Stephen King: Lisey's Story

[ions]

I got myself a snack and a beverage and waited with bated breath. Then nothing happened. I waited some more. Nothing happened. We are all very curious eyez0nme, what makes Lisey's Story 'mediocre and prosaic'?

 

[Cesce]

Hi all. I've been a SK fan for 20 years and have read everything he's written. Some years ago, (around about Dreamcatcher) I decided not to fork out for hardbacks any more, but to wait for the (cheaper) paperbacks. Couldn't do it, though. Consequently, I got Lisey's Story as soon as it came out (thought he'd retired, anyway? even before Cell). Apart from the made-up words and baby talk (very irritating), I found his writing as compelling as ever. Ever picked up a Sidney Sheldon because you had nothing else? Well, there's a huge difference in style and usually, I find King's prose just sucks you in. Lisey's Story did, to a certain extent, but then the silly words just keep bringing you bang back to earth. I sort of got the impression he was aiming for a "literary novel" as, perhaps, his swan song: impenetrable prose and not much story. Perhaps it galls him to be known as a "horror" writer when that isn't all he's written: Shawshank, The Green Mile, The Talisman, The Dark Tower series... even The Stand isn't really horror, so perhaps he would be justified. Now, Clive Barker and Shaun Hutson; that's horror (yuck).

 

[SFG75]

Deconstructing the critics

From a Houston Chronicle review on metacritic regarding Lisey's Story.

and dull descents into another dimension.

And the dull parts would have been?

Her flimsy excuse for not calling local lawmen is that they might not deal with the lunatic authoritatively. If that were the case, the wealthy Lisey could hire bodyguards.

Ahhh, but the lunatic got to her even with the police sitting outside. Obviously, he was more than capable than the local cops were-criticism unwarranted is rather shabby here.

Having acquired this ability, Lisey decides to use it when a savage "fan" comes calling at her Maine home. After he viciously tortures her and departs, she decides to deal with the maniac herself, with help from a suicidal sister. As Lisey sees it, whipping them all to fantasy land is the ace up her sleeve.

Okay, so anything that alludes to the supernatural is....fair game for criticism.

King squanders such pertinence by taking yet another trippy ride with lots of flash and little meaning.

Hmmmmm, getting a bit personal are we?

 

[Stewart]

Clive Barker and Shaun Hutson; that's horror (yuck).

I'm disappointed that Barker should appear in the same sentence as Hutson, but I wouldn't go around calling Barker a horror writer. His own belief is that he writes 'the fantastic' and while his early shorts were horror he is probably more of a dark fantasy author.

 

[Stewart]

And the dull parts would have been?

The quote quite clearly states that the dull parts were the trips to Boo'Ya Moon.

Okay, so anything that alludes to the supernatural is....fair game for criticism.

I actually agree with the quote there. Boo'Ya Moon seemed only in the novel to aid getting rid of the evidence, which is a poor requirement for inclusion.

 

[SFG75]

The quote quite clearly states that the dull parts were the trips to Boo'Ya Moon.

Actually, I thought that was described very well and was rich in detail. I would say the account of the crazy sister being in the asylum was the most boring and dull. I'd also say that the sister's interaction with Lisey was very contrived and unoriginal as it was predicrable. The boo-yah moon interaction didn't have that chracteristic, at least, from what I could tell.

 

[eyez0nme]

Aww crap, SFG, I clicked there.

 

[SFG75]

Aww crap, SFG, I clicked there.

Can't say I didn't warn you bro. I left a warning and everything.

 

[eyez0nme]

It's just a forum.

Thought it was going to be those demongodcreatures that leaps out of the screen, shrieking.

Good thing it's not; those give me a heartattack.


On a side note, here is what King said about the "muse" in a Washington Post article, "

There's a mystery about creative writing, but it's a boring mystery unless you're interested in this one small animal, sometimes quite vicious, that makes its home in the bushes. It's a scruffy little thing with fleas and often smells of whatever nasty mess it's been rolling in. It can never be more than semi-domesticated and isn't exactly known for its loyalty. I'll speak more of this beast -- to which the Greeks gave the comically noble name musa, which means song -- later, but in the meantime, believe me when I say there's little mystery or tragic romance about the rest of it, which is why they never show the working part in movies about writers, only the drinking, carousing and heroic puking in the gutter by the dawn's early light.

Dig this: The so-called "writing life" is basically sitting on your ass.

There is indeed a half-wild beast that lives in the thickets of each writer's imagination. It gorges on a half-cooked stew of suppositions, superstitions and half-finished stories. It's drawn by the stink of the image-making stills writers paint in their heads. The place one calls one's study or writing room is really no more than a clearing in the woods where one trains the beast (insofar as it can be trained) to come. One doesn't call it; that doesn't work. One just goes there and picks up the handiest writing implement (or turns it on) and then waits. It usually comes, drawn by the entrancing odor of hopeful ideas. Some days it only comes as far as the edge of the clearing, relieves itself and disappears again. Other days it darts across to the waiting writer, bites him and then turns tail.

".

 

[-Carlos-]

Lisey's Story paperback editions will be released on June 19 (US) and June 12 (UK). Here are the covers.

US cover:


UK cover:

 

[SFG75]

Thanks for posting the pics there Aqua, very interesting to see. The American hard cover was just....weird. I know it was supposed to symbolize boo-yah mountain or whatever, but it was just.........weird.

 

[Anamnesis]

I like the US paperback cover. The UK artwork is odd... what's with the butterfly? I don't recall any references to one in the book.

 

[beer good]

Dear constant writer;

Hiya, Steve! So glad to see you didn't give up after the utterly dismal Cell; Lisey's Story really is an improvement. Then again, what wouldn't be, eh?

Kidding, old buddy, kidding! Hey, we've been friends since I was 11, and if you can't take a joke from a friend, then what? Seriously, there are things about Lisey's Story that are quite good. You're back to ordinary people with actual depth dealing with both life and supernatural horrors, you've stopped pretending that you can still do the lean mean horror thing and tried to branch out. And never mind that you've done the whole "trapped woman has to unlock repressed memories to get herself to a place where she can save herself" thing already (Gerald's Game? Rose Madder?) because adding the age-old "creativity is a form of madness" and "there is power in language" themes is a good idea; there's definitely stuff to be explored here to which the horror form (all horror is metaphor) should lend itself perfectly well, and hey, if Buffy could make an entire episode (OK, half of one) about walking through someone's subconscious memories, then surely the Master of Horror should be able to spin it into a 666 (heh) page novel, right?

And yeah, there is a good novel in here someplace. The bits with the Landon family, the bits with the crazed fans, and even many of the scenes between Lisey and Scott; as smarmy as they get, it occasionally makes for some emotional stuff that adds resonance to the story even if you've done a lot better. And although I hate to remind you that (spoiler Needful Things)

Spoiler

you killed Andy Clutterbuck 15-odd years ago

, it's nice to see some of the old Castle Rock people are still around.

Problem is, you overexert yourself, mate. You try a little too hard to write like a Proper Literary Writer (or rather, like the popular conception of one - ie verbose, using fancy words for the sake of it, and namechecking Dostoevsky) and frankly, it gets a bit like hearing AC/DC trying to play Kind of Blue. Now, I love AC/DC, but subtle they ain't, jazz they ain't, and Stevie-baby? You're no Miles Davis. That phrase repetition thing you always do (STEVE! THE LONG BOOK!) works fine over shorter stretches, but here it wears thin before we're 1/3 through, and frankly, if I never hear the word "smucking" again, it'll be 10,000 years too soon. Jazz is all about variations on a theme, not repetition of it. And while you've always been fond of what fanfic (and possibly other amateur fiction) writers call "Mary Sue" - ie the character who is exactly like the author only more charming, more good-looking, smarter, sexier and with a Deep Dark Secret - Scott really gets too much at times. We get it, the guy's charming, Lisey loved him, now move the hell on.

(And also, Stevie honey sweetie? Entire fucking chapters in Comic Sans? Not OK in 1996, not OK now, not OK ever again. Do. Not.)

Now, I sound harsh. Sorry about that. Tell ya what, Stevie; for the good times, for all the years you and me went honky tonkin', for the 200-250 pages of actual pretty good Stephen King story in here, and for the fact that it's a fairly quick read (after a while you learn to skip all the "smuckings", "bools" and "bad-gunkys", conveniently cutting about 100 pages out of the story), and for the excellent phrase

ninety-eight percent of what goes on in people's heads is none of their business

, I'm going to give you a 3/5 on my King scale. It's nowhere near the heights, but it's got miles and miles on Cell and Dreamcatcher and it made a very long train journey less boring. So 3/5; don't thank me or I might have to rethink. You're on probation, Stevie-Boy; don't disappoint me again or it's the shed for you.

 

[SFG75]

Maybe my memory has dimmed a bit since I last read Lisey's Story, but do you folks really think it's better than Cell? I mean, really? If so, I'd like to ask-why? Roaming zombies, chaos at a hot dog stand, what more could you possibly ask for? Or is all that you possibly want is a "smucking" love story?

 

[beer good]

Maybe my memory has dimmed a bit since I last read Lisey's Story, but do you folks really think it's better than Cell?

Yup, yes, yeah, affirmative, uh-huh, correct, and also yepperino.

Roaming zombies, chaos at a hot dog stand, what more could you possibly ask for?

It's interesting that the two things you mention from Cell are the ones that we get in the first 3 pages. Yeah, those were good. But then it kept going...

 

[eyez0nme]

So did Lisey's.

They both sucked, to tell you the truth.

 

[SevenWritez]

Maybe I'm just growing out of Stephen King, because I'm starting to think both past and present of the man suck.

I enjoyed the stories while reading them, but now, I can't get into anything by him. The Shining, Pet Semetary, and Misery are the recent three that I've read, and I was more or less bored with all of them.

He should retire so that people without a name but an abundance of talent can take over. His new work is dry and vapid, and he still wants to be taken 'seriously,' as a writer. Which is annoying.

 

[eyez0nme]

Just took the words right outta my mouth.

*bows and kisses Seven's foot*

 

[SevenWritez]

Don't get me wrong, I respect him dearly, and I always will, as it was through his voice in 'On Writing' that I found that last little spark in myself to hold onto my dream of writing, even when my writer's block had more or less evolved into a lack-of-self-confidence block.

He was the writer that showed me it was okay to write what I wanted to write, and how I wanted to write it(I know that sounds pretentious but I don't mean it to be, and no, I'm not saying I have some revolutionary style of writing tucked under my belt).

I just wish he would back down from this seemingly continuous effort on his part to be taken seriously as a writer from the critics who dogged him early on his career, taking a blind turn away from the readers who propelled him on in his starting days, as he now reaches out and tries to (I guess, I'm not a mind reader), gain his nod of approval from the fat slobs who sit in chairs and drink tea and then place themselves on pedestals marked 'Hereby Named the Literary Gods...Critics Wise'.

If he wants to go out with a bang, fine, but to keep pushing out this crap that is nowhere near the level of fun that his younger self dished it out is only going to dim his name into shadows, not brighten it. He seems more concerned now with being remembered, versus being great in the present, and the first Stephen King, the one who slyly threw those '****-You' moments into his stories--well, I wish he'd come back.

And Duma Key better not suck.

 

[eyez0nme]

And if it does?