| Product: |
Lisey's Story - Stephen King |
| Date: |
30/06/08 (137 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: Fascinating, surprisingly poignant
Disadvantages: Takes a very long time to get going, may alienate some of King's fans without winning new ones
After the disappointment of Blaze, I was initially a little reluctant to return to a Stephen King story so soon. However, when I was able to pick up a copy for just 99p, I thought I might as well give it a go. The basic story sees an author's widow - Lisey Landon - trying to come to terms with her husband's death, whilst facing perils of her own, both natural and supernatural.
Initially, my worst fears were confirmed. This almost 700-page tome seemed to return to the worst years of King's books - you know the ones I mean. The Tommyknockers era, when even the author admits he was so out of it on drink and prescription drugs that he didn't know what he was writing. Lisey's story starts off very much like that.
For the first 100 pages, it rambles on and on, seemingly going nowhere. The story is at dull, confusing and at times, just plain weird - and not in a curiosity-pricking way. It leaps around between different time periods in a bewildering way, patching past with present and almost rendering itself inaccessible. Worse still, King (somewhat unusually for him) writes in very long chapters, making it a difficult book to read in small chunks. Indeed, I think this was probably my mistake. At first, I was trying to read this as a "filler book" - a few pages here and there when I had time. As such, my reading of it was very disjointed, and that's how the story came across - bitty and confusing. It was becoming increasingly difficult to like the book.
Persevere, though, and Lisey's story brings its rewards by the bucket load. Partly, this was due to my own discovery that it's a better book if you try and make the time to read longer sections at once: the plot becomes more coherent, the characters' behaviour more understandable and events slowly start to join up and make sense. However, it's still true that the book takes a fair old while to get into the meat of the plot - the parts which regular King readers will recognise as unmistakably his style. I'm not saying that the first 100 pages are irrelevant or should have been edited out - it's just that the relevance of them only really starts to become apparent later on. In fact, far from being irrelevant and dull, these first pages take on a freshness and poignancy all of their own and are crucial to the tone of the book.... once you realise where King is going with the story!
Lisey's story is clearly, in part at least, semi-autobiographical. King has done this in the past with mixed results - The Dark Half was a fascinating tale of the author's battle with his own dark side, whilst his attempts to write himself into his own Dark Tower cycle, just smacked of desperation and pretentiousness. Here; I'm happy to report, it works very well for the most part. The personal nature of the writing adds an extra layer of emotion and depth.
Because, make no mistake about it, Lisey's story is a very personal book. It may have been released to a mass market, but it's clear that King has put a lot of himself into it. The sense of grieving of Lisey Landon is touching and helps to ground the book in reality, no matter how fantastical King's flights of fantasy might become. At its (dark) heart, it's essentially a story about someone trying to come to terms with the loss of a loved one and King conveys some of that sense of grief surprisingly well.
If you're a fan of traditional King horror, don't be put off - there's plenty of his trade mark madmen and monsters to drive the plot along. After the slow start, the book rips along. Get over the hurdle of the opening section and you gradually feel yourself being pulled into it, wanting to use every spare moment to carry on reading to find out what happens next. From being a book you were initially reluctant to pick up, it suddenly becomes one you are reluctant to put down.
I felt this was easily one of King's best offerings for quite some time. Not one of his classics, but certainly a return to at least some sort of form, after a disappointing, self-indulgent run. The slow start may put some people off, whilst long term King fans may bemoan the increasing lack of real monsters or bogeymen in King's newest books. For me, though, they show a writer who has matured and grown. He's moved away from the traditional scares of his early stuff into more psychological works of terror. It may not always come off (some of his more psychological efforts are, frankly, embarrassing), but when it does, it pays off big-time. Having said that, I still think it will disappoint some fans who like his "old-style" writings better.
Equally, it's not going to win King any new readers. Although it's less horror-orientated and more personal than previous books, many people will be put off by his name alone. Even if they do start it, they may be put off by the drawn out opening. And even if they persevere past that, they may find some of the more fantastical elements harder to swallow.
Lisey's Story sees a change in King's writing style. Whether this is permanent, or just something adapted for this novel, time alone will tell. However, he starts to write in longer chapters and longer sentences. His normal short, punchy style is left behind in favour of a more serious and (dare I say it?) literary one. It works well in the context of this novel and adds a lot to it. However, as I said above, it does make it more difficult to read as a simple "entertainment" novel. This is a book to spend some time with, to savour the build up, the development and the pay-off. Do this and you'll find a personal, poignant and surprisingly touching novel. Try and read it any other way, and you'll maybe lose your way with it and find a dull, overblown piece of pretentious writing.
Basic Information
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Lisey's Story
Stephen King
Hodder, 2006
ISBN: 978-0340 89895 6
Available new from Amazon for £4.89 or second hand from 1p
© Copyright SWSt 2008
Summary: Keep with it... it's worth it.
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