Thursday, December 30, 2010

Lisey's Story by Stephen King

This a brilliant but deeply flawed book. The beginning is extremely slow (at times I had to force myself to continue slogging through the book) while large sections of the middle section seemed like excessive acts of literary self-indulgence on the part of Stephen King. To be blunt, the narrative was such a rambling mess at times that I thought on more than one occasion of quitting this book.

Despite these flaws, however, one must confess that the plot is wonderful. Based on the story of Lisey Landon, the widow of the late best-selling author Scott London, the novel is a captivating love story that revolves around two main plots: the life of Lisey (pronounced LEE-see, which rhymes with cc) after her husband's death; and the life history of her late husband, with a particular emphasis on his troubled childhood.

Though the story is way too long (the paperback is more than 650 pages, with at least 200 of those pages been prime candidates for cutting) it does contain a wonderful mash of different styles, somehow managing to mix romance, horror, fantasy and -- especially at the end of the book -- wonderful writing that is pure literature. If you can survive the rambling beginning, and don't get frustrated after 200 pages, you will find that the ending is well worth the read.

2 1/2 out of 5 stars