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Post by dem bones on Apr 8, 2008 7:55:42 GMT
Stephen King - Misery (Guild, 1987) Paul Sheldon, a novelist whose most successful books have been the best selling 'Misery Chastain' romances, breaks both legs and mangles his body when his car crashes in the Colorado snow. He is pulled from the wreckage by former nurse Annie Wilkes, his self-proclaimed "number one fan". Annie secretly tends Paul at home - why burden him with huge hospital bills when she's armed with such a vast supply of drugs accumulated over several years? And there's no need to inform the authorities or his publisher that Paul didn't die in the accident: they'd only come and pester him ... Paul comes out of his coma and as he gradually recuperates, Annie excitedly picks up a copy of his brand spanking new Misery's Child and - oh dear! Bored with writing the detestable series, Paul has killed off her heroine! Distraught and half insane with rage, Annie forces Paul to burn the solitary manuscript for his new, "serious" novel Fast Cars, and concentrate his depleted energies on a new book, Misery's Return, especially for her. She wants it dedicated and everything. And if he refuses? Well, there's always the axe, the blow-torch, the drugs to fall back on .... Amazingly, with a little helpful persuasion - notably an unbearable amputation scene - once Paul resigns himself to his fate he actually approaches the project with relish - even after he's discovered Annie's scrapbook which mostly comprises a scary stash of newspaper clippings relating to her dark and terrible past ... At 320 pages Misery is pretty slimline and very readable, but, engrossing as it is while you're tearing through it, this time I understand what the author was getting at when he harshly compared yer average Stephen King novel to a hamburger. Ten minutes after you've finished it, you're ravenously hungry all over again and require something that bit more substantial. It's probably a "better" crafted and certainly far more tightly plotted novel than the shambling Pet Sematary, but I didn't find it anywhere near as affecting. Misery Chastain is a top name, though. I wish I'd been called that! File under: Fast food.
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Post by sean on Apr 8, 2008 16:51:52 GMT
Possibly the best of King's 'writer' stories and novels (which include The Ballad of the Flexible Bullet, Secret Window Secret Garden, The Dark Half, Lisey's Story, Umney's Last Case etc etc). It's also a rarity in as much as the film is as good as the book, a brilliant adaptation by William Goldman (the man behind Marathon Man amongst other things).
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