The plan is to reread all of Stephen King’s works in the order that they were published. Richard Chizmar of Cemetery Dance had the vision. I’m doing it because I am a writer and I want to improve my fiction. And I love Stephen King’s stories. I think there is something to be learned through this process.
You can also go back to the beginning and read Before Carrie or any of my other posts up through this one and beyond by checking out this link to the Master List of all my #StephenKingRevisited posts.
Duma Key opens with a man recovering from a terrible accident and the collapse of his marriage that follows. Some early foreshadowing is dropped into the first person narrative as he says offhandedly, “In spite of all the damage that followed…” Throughout the novel, we get more of these moments of “I’d live to regret this” and “if I had known this was the last time I’d ever see her.” Not a lucky place for daughters.
What began well ended badly for sure.
Before we meet Wireman, we get many of his best quotes like he is some sort of philosopher as opposed to an important character in the story. Wireman says, “Do the day and let the day do you.”
The name Fremantle returns after last being seen in The Stand as I recall.
In this 2008 novel, Oprah interviewed Kristi Allie on weight loss. The Iraq War and Bush are mentioned. We have Bill O’Reily and TiVo. M. Night Shyamalan movies are referenced. As are the X Files and Lost television shows. Billy Ray Cyrus is referenced with a groan.
Guns and Roses appear again. I think they may be the most mentioned band in Stephen King books.
Writing a split up of a marriage that doesn’t demonize one person is tricky work. I end up greatly disliking the wife even though the guy is far from blameless even before the terrors that befall them all later in the novel.
There is a slow burn of details through the novel that do pay off later. It takes a while to get there, leaving the reader wondering why we’re going on about all this for so long. The pieces feel like tangents for a lot of pages. Is his hunger significant? Is it really necessary to put this much detail into an art show and its lead up? And so on.
Most of these setups are handled well and pay off. One character figures out he can read minds just a little too easily. Another character suddenly has a history of ventriloquism just when it is needed. Still, these are small offenses that don’t really detract from the story too much.
“The Big Boy” is a really good fake out in how it is presented earlier and pays off later.
The spirit behind all the undoing is mentioned finally in dying words pretty deep into the novel.
The erosion of the house over the water and the shells making noises underneath proves to be a troubling and useful characteristic of the setting as the story progresses.
“I’ve been waiting for you” can be such an unnerving phrase when used well in a horror story.
“God always punishes us for what we can’t imagine” is a great line.
The theme of healing through creating is handled well in the novel. It comes at a cost as we go on. “Her gift was hungry. The best – and the worst – always are.”
“Gossip of dead things tell secrets in bone whispers” … “Children’s reason still sleeps and sleep of reason breeds monsters” Marvelously dark turns of phrase.
Mind control over a great distance and murder punctuate the final acts of the story. We also get a magic information dump through one of the less well set up bits.
It’s kind of a long way to get there, but the novel holds up and held my interest even though many of the complex setup sequences through the beginning and middle. I’m not sure anyone would pick this as their favorite Stephen King novel, but I’d be surprised if anyone chose it as their least favorite. The story holds up too well for that, I think.
My next post in this series will be Before Just After Sunset which will be linked on the Master List of all my Stephen King Revisited posts.
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