LISEY’S STORY

At the same time that the Mystery Writers of America announce that Stephen King will be honoured with the 2007 Grand Master award, Hodder and Stoughton have released his most personal work; and what an unusual treat we have in Lisey’s Story.

This book defies simple categorisation as it is part love story, part mystery with a dollop of chilling horror at its core.  Most of all it is a treat for long-term King readers, as it is filled with in jokes and nods and winks for those in the know, as well as being an exploration of the creative process in all its naked and raw glory.

I find the most captivating of King’s work are those novels that examine the mystery in the process of writing fiction and the link to madness, like Misery, The Shining, Secret Window, Secret Garden, The Dark Half, Bag of Bones and even his non-fiction work Danse Macabre and On Writing.  And with Lisey’s Story being the most raw and explicit examination of the creative process and the link to madness and love.

The novel starts conventionally enough with Lisey (pronounced ‘Lee-See’) Landon looking sadly back over her life as she clears her house following the death of her husband, the award winning and wealthy writer Scott Landon. Helping her on her journey is her troubled sister Amanda (with siblings Darla and Cantata in the background).

Lisey’s memories puncture this gothic tale; such as when she saved Scott’s life when a gunman attempted to shoot her husband. This episode is written with as much fury as the blow Lisey casts with the shovel into the gunman’s face. We also read of many tender memories that help her cope with Scott’s death.  Additionally, there are physical dangers, such as the madman, Zack McCool, sent innocently by a Literature professor to find a manuscript. McCool is also known as Jim Dooley and John Doolin, and we later learn he was born in a small town called Shooter’s Knob, which is a hat-tip to the villain Shooter who harassed the struggling writer in King’s novella Secret Window, Secret Garden.

King then lets loose his imagination completely and without restraint as he starts writing in the secret language that Lisey shared with Scott. We struggle to understand words their secret words - such as ‘Bad Gunky’, ‘Blood Bools’, ‘Smucking’. Then in the middle of this work, we start to comprehend that Scott Landon, to quote Theodore Sturgeon, was ‘more than human’. The most chilling section contains Landon’s recollection of his childhood, when he lived with his father and brother Paul. This brings the love story crashing into the Grand Guignol tradition and is probably the most terrifying writing that King has unleashed upon us, as we then realise that the Landons are dangerous people.

So as Lisey struggles in her battle with Zack McCool/Jim Dooley – Scott helps her from beyond reality in a place that his imagination resided, a place known only as Boo’ya Moon; and the pool from which he drank.

The close of the novel features the handwritten narrative that Scott left, explaining what happened between himself and his father and brother. Though terrifying, this section is filled with the love and pathos a child has for family despite the evil that lurks under the skin.