Haunted Heart: The Life and Times of Stephen King by Lisa Rogak

(hb; 2008: biography)

From the inside flap:

"One of the most prolific and popular authors today, Stephen King has become part of pop-culture history. But who is the man behind those tales of horror, grief, and the supernatural? Where do those ideas come from? And what drives him to keep writing at a breakneck pace after a thirty-year career? In this unauthorized biography, Lisa Rogak reveals the troubled background and lifelong fears that inspire one of the twentieth century's most influential authors.

"King's origins were inauspicious at best. His impoverished childhood in rural Maine and early marriage hardly spelled out the likelihood of a blossoming literary career. but his unflagging work ethic and a ceaseless flow of ideas put him on the path to success. It came in a flash, and the side effects of sudden stardom and seemingly unlimited wealth soon threatened to destroy his work and, worse, his life. But he survived and has since continued to write at a level of originality few authors could hope to match.

"Despite his dark and disturbing work, Stephen King has become revered by critics and his countless fans as an all-American voice more akin to Mark Twain than H.P. Lovecraft. Haunted Heart chronicles his story, revealing the character of a man who has created some of the most memorable -- and frightening -- stories found in literature today."

Review

Balanced, entertaining bio about a man whose name is, for many, synonymous with icky terror.

Normally, I'm wary of any bio that's written about an author who's still and alive and publishing, but Rogak, via her facts and interviews, shows King as a flesh-and-zombie-shake man, with demons (father abandonment issues, drug addiction) who still managed -- and manages -- to keep his priorities straight: writing, and taking care of his family (longtime wife Tabitha, daughter Naomi, and sons Joe and Owen).

Notable, portrait-supportive interviews with friends and family include: Peter Straub (who, among his books, co-authored The Talisman and Black House with King), Bev Vincent, and Rick Hautala (a consistently exemplary author and college friend of King's).

Good read, this. I'm not a big fan of most of Stephen King's post-mid-Eighties books. As a reader and writer, I'm a "minimalist," not a "maximalist" (phrases King used in his non-fiction book, On Writing). However, I've long admired what he's done, as a man and a writer, and this confirmed my feelings on the man, and his persona.

Worth checking out.

The Trap, by Tabitha King

(hb; 1985)

From the inside flap:

"Olivia and Pat [Russell] appear to be the perfect couple. They are young, seemingly devoted, with two beautiful children and fulfilling careers -- she as a gifted artist, he as a promising screenwriter. But now, Liv's marriage is coming apart, and she does not quite know why. She has become a prisoner to her husband's ambitions and her wifely responsibilities. She is being forced to choose between the only way of life she loves and feels secure in, and one that appears alien and threatening -- with a husband she feels she no longer knows.

"To think, and to heal herself, she goes with her young son in the dead of winter to their family cottage in a now-deserted Maine summer community. It is there, in the one place Liv has always felt safe, that brutality and cruelty come into her life. Three young hoodlums, on a vicious treasure hunt through empty vacation houses, have discovered their ultimate prize -- and they have her trapped. And Liv, horrifying alone, suddenly realizes that the evil in our society is never far beneath the surface, waiting to erupt. To save her own life, and that of her son, she begins a desperate race against time to find within herself the strength, and the means, to thrwart her tormentors and escape."

Review:

This tangential tale in the Nodd's Ridge series is an improvement on Caretakers, the Nodd's Ridge novel that preceded The Trap. There's no middle sag, or feels-forced finish to this one, like there was in Caretakers. (Chronologically, the events in The Trap take place a year after Joe Nevers's death in Caretakers, which makes The Trap the third novel in the Nodd's Ridge timeline, just after Pearl.)

This is a good read, with relatable (or hiss-worthy) characters, believable action, and skillful writing. I'd been wary about reading this, because of my aversion to reading novels with sexual torture/rape scenes, and a dislike of hostage-situation mindf**k dramas, and King's writing quickly dispelled any reservations I'd had regarding the above elements: in the two brief rape scenes, King's prose was brief and somewhat blurred, compared to other scenes in the novel; and the hostage-situation mindf**k drama was kept to a minimum, as well.

[Note: For those readers wondering what happens to Olivia "Liv" Russell after the traumas of The Trap, read Pearl. Though Pearl is technically the second novel in the Nodd's Ridge series, it was actually written and published three years after The Trap.]

Good entry in the excellent Nodd's Ridge series. Worth your time, these books.

Pearl, by Tabitha King

(hb; 1988)

From the inside flap:

"Pearl Dickenson has come to Nodd's Ridge to claim an inheritance from a relative she never knew. Unexpectedly, she elects to stay, unknowingly upsetting the town's equilibrium. She acquires a local diner and makes it a fixture of the town, through wonderful cooking and prodigious hard work. But the simple desire to have a home and a place of her own becomes complicated, to the entertainment of her decidedly interested neighbors, when she stumbles into not one, but two love affairs with two very different but equally troubled men -- Reuben Styles, a local man fighting to hold onto his rebellious teenage daughter in the aftermath of the break-up of his marriage, and wealthy summer resident David Christopher, brilliant and unstable, drawn back to the town where his childhood was shattered by the murder of his sister. Pearl's attempts to rescue Reuben's daughter, Karen, from an involvement with an abusive man triggers a series of revelations, not least Pearl's own awareness that she has let her confused heart lead her into a potentially disastrous conflict. When the seething rivalry between the two men explodes into violence, continuing a deep-rooted feud that threatens the very fabric of everyday life, Pearl realizes that only she has the power to heal -- or destroy -- the community... and to save -- or destroy -- herself."

Review:

The events in Pearl happen almost immediately after Joe Nevers's death in Caretakers. Pearl, a grand-niece of Joe's, inherits his house indirectly through her grandmother/Joe's sister, Gussie; she quickly buys a centralized, local, run-down diner from Roscoe Needham, an old kind-hearted drunk with a mean temper, and in doing so, completely reconfigures the lives of the local people.

Her arrival hits David Christopher, thirty-year old wealthy poet son of Victoria "Torie" Christopher (who had affairs with Joe, recounted in Caretakers, and Reuben Styles, recounted in Caretakers and Pearl's sequel/overlap novel, The Book of Reuben) and Reuben the hardest, it seems -- through a flukish fate-twist, she finds herself involved with both men, and in a small town already seething with pre-existing dramas, it threatens to take the town to its breaking point.

Pearl, like King's later Nodd's Ridge novels, The Book of Reuben and One on One, immediately gripped me, without any hitches (it's more assured than Caretakers, which sported middle-section plot lags). I had to keep reading this book, just to see what happened next -- it's a pot-boiler, but it's a classy, well-written one.

The book flap blurb plays up the tensions between Reuben and David (who's still haunted by the shooting death of his little sister, India, at a nearby lake, also witnessed by his traumatized mother, Reuben and Joe, who was India's real -- secret -- father). But this play-up is a bullsh*t publishing ploy, as David and Reuben are close friends, practically family; there are a few clashes, but nothing to warrant the hyperbolized nature of their relationship.

Another nit I had was with King's emotionally-manipulative, dirty-trick-ending, which laid to rest a number of Pearl's storylines and issues (some of them reaching one book back to Caretakers). It was effective, to be sure, but it felt like a cheap thing to do, after all the excellent, honest writing that came before it -- I expected this kind of bullsh*t finish from a hack writer, not a wordsmith of King's caliber. (In this it reminded, in a different way, of the tone-jarring ending in King's Survivor.)

These two nits -- one of them a publishing thing, not a novel-centric thing -- are minor, though, compared to the mostly-superb plot and characters that King has given the world in Pearl.

Check it out, after reading Caretakers. Pearl, superior to Caretakers in its execution, works as a stand-alone novel, but its characters and events mean more, given the familiarity that Caretakers readers may have with the subject matter.

[[Side-note: two notable characters appear in Pearl. One of them is Olivia ("Liv") Russell, the central character in an earlier Nodd's Ridge novel, The Trap.

[[The other character is from a novel by King's husband, Stephen (yes, that Stephen King). Dick Halloran, the Negro chef who got killed by an axe-wielding Jack Torrance in The Shining, is a close family friend of Pearl's: Halloran "ran [Pearl's step-father's Key West] diner in the winter, [and] used to work summers in a resort in Colorado [aka, the Overlook Hotel, in The Shining]" There's also a mention of Cujo, as well with a rabid-dog-on-the-loose subplot in Pearl, but that's nothing new -- Tabitha King also references Cujo, in a more playful way, in Survivor.]]

Caretakers, by Tabitha King

(hb; 1983)

From the inside flap:

"Caretakers is the story of Torie Christopher, a member of the Maine aristocracy, and Joe Nevers, the working-class man who has always loved her.

"...we see how... these seemingly-disparate lives have been inexorably joined. While a fierce Maine blizzard rages, Torie and Joe travel through their past in a series of revealing flashbacks. As they relive the tragedies and triumphs of the past thirty years, their relationship -- by turns subtle and profound -- slowly emerges.

"While the storm worsens, threatening their survival, we learn of startling, long-buried truths. We encounter spouses saintly and hellish, marriages enduring and licentious, and witness the coming of age of some children and tragic deaths of others. This is a novel where intimate secrets and tragic passions are laid bare."

Review:

The first of King's Nodd's Ridge novels reads sparse and less character-rich, as characters go: only Joe Nevers, Victoria "Torie" Chrisopher, Reuben Styles (whose seduction by Torie gets revisited, with more detailed passages, in The Book of Reuben) and a few other characters are shown this time out.

Bouncing between various flashbacks and the novel's present (1982), King's gift for prose-poetic imagery is restrained, but notable -- it's not until later novels that one sees it fully bloom. (I mention this because readers who may've read her later novels may find it disconcerting to encounter the aforementioned restraint.)

For the most part, this is a solid read, with characters who are entirely relatable, flawed and beautifully humane. The middle section, particularly the dialogue exchanges between Torie and Joe in 1982, lags a bit, but otherwise the story flows well. Also, revelations regarding events revisited in later Nodd's Ridge stories are not entirely unexpected, but still somewhat jarring.

This is not King's best book, but it's worth reading, especially if you're curious to read her later Nodd's Ridge novels (which, loosely connected, have overlapping storylines/timelines, often from different character perspectives).

One on One, by Tabitha King

(hb; 1993)

From the inside flap:

"A small-town school in western Maine, milltown Greenspark has a single claim to fame: its high school basketball team. A hero on the court, senior Sam Styles has led Greenspark Academy to three consecutive state championships. He has become an off-court mover-and-shaker as well, and he sends shockwaves through the school's social hierarchy when he decides that capping his own high school career with a fourth victory will not be enough: he wants the girls' team to win one, too.

"Standing between the girls and that state trophy is the person who is also their best hope of gaining it, a sophomore known as the Mutant, a/k/a Deanie Gauthier. She is attitude incarnate, a quick-silver playmaker on the court and a defiant pariah off it, as disliked as Sam is popular. If the girls are going to go all the way, Sam realizes, he will have to straighten her out.

"Saving Deanie from herself is no easy task, however. Behind the wild, tough girl, Sam discovers an unexpected soul mate, and he isn't prepared for the volatile, disturbing relationship that ignites between them and cuts radically across the grain of Greensparks' traditions. he wants her to take her team to the championships; she wants to take him where he's never been before. They both get more than they bargained for -- Deanie must surrender the secrets shielded by her Mutant facade, and Sam must take on their burden. It is an exchange that will transform both their lives."

Review:

As engrossing and full of heart-grabbing characters and situations as its published-after-One on One prequel, The Book of Reuben, King once again returns her fictional Maine area of Nodd's Ridge, first seen in her earlier novels, Caretakers and Pearl.

This time the central character is Sam Styles, son of Reuben (who's the focus in The Book of Reuben). The drama, described in King's trademark warm, vivid, and sometimes poetic verbiage, takes place after the events of Reuben. Sam has recovered from the divorce-kidnapping trauma of his religious nutjob mother (Laura), and is now dealing with semi-normal high school life under his father's finanically-strapped-but-stable roof, and the new family his father and Reuben's new wife, Pearl (from Pearl), have put together, with the semi-recent arrival of a baby step-sister, India (aka, "Indy").

This is the way novels are supposed to read. It's immediately involving, detailed, with characters whom readers are drawn toward -- I got emotional during certain scenes involving Deanie and her abusive stepfather, Tony Lord; I often found myself audibly growling: you bastard, you better get yours.

Worth your time, this also-works-as-a-stand-alone novel, though you'll probably enjoy it more if you read Caretakers (which features a younger Joe Nevers from The Book of Reuben as a main character), Pearl, and The Book of Reuben first.

The Book of Reuben, by Tabitha King

(hb; 1994)

From the inside flap:

"In a decade shadowed by the draft and the war in Vietnam, Reuben is a raw-boned, determined teenager whose ideas of romance have been shaped by the songs of his generation and whose dreams seem well within his reach despite the death of his tyrannical father. He tries to do everything right according to the standard American success story -- but life is not a straight line for him. He stars in high school sports, but has to abandon his athletic ambitions to go to work. He labors hard at the local filling station and works his way up to buying it, but is frustrated by obstacles in his way. He meets a rich and beautiful older woman who takes him into her bed, and has the misfortune to witness her child's mysterious murder. He marries his childhood sweetheart, and finds himself on a battleground that lies between desire and responsibility.

"While nothing turns out as Reuben expects, his incredible spirit and core of strength, his refusal to break down or cave in, is evidenced by his readiness to love again after he meets the beautiful Pearl. And his struggle to become the person he had envisioned gives insight into what it costs him to become a man in a world he never made but learns to accept."

Review:

This is a heartbreaker and a charmer of a novel. It's a heartbreaker because of the bad breaks that Reuben (and by extension, Reuben's other characters) endure, but, which, in King's sure narrative, sweeten the novel's (i.e., life's) compensative everyday miracles.

It's a charmer because of not only how King handles the story, detailing the characters' lives to the extent that the reader cares, becomes immersed in (as I did), their daily and emotional states, but because of the complexity of the characters. Reuben, a life-thwarted professional athlete and mechanic, is sincere and emotionally awkward; David, son of the widow Reuben becomes a lover of, is an adolescent rich-spoiled vandal, but he's also kind and sensitive to others; Sixtus, the owner of the auto shop Reuben hopes to buy, is cranky as all aged hell, but is surreptitiously caring; even Laura, Reuben's ball-busting cult-crazed wife, isn't completely villainous -- she's bad, but there's legitimate reasons why her sense of tenderness goes dangerously awry.

King seamlessly imbues the characters' lives with small details from the outside world -- e.g., the Vietnam War and its attendant political-social views, evolving tastes in music and drugs, attitudes towards sex (which really don't seem to change all that much).

This is a perfect novel -- no end-flaws (like those in King's mostly-excellent Survivor), and worth owning.

Side-note: story-wise, Reuben follows two other novels from King's Nodd's Ridge series: Caretakers (which features Reuben's Joe Nevers as a younger man) and Pearl (which features Pearl Dickenson from Reuben). One on One, a story-overlapping sequel to Reuben, was published the year before Reuben was.

Survivor, by Tabitha King

(hb; 1997)

From the inside flap:

"Kissy Mellors, an extraordinary photographer, is at the wheel of her Blazer when a shattering accident sparks a slow-burning, ultimately explosive drama of desire and decision. It is night. She is driving back to her apartment through the campus of a Maine college. A yellow T-bird zooms past her and hits two female pedestrians. One life is ended. One life is suspended in a coma. And Kissy's life is changed forever.

"After the accident three men enter Kissy's life. One is James Houston, the drunken premed student responsible for the fatal collision. One is Mike Burke, the policeman who arrived at the scene moments later. And one is Junior Clootie, a college hockey star being groomed for the pros, with whom Kissy begins an intensely sexual affair while still shaken by the aftershock of the nightmare experience."

Review:

This is three-quarters of a perfect novel, with characters at once admirable and deeply flawed, and an immaculately paced story that charts the twists and turns of each of the characters' lives as their paths cross and diverge. I was immediately absorbed in King's reads-like-real-life-yet-eloquent prose, and loathed having to set the book down to deal with my own life, which rarely fails to fascinate me.

It's in the final quarter of the novel that it stumbles, character-wise. One of the characters -- namely Kissy, about whom the action/story revolves -- acts uncharacteristically erratic and selfish in her desires, when before, even her impulsive acts made sense. Granted, some extreme situations present themselves in the story, but still...

The finish, ably and slyly built up to, dovetails the novel nicely, almost making up for Kissy's forced, oddball behavior near the end.

Good read that could've been great -- still worth reading, though. For a better King novel, check out The Book of Reuben.