better not forget it.”

Published along with The Regulators, Desperation tells one version of the basic story that these novels share. It’s rather confusing, but in a fascinating way, and the books (imho) actually strengthen each other rather than cancel each other out. Desperation is prime King; epic, cruel and moving all at once, utterly absorbing, though there are times when you might want to look away from the horrors taking place in the Nevada Desert. The main theme is faith, and though this is often an important element of King’s novels its rarely been so frankly and seriously explored. We’re talking God, here, no vague concept or Star Wars Force, a biblical God who doesn’t always do what you want but who makes high demands. This may put some readers off but then again, King does not just write to please you.

“Your name is John Coffey.”
“Yes, sir, boss, like the drink, only not spelled the same way.”

Another of Kings experiments, which of course doesn’t mean that the story takes second place. Published in six parts, a month between, these books revive the time-honoured art of the serial story. The tale, taking place mostly on death row some decades ago, contains equal amounts of wonder and horror – all accentuated by the extreme setting of the tale. Now available in one volume.

“Get out of here, that deep part of her mind said suddenly. Get out of here right now.”

Rose gets out, without a plan or thought, leaving a marriage turned into hell and hoping to start again. This is something of a finale to King’s “feminist” theme, a story which is just as moving as it is scary. Almost “realistic”, but with King the supernatural is never far away, nor is it completely absent in Rose Madder.

“There are worse things than insomnia.”

Some inspired person in the alt.books.stephen-king newsgroup said that Insomnia does for old age what IT does for childhood. I couldn’t phrase it better. Except for the theme of trying to cope with old age, this long novel revolves around a pro-choice, pro-life debate gone insane and around Ralph, who is losing sleep and gaining something else. It starts off rather undramatically and smoothly and gradually works its way ever further from what we call reality, with links to The Dark Tower universe. His then pet subject – men beating women – also finds its way into Insomnia, like a preparation for Rose Madder.

“…she didn’t know if she was crying because of the possibility – finally articulated – that she actually could die here or because for the first time in at least four years she had come close to thinking about that other summer place…”

The second of the “feminist solar eclipse” novels. A bit like Misery in that the central story is confined to a very small space, while most of the “action” is taking place in the mind of the main character. Bold, often unpleasant but, of course, a good book.

“An accident” she says, in a clear voice almost like a schoolteacher’s, “is sometimes an unhappy woman’s best friend.”

Written in first person perspective in dialect, it’s one of the most experimental books that King has written. More drama than horror, it revolves around events taking place during the same solar eclipse that is at the heart of Gerald’s Game.