Stephen King's Misery

Now first off I'm going to ‘fess up, this may turn out to be a little biased, but I figured my first book related post should be a memorable one – so what better book to start off with then one of my all-time favourites?

Before I start (properly) let me get the only negative bit out of the way before the brown nosing begins.         

I don’t love ALL of King’s work. Now, don’t get me wrong I think all his ideas are fantastic, but for me, sometimes the prolonged narratives and over the top descriptions can be a bit much, and sometimes it feels as though by the time I've read that bit and gotten back to the story I've forgotten where we were and any emotions built up by the previous pages have deflated a little. But that’s it. Seriously. Complaint done, negativity out of the way. Onwards.

I'm sure most of you will either have seen the film or read the book before but for those of you who haven’t, here is a brief overview so that you’ll know what the hell I'm talking about: 

Paul Sheldon is the author of a best selling romance series who’s heroine goes by the name of Misery Chastain. Paul, desperate to get onto some real writing, kills off Misery in hope of writing something with a little more substance when he gets into a nasty car accident. He’s ‘rescued’ by Annie Wilkes, a ‘retired’ nurse with a vast amount if pain killers. She takes him to her home, a remote farm in the middle of nowhere, she sets his mangled legs but he remains crippled, bed ridden but safe. Until he finds out that Annie is his number one fan, a psychopath and more than a little unhappy at his killing off her favourite heroine.

I am absolutely fanatical about this book, I adore it, devour it and revel in it every time I pick it up, though I have to admit I was a little sceptical the first time I read it. I was one of those people who saw the film before they read the book (both of which I recommend btw) and thought the film was so immense that the book couldn't be better than that. Oh little child I was! Oh foolish naiveté!

Now the reason I was a little sceptical at first is simple, it’s hard to find a good thriller/horror novel.

Which are my favourite kind.

Tension, danger, anxiety are all hard things to get across when all you have is words on a page and your faith in the readers imagination to work with and in this book, King had made this even more difficult by setting almost the entire book in one small, sparse room. So how did he manage it? Well partly by, what I like to call ‘layering.’ He draws parallels between the pain Paul feels from his crippled legs with the waves of the sea crashing and receding and anyone who has read the book will know what I mean by ‘Africa’ and ‘Goddess’. Put simply, he brings things outside of the room, into it, through Paul’s mind. He handles the fear element effortlessly and is absolutely ruthless with you as a reader and with Paul Sheldon as a character.

The villain of the piece, Annie Wilkes, is completely realistic, terrifying in a child-like way and reminds you of every slightly odd, talking to themselves type person you've ever come across on the train, on the bus, on the street.

His ability to put you in the character’s body is astounding and makes it impossible for you to deny his narrative skills and versatility as a story teller. The ability to be a true narrative artist is a rare gift, the ability to make the reader want to know, need to know what happens next is a rare gift also, and King has these gifts by the bucket load.

The relentless stomach knotted tension you feel throughout this ENTIRE book is only heightened by the mixture of emotions (I'm not going to say which as it might give it away for those who don’t know the ending) you feel upon finishing it. I put this all down to the ‘this could happen to you’ factor.

So that is that, my first little piece about one of my favourite books, I wont bore you for too long as I like to keep things short and sweet – unless I really didn't like something in which case I have a slight tendency to rant! 

All I can say is this, READ IT/WATCH IT!! 

And for those who already have...thoughts? opinions?

 :  )