The plan is to reread all of Stephen King’s works in the order that they were published. Richard Chizmar of Cemetery Dance had the vision. I’m doing it because I am a writer and I want to improve my fiction. And I love Stephen King’s stories. I think there is something to be learned through this process.
You can also go back to the beginning and read Before Carrie or any of my other posts up through this one and beyond by checking out this link to the Master List of all my #StephenKingRevisited posts.
Everything the same. Strap on whenever it seems appropriate.
Lisey’s Story is a really well-written story. I’m not sure it is his best. It holds together all the way through. There’s almost a poetic rhythm to the prose in places, even in the more violent or disturbing bits. It’s not exactly like anything else he has written. I got hints of Secret Garden early on, but this is fully its own thing as it unfolds.
Lisey’s Story has some parallels to Bag of Bones. The gender of the spouse who dies is reversed, but not the career. The dead spouse reaches out from beyond to help. Other things reach out for their own reasons. I think Lisey’s Story is better written than Bag of Bones. There is more finesse in the prose. I think readers would probably like Bag of Bones better, if they were forced to choose. I might be fonder of Bag of Bones as well even as much as I love Lisey’s Story.
“The spouses of well-known writers are invisible,” the widow of the obligatory writer character in the novel laments. In the author notes, King states this is not Tabitha and Lisey’s sisters are not Tabitha’s sisters, but he enjoyed watching “the sister thing” among them over the years. I’m not sure if he’s saying this to cover his ass or if these characters are as divorced from real people in his life as he claims.
Castle Rock and Mechanics Falls are back for settings. The closest ER to the college is in Derry. They read about the healing properties of tea in the Insider tabloid. “Clothes pins on your dink” will be used again in 11/22/63. There is a mention of Dennis Rider, King’s BTK killer character from the short story “A Good Marriage.”
King refers to another world as the Inside Out as opposed to the Upside Down that the show Stranger Things creates as they lean heavily on King’s mythos.
A lot of description of using a payphone in 2006. Also, some detail on using early cellphones with the send button. Shania Twain is on the country music channel. A Lovecraft bust for a Fantasy Award sits on a shelf. That is a thing of the past too as the award was later redesigned in response to Lovecraft’s history of racism.
The late husband would not look in mirrors after dark. King sets up these small details in this novel that pay off big along the way. Hints our writer character might have been crazy himself and we see in time he came by it naturally and honestly.
“I loved you. I saved you. I gave you ice.” Weird, odd, endearing moments in their relationship. “Isn’t bravery always sort of beautiful.” Forgetfulness and hiding define her during and after her relationship with her late husband. That purple curtain comes at a cost, as does taking it down when she must.
These characters, the wife and the late husband, are three-dimensional, interconnected, and unique from other characters he’s written before, despite the characters being “another writer” and “another grieving spouse.”
“The darkest woods are ahead where the past is still happening” is a great line.
The story is dependent upon intertwined flashbacks, as Stephen King stories sometimes are. I’m often critical of King’s use of flashbacks. In this novel, the vignettes into the history of their relationship are great, hinting at more as the supernatural elements of the story played out, never losing the main storyline. I know the characters more and better after each scene. I feel closer to them as a result.
“Investigating the past is wet work.” Great line.
A Crazy man wants her husband’s writings and we’re off to the races. I almost lost it when she decided not to include the police at first. King brought her back to it in short order, so I withdraw my objection. The go-it-alone choices were well-balanced with including the authorities as the other-worldly events unfolded.
Norris Ridgewick is still sheriff in Castle Rock. He’s away on his honeymoon in this story. I hope it works out for him. He’s been through a lot. Andy Cutterbuck is still on the job with plenty of new deputies to keep people as safe as you can in a place like Castle Rock.
King does bad things to this widow character he convinced me to care about.
“Reality is Ralph,” King declares through the mouths of his characters. Ralph is a dog who comes back after years of being lost in a news story. It is the unlikely. It is the absurd thing that happens in real life that an editor and readers wouldn’t buy in fiction. Reality is Ralph.
“No light. No spark” a sign in the room of a dying man declares. This has multiple meanings.
Our character goes to another dimension to read a handwritten story. Risky way to close off the action of a novel. Draws dangerously close to a magical information dump. Reality is Ralph, I guess.
The dead-eyed monster that can’t be known and can’t be forgotten never forgets you, so find a way to anchor yourself in the world you call home and be careful where you look.
My next post in this series will be Before Blaze which will be linked on the Master List of all my Stephen King Revisited posts.
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