A masterpiece from Stephen King (Duma Key - Stephen King)

Member Name: i_am_joy

Product:	Duma Key - Stephen King
Date:	15/03/09 (107 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Likeable characters, interesting and exciting, an engrossing read

Disadvantages: -----------

I have just finished my second Stephen King book in as many weeks, I'm not the biggest King fan but Dreamcatcher and Duma Key have so impressed me that I am going to make a point of collecting a few of his novels and reading them as I'm starting to think that perhaps he really does live up to all his hype and I've overlooked a fabulous author.

Duma Key is his latest book so I was quite lucky to find it on the shelf in my local library, it has very striking artwork on the cover which appealed to me even though it doesn't really tell me much about what to expect from the book.

The novel tells the story of Edgar Freemantle, a multi-millionaire who discovers that money isn't everything after his life collapses following an accident at work. Edgar lost his arm and suffered a minor degree of brain damage, he changes from a loving placid man to a man consumed with anger who can erupt into a rage at the drop of a hat. His wife of 25 years can't cope with the changes in Edgar and asks for a divorce, which he agrees to immediately as he somehow blames his wife for his new disabilities and hates the fact that she can get on with her life while he is in daily pain and cannot function as he used to.

On the advice of his psychiatrist Edgar moves away from his family home, he is inexplicably drawn to a small island off the Florida coast and settles in for a year of recuperation in an idyllic house overlooking the ocean. But Duma Key isn't 'right'. He discovers he has a talent for art and quickly develops this, not wondering at first how he can possibly create such masterpieces in middle age when before the accident the best he could do were a few doodles for his daughters'. As time goes on he meets two fascinating fellow residents on Duma Key and it's then that he realises something on the island is using his art to feed evil, and that's where the fun begins.

I think the main reason I enjoyed this book so much was because I immediately warmed to Edgar, I could see that despite his anger and the poor way he treated his wife he was only acting like this because he was suffering mentally from his accident. I think King created this character wonderfully, Edgar was realistic and a well rounded character with real human flaws which made him so much more believable than those fluffy perfect characters you find in many novels of this type. As his time on the island descended into terror and darkness I was telepathically shouting at him to make the right decision and not do certain things, he's a very intelligent chap which contradicts an embarrassing speech impediment he was left with following his accident. His anger was really very acute at some points in the book and seemed so true to life that I wonder how much of the character King based on himself following his own extremely serious road accident some years ago.

When Edgar began painting he would go into a fugue of sorts, remembering very little the next morning other than the fact that he had been ravenously hungry after creating one of his masterpieces. After a while he had some frightening experiences where he found he could see into the future through the images he painted, and things take a turn for the worse when he realises he can actually change the outcome of things simply by painting an abstract picture detailing the changes he'd like to make. I enjoyed the horror Edgar felt as he tried to control his newly found power, he knew he was ultimately not doing a good thing and soon became terrified not only for himself but for his family as he discovered he could not control his gift as well as he thought.

His nearest neighbours on Duma Key are an elderly lady, now stricken with Alzheimers, and her carer, Wireman. Edgar and Wireman immediately strike up a bond and become firm friends from the outset. At first Wireman grated on me a little as he's a typical cocky King character who has to tell a joke or one liner at the end of practically every sentence, do bear with him though as once you're past this dislike you'll soon see the wisdom this strange man has to offer and he does tie together a lot of the story with his insights into the history of the island. His elderly charge, Elizabeth Eastlake, is a creepy character. She has lived on Duma Key for most of her long life and has a passion for art, when she learns of Edgar's talent she becomes very interested and starts to give him cryptic messages about his paintings and what they might mean.

Together Wireman and Elizabeth are excellent characters, they obviously dote on one another and watching the situation of Elizabeth's declining mental abilities take it's toll on Wireman was very moving. They are both extremely complex characters, something which isn't obvious at the beginning but as the novel wore on I found myself admiring both of them very much. There is an air of expectancy surrounding Elizabeth and from the very first time I met her I knew she was going to be pivotal to the story, it was a stroke of genius giving her Alzheimers as King was able to addle her speech enough for the clues she gave Edgar not to mean anything on their own, only when they are all taken together towards the end of the story do they begin to make sense.

Edgar's family feature in the novel to a certain degree but really only his nineteen year old daughter Ilse has any bearing on the story. Although Edgar has two daughters' of a similar age, Ilse is his favourite and he would do anything to keep her safe. He acknowledged that she was his favourite daughter and I must admit I felt very sorry for his older daughter, Melissa, who it appeared had given up trying to gain his approval and had moved to France to put some distance between herself and her father who made no attempt to disguise his feelings for his two daughters. To me Melissa actually seemed the stronger of the two girls' and I think King should perhaps have drawn her into the story more, Ilse seemed rather out of place on Duma Key and I think a wider storyline could have been built around Melissa as she would have coped with the drama in a much better way than her younger sister.

King has described Duma Key and its inhabitants beautifully, I could picture the scene in my minds eye as I was reading and after a while was able to visualise the island as Edgar must have been seeing it; the beauty of the beach, the imposing vines which crowded in on Edgar and Wireman as they attempted to unearth the secrets of Duma Key, even the pile on shells underneath Edgar's big pink house took on a real life aura so good were King's descriptions.

This is a lengthy novel at almost 600 pages but every single chapter, page and sentence of the writing adds something to the story. Stephen King has proved himself to be a master story teller time and time again, but in Duma Key I honestly think he has outdone itself as far as character development and sheer excitement goes. The novel is so fast paced, often branching out in a direction I wasn't expecting only to snap back to the main storyline and fill in some gaps at the same time. Every occurrence in the story is believable, King hasn't created any filler characters who are only there to move the story along and this is excellent because it means the novel flows beautifully and all events are self explanatory.

The dialogue is classic King, all his characters shoot from the hip and speak mostly in the manner of real Americans. There are lots of jokey comments and one liners from his characters, many more than you'd expect in real life, but these are somehow not as irritating as those in other books by this author where 'witty' comment quickly becomes a chance for King to show off as to how cleverly amusing he is, or isn't as the case may be. I think it's perfect in this story though as perhaps Duma Key would be too dark a tale without these jokes and witty asides to lighten it up a little.

I thoroughly recommend Duma Key to King fans, and even those of you who are not terribly keen on the author. It had me gripped from start to finish and left me reading into the wee small hours several times, I was tempted to rush through the book as I was so keen to find out what was going to happen but forced myself to slow down and savour the excitement in the story. I love the short chapters, some being just three or four pages long, as being short and snappy they really gave the impression that things on Duma Key are moving at break neck speed and made me want to read the next chapter straight away to see how things panned out at that moment in time.

You can borrow a copy of Duma Key from the library as I did or Amazon have the paperback version very reasonably priced at £5.15 for those of you who like to own your books. Personally I was so impressed with this novel that I would happily have paid that and more for the reading privilege of King at his very, very best.

Summary: A wonderful read which kept me engrossed for hours at a time.