Krishna
Stephen King is one of the few authors whose books we have frequently reviewed. See 12/13/63 or Revival to name but just two.
In my opinion he is at the top of his game and delivers in book after book an amazingly entertaining experience. But the man can slip up too, and has his not so great moments. I am sorry to say that this book is one of those. It is not bad, even good in parts, but does not reach up to the high bar that he has set himself and that we have come to expect from him.
So, what is the story?
The narrator’s wife Johanna Arlen is killed in a freak accident. She was young. The narrator is a writer. She fell down when she went to help with an accident between a truck and a car. The old women in the car were hurt but not badly. Johanna, while she sprinted towards the accident, coincidentally suffered a brain aneurysm that instantly killed her.
He gets a serious case of the writer’s block. He keeps dreaming of his cottage called Sara Laughs, and in one particularly hairy dream, a dead Jo comes malevolently at him. He decides to go see the lake and live there for a while.
After an initial shock of hearing a child scream he settles down and saves a child Kira, who was running alone on the road and meets the mother who lives in a trailer. Her mother Mattie married a rich but diffident Lance Devore who dies and the grandpa wants her child and tries to prove that she is an unfit mother.
While he goes to the aid of the mother and child against a rich man, he realizes a presence. It tries first to talk in thumps (one for yes and two for no) but later switches to magnetic letters on the fridge.
There is some weirdness where he goes into a mesmeric world full of dead people, indiscriminate sex etc which does not happen except in his mind. Then he is dragged to court by the vindictive but rich grandfather of Kyra. He conducts himself well but knows that the danger has not passed.
When the vindictive Devore and his assistant almost kill him, Jo in spirit form seems to save him from drowning by pulling him onto a raft. When suddenly Devore dies and Mattie expresses her love for Mike, the author, things take a different turn in the story. When he knows Jo has been afraid of something and was investigating the house, the story gets hotter and when he realizes that there are multiple presences in the house, one of them definitely Jo trying to help him and at least one more malevolent spirit that has also sent messages on the fridge like it (they?) does for him, the story gets downright hot.
So why am I saying that it is not up to par? Read on.
When he and Mattie hear that Devore had died through self-asphyxiation, they are relieved and Matte expresses her love to Mike. However, Mike and Kyra share a dream about a long ago fair where they meet the original occupant and singer of the house he owns and Devore and some dead folks with him almost get them .
The story moves on where his lawyer, their friends and Mike go to Mattie for a celebration party and suddenly are attacked by the townspeople. Mattie dies in the attack and the lawyer is wounded but Mike takes Kyra back to Sara Laughs. When he is in the zone he almost kills Kyra by drowning but Jo’s hints bring him back to sanity.
He understands how Sara and her son Kit were murdered by racist youths who could not stand her to be in the same neighbourhood as them. He digs her out to give her peace.
The ending is classic King. The story as a whole is a bit weird but there are many parts that grip you with its intensity and shake you up. Not his best, though.
The last 50 pages are so are spectacular, where he battles Sara, and another evil spirit with the help of Jo, and then realizes that Kyra is not where he left her. Awesome but to get this thrill, there is too long a wait reading through slow moving story..
Let us say 6/10
– – Krishna (Nov 2018)