Lisey's Story

By Stephen King

Stephen King is in my top two picks of favorite writers of all time. (The other is John Irving. And since I love JK Rowling's Harry Potter, I would've given almost anything to have been able to attend the reading these 3 gave in NYC last August to raise funds for...a really good cause that I can't remember.) I still hope desperately to get to meet him someday--I'm hoping he'll be included in the National Book Festival next September.

I fell in love with SK after reading Pet Sematary, of all books. (Read it during my first trip to the US. Had nightmares the rest of the trip. Wouldn't have done it differently, let me tell you.) I've loved SK even as he's grown from being a writer of seriously entertaining and scary stuff (basically, much of his work written in the 70s and early 80s) to not-so-scary-in-the-gives-you-nightmares way but still awesome stuff (The Stand, Dark Tower) to the more psychologically-twisted stuff (Misery, Bag of Bones). I think the only book I had to stop reading out of sheer lack of interest was Tommyknockers.

Lisey's Story is both a horrorfest and a psychologically twisted tale with many layers of narrative. There's Lisey's 25-year marriage to a famous, successful writer named Scott Landon, who's been dead for 2 years due to reasons that aren't revealed till the very end. There's Lisey's relationships with her sisters. There's Lisey being stalked by a Dark Prince of Incunks (don't you just love the wonderful gift SK has for words?). There's the story of Scott and his father and brother and how those relationships colored his relationship with Lisey. And lastly there's the story of Boo'ya Moon.

I think I'm too old to get nightmares from having read this book, though I have no doubt my 17-year old self would've been scared shitless. But I really enjoyed this story completely. I'm not certain it's among his books that I'd happily re-read again and again (that list includes the Stand, Different Seasons, Pet Sematary, The Shining, Salem's Lot, It, The Talisman, Wizard and Glass, Eyes of the Dragon, and most of the stories in his large story anthologies). But I'd certainly re-read it at least twice more in the future!

What I loved most about this book was how real a picture it painted of marriage--and of a good marriage, at that. It did that so well that I ached for Lisey, having lost Scott at such a young age (48 is pretty young nowadays, right?). It made me think, unwillingly, that someday Benjie or I will be alone and widowed as well, and that made me infinitely sad. (Benjie hopes he'll go first.)

The language was also unbeatably King. The secret language between Scott & Lisey made me think of the unique dialect that's sprung up in my relationship with Benjie. It's nowhere near as rich and colorful as the Landons' but we've only been married 9 years (almost).

One of my greatest hopes is that SK lives to a ripe old age, and that he will continue to draw from his pool and share what he draws with us.