Lisey's Story by Stephen King
Wednesday, October 24, 2007 by Lightheaded
Lisey's Story
Stephen King
I haven't read Stephen King in a while. Unlike others who buy every SK book available, I have managed to get by with only a handful of his books. I've seen the movies though. I'm not really sure how faithful they were to the written works but one of my favorite films include The Shawshank Redemption.
Some books I dearly loved like The Stand, The Green Mile, The Eyes of the Dragon and the Dark Tower (even if I haven't read the last book from that series, for one reason or another I had it shelved until I reread all six books prior to it), one scared the hell out of me (The Shining), and one somewhat creepy (It) but all of them are generally more than your average good reads. There was a time I wanted to buy The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon but I never got around to doing that. I was more like the occasional fan. If I like what I read at the back of his book I'd probably buy it. That's how I had all the abovementioned books (except The Eyes of the Dragon which was gift). Plus I have On Writing, still unread. Gee, I'm stressing myself with two of my unread Kings!
And Lisey's Story will be part of my treasured King books (despite my paperback copy which somehow bleeds ink and smudges some letters after turning the pages). It was such a pleasure to read.
It's a story about love, marriage, letting go when the dearly beloved passed on and the love that endures after death. It's also a story about families and the blood ties that either gives strength or destroys, of sisterhood and the unspoken commitment to be there for each other no matter what happens.
It's also a tale of madness. One that kills and one that restores and refreshes one's senses. A madness that believes that not everything is at it seems and that this world is but one of many.
Reading Stephen King is opening yourself to his world, his language, his manner of laying down the tale. You either get him or not. You either love the play of words, the atmosphere he creates and the characters who mouths stuff you may or may not understand. I initially had difficulty with some of the accented words and I had to speak (at least in my mind) some in a Southern accent, which I have to admit I have very limited exposure to since I'm not from the US nor anywhere near it.
But what's more important to me than the accents or even the made up words that can be a bit tricky (I sometimes turn back the pages to recall what the hell SOWISA means even if I know the context from whence it came) is how everything falls into place in the end. And in this, the master of horror never disappoints.
One last thing.
I knew I have read BOOL before. I just can't remember where. A search pointed me to Wikipedia's entry on Lisey's Story stating that the phrase "Bool! The end!" appeared in "Wizard and Glass" which is the fourth book in the Dark Tower series. It's also the book that reeled me in because of the Dave McKean illustrations.
-----
This post originally appeared in my blog titled as Strap It On.
I didn't know that this book won the Bram Stoker Award for 2006 until now. So I'm including this in my additional reads for the Book Awards Reading Challenge as well. Of course I still plan to go through the rest of my Final Twelve as I've read one on the list and another two off from my pool of books. My thoughts on those books to follow, hopefully soon.
Stephen King
I haven't read Stephen King in a while. Unlike others who buy every SK book available, I have managed to get by with only a handful of his books. I've seen the movies though. I'm not really sure how faithful they were to the written works but one of my favorite films include The Shawshank Redemption. Some books I dearly loved like The Stand, The Green Mile, The Eyes of the Dragon and the Dark Tower (even if I haven't read the last book from that series, for one reason or another I had it shelved until I reread all six books prior to it), one scared the hell out of me (The Shining), and one somewhat creepy (It) but all of them are generally more than your average good reads. There was a time I wanted to buy The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon but I never got around to doing that. I was more like the occasional fan. If I like what I read at the back of his book I'd probably buy it. That's how I had all the abovementioned books (except The Eyes of the Dragon which was gift). Plus I have On Writing, still unread. Gee, I'm stressing myself with two of my unread Kings!
And Lisey's Story will be part of my treasured King books (despite my paperback copy which somehow bleeds ink and smudges some letters after turning the pages). It was such a pleasure to read.
It's a story about love, marriage, letting go when the dearly beloved passed on and the love that endures after death. It's also a story about families and the blood ties that either gives strength or destroys, of sisterhood and the unspoken commitment to be there for each other no matter what happens.
It's also a tale of madness. One that kills and one that restores and refreshes one's senses. A madness that believes that not everything is at it seems and that this world is but one of many.
Reading Stephen King is opening yourself to his world, his language, his manner of laying down the tale. You either get him or not. You either love the play of words, the atmosphere he creates and the characters who mouths stuff you may or may not understand. I initially had difficulty with some of the accented words and I had to speak (at least in my mind) some in a Southern accent, which I have to admit I have very limited exposure to since I'm not from the US nor anywhere near it.
But what's more important to me than the accents or even the made up words that can be a bit tricky (I sometimes turn back the pages to recall what the hell SOWISA means even if I know the context from whence it came) is how everything falls into place in the end. And in this, the master of horror never disappoints.
One last thing.
I knew I have read BOOL before. I just can't remember where. A search pointed me to Wikipedia's entry on Lisey's Story stating that the phrase "Bool! The end!" appeared in "Wizard and Glass" which is the fourth book in the Dark Tower series. It's also the book that reeled me in because of the Dave McKean illustrations.
-----
This post originally appeared in my blog titled as Strap It On.
I didn't know that this book won the Bram Stoker Award for 2006 until now. So I'm including this in my additional reads for the Book Awards Reading Challenge as well. Of course I still plan to go through the rest of my Final Twelve as I've read one on the list and another two off from my pool of books. My thoughts on those books to follow, hopefully soon.
Posted in:
Bram Stoker,
Lightheaded
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