Yep, Stephen King's latest. For all the time I had for reading last week while I was in California, for all the critical blurbs about the marvelous insights King has into the inner life of a marriage, Lisey's Story is the first book I can remember since Iain M. Banks' Feersum Endjinn (which had long segments written phoenetically) that the very prose style became so irritating that I was forced to put it down.
It made me want to say: "Yes, every marriage may have its own secret language. But most married people have the good sense not to inflict that language on people outside of the marriage." And for good reason. After a certain amount of- pardon my language- "smuck" on virtually every page, I began to wonder if I had been secretly kidnapped to the village of the Smurfs.
Has anyone finished this one? Am I missing out? If I suffer through another hundred pages, will I discover that I'm missing some genuinely wonderful and insightful story? Because, right now, I'm thinking if someone talked to me like Lisey's internal monologue talks to the readers, I'd move to another seat on the bus.
Posted by Stephan (Member # 7549) on :
I haven't read it, but a friend said it was the best King she had ever read. Go figure. I guess I will just have to try it and see what happens.
Posted by Goody Scrivener (Member # 6742) on :
Okay, I'm a die-hard King fan.... and I had trouble with Lisey as well. Not knowing how far you are, I'm afraid to explain why because I don't want to leave spoilers.
I mucked my way through it, largely because I just can't *not* finish a story once I've started it. And in the end I thought it was okay. Not great, not even good. And certainly not what I've come to expect from King.
Now his son.... woooooooooooooboy. Joe Hill, "Heart Shaped Box". That really reads like Classic King.
Posted by Mig (Member # 9284) on :
Read it, and I have to agree with Sterling. It read like bad Dean Koontz. (I really like Koontz' stuff, but he can write some real clunkers.) This story went nowhere. The central conflict was to easily and predicably resolved. The story was filled with needless fluff and took forever to get to the point. Sure he has some very memorable and nicely written scenes, but the over effort was a waste.
Posted by King of Men (Member # 6684) on :
Haven't read King's latest, so I'm going to chime in on Feersum Endjinn. Ye gods, that was annoying. It turns out, though, that you can just cut that character's narrative from the book and still have a coherent story, so that's what I ended up doing.
Posted by Stray (Member # 4056) on :
I listened to it on audiobook while doing my Christmas knitting (there was a lot of it last year), and I pretty much agree with what Mig said. I'm glad I got the download for free with a trial Audible membership and didn't spend money on it.
Posted by stihl1 (Member # 1562) on :
I personally don't like King's novels. They bore me. They're usually too long, too much description, etc.
His short stories, on the other hand, are great. I think the very nature of the media forces him to get to the point quicker, which makes for great reading.