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Duma Key
Apr. 13th, 2008 | 08:42 pm
Stephen King got his mojo back.
I don't think anything he wrote after his famed brush with death has been quite as good as the stuff he wrote before. You can't blame a man for that; getting hit with a dang van is an excellent excuse for all number of things. But that doesn't change the fact that I don't think, say, The Cell, was quite as good as Salem's Lot.
Until his latest book, Duma Key.
Duma Key revolves around Edgar Freemantle, a millionaire Minnesota construction contractor who loses his right arm and suffers massive brain damage in a crane accident. His faithless wife promptly divorces him, and too injured continue working, Edgar decides upon suicide, until his psychiatrist Dr. Kamen reminds Edgar that his daughters would lose the life insurance benefits. Since Edgar can't work, and can't kill himself, he turns to the one other activity he once enjoyed.
He liked to draw. So he moves to the titular Duma Key (a semi-deserted island west of Florida), starts drawing, and discovers three things. First, that he's really good. Second, that sometimes he can make things happen by drawing them.
And, third, some external power is supercharging his artistic ability. And as any politician, scientist, or warlock will tell you, power never comes for free.
I really liked Duma Key. It unfolds at a leisurely pace, but much of the book is occupied with Edgar's struggles to regain himself, to master such feats as getting into bed on his own or walking a mile without taking a few Vicodin first. Interspersed is the slow revealing of Duma Key's strange and bloody history, and a growing tension in the plot once Edgar figures out just what is supercharging his newly enhanced artistic talents. Definitely a good read.
-JM
I don't think anything he wrote after his famed brush with death has been quite as good as the stuff he wrote before. You can't blame a man for that; getting hit with a dang van is an excellent excuse for all number of things. But that doesn't change the fact that I don't think, say, The Cell, was quite as good as Salem's Lot.
Until his latest book, Duma Key.
Duma Key revolves around Edgar Freemantle, a millionaire Minnesota construction contractor who loses his right arm and suffers massive brain damage in a crane accident. His faithless wife promptly divorces him, and too injured continue working, Edgar decides upon suicide, until his psychiatrist Dr. Kamen reminds Edgar that his daughters would lose the life insurance benefits. Since Edgar can't work, and can't kill himself, he turns to the one other activity he once enjoyed.
He liked to draw. So he moves to the titular Duma Key (a semi-deserted island west of Florida), starts drawing, and discovers three things. First, that he's really good. Second, that sometimes he can make things happen by drawing them.
And, third, some external power is supercharging his artistic ability. And as any politician, scientist, or warlock will tell you, power never comes for free.
I really liked Duma Key. It unfolds at a leisurely pace, but much of the book is occupied with Edgar's struggles to regain himself, to master such feats as getting into bed on his own or walking a mile without taking a few Vicodin first. Interspersed is the slow revealing of Duma Key's strange and bloody history, and a growing tension in the plot once Edgar figures out just what is supercharging his newly enhanced artistic talents. Definitely a good read.
-JM