So, I finished reading Stephen Kingapos;s Duma Key about three weeks ago but have been holding off on writing about because Rome Girl has been reading it. Sheapos;s almost done, however, and is so close to the end that I can review it now without giving anything away.
The problem with Stephen King is that heapos;s always been hit or miss. Some of his books are wonderful (The Stand, It, Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption, the entire Dark Tower series, Insomnia) while some are dreadful, dreadful pieces of shit (Rose Madder, Cell, Geraldapos;s Game.)
Recently his problem has been that heapos;s obsessed with the car accident that almost killed him which has led to some of his most self absorbed work - including Liseyapos;s Story - so when Duma Key starts off with a car accident your first impulse is to think "Christ, this is going to suck."
But, youapos;d be wrong. He uses the accident simply as a literary device to get the main character onto Duma Key - which is a weird little island in Florida that by all rights should be really popular with tourists, but simply isnapos;t.
Once he gets to Duma Key and moves into a house called Big Pink, the novel hits itapos;s stride and very, very artfully builds up to a complete home run. This is a book that is certainly as good as It and almost as good as The Stand.
It also has one of the best Stephen King characters in the form of a dude called Wireman, who is also at Duma Key in order to get away from something really, really bad in his past.
The story itself is simple. Once on the Key, the main character, Edgar, discovers an ability to draw and paint really, really well.
At first itapos;s just for fun, but eventually he realizes that he can not only paint the future, but he can use paintings to change the future.
This distracts him from the fact that there is something really, really wrong with the island that heapos;s living on.
As the book goes on it becomes clear that King is writing a variation on the Persephone myth and when Persephone finally turns up she is one evil pissed off bitch. Yet, even though this is modern fiction there is nothing King has Persephone do that would contradict any of her original mythos.
By the end of the book really, really fucked up shit starts to happen, but unlike a lot of Kingapos;s books the fucked up shit doesnapos;t come out of nowhere - itapos;s all been built up and makes logical sense based on whatapos;s come before.
The end result is a novel that works on several levels. It will scare the shit out of you, while creating interesting characters who actually grow and develop as human beings as the novel goes on.
There are moments of great heart wrenching tragedy in here, but also soaring triumphs.
My only objection is that at points King mixes the Persephone myth with the Pandora myth. Iapos;m not sure if heapos;s doing this just to make sure you understand the classical nature of the tale heapos;s trying to tell, or if he simply figures more people will get the Pandora references than the Persephone ones, or if heapos;s trying to create a new mythos. I suppose there could be some Persepone/Pandora crossovers in the original myths that Iapos;m simply forgetting.
Anyway, the bottom line is that with Duma Key, Stephen King is finally doing what heapos;s good at again - creating an interesting set of characters in a cool gothic setting and then letting all hell break loose.
If you liked It, youapos;ll love Duma Key.
diaspora network, city of dallas parking tickets, city of dallas parking ticket, city of dallas parking, city of dallas oregon.
Комментариев нет:
Отправить комментарий