It had been over 20 years since I had read a Stephen King book. I used to love horror and love his books. I really, really did. That changed and I don't like horror at all now. I like scary, suspenseful stories-just not horror. I think I had convinced myself that surely there wouldn't be that much horror because he put so much of his wife/marriage into the story. I guess there probably wasn't as much as in his other books, but it was still too much for me.
Stephen King had said that he wrote this after considering what could happen to his wife if he had died in the car accident that he had. I do think he put quite a bit of himself and her into this story. I liked the beginning of the book very much, but then in the middle there was a little too much of the horror element for me. Lisey's husband Scott flashes back to a horror-full childhood. There were some crazy things that happen to Lisey as well that bothered me because I kept thinking, "How can he think of these things happening to his wife?"
Anyway, it was a good book to also use for the R.I.P Challenge, but I don't think I'll be reading another King book for awhile. If you know of one that is very tame, I might try it. Otherwise, there's just too much horror in King for this wimpy woman. I really wish I would have thought to read The Inhabited World instead.
Title, author, and date of book?Lisey's Story, Stephen King, 2006
Genre: fiction, nonfiction, memoir, history, etc.? Fiction. King generally writes horror, and there are aspects of that in this book, as well as thriller and fantasy.
What made you want to read it? Did it live up to your expectations? I generally read everything new that King publishes. No, it didn't really live up to my expectations. Since this was chosen as a New York Times Notable Book, I expected it to be one of the best King novels. It's about average on my personal spectrum of King novels.
Summarize the book without giving away the ending. The main character, Lisey, is the widow of a famous writer. She's grieving as well as trying to process some of what she knows about her husband and his past, and trying to deal with an ill sister, and trying to deal with a deranged stalker.
What did you think of the main character? I thought she was very strong; she's one those quiet women you may not notice, but if you get to know them, you realize they're intelligent and strong as hell.
Which character could you relate to best, and why? I didn't relate to any of the characters. The main character, Lisey, has 20 million dollars, a dead husband and several sisters. She's the youngest in her family and she's never had a career. The only thing I really have in common with her is that I know what it's like to travel so much that it's not even fun any more. Her sister, Amanda, is catatonic through most of the novel, so it's hard to identify with her. I certainly don't identify with a male Pulitzer/NBA winning novelist. And most of all, I don't identify with a deranged, violent stalker.
Were there any other especially interesting characters? The dead writer has a father and brother that we meet through flashbacks to his childhood. They were some of the most interesting characters, for me.
Did you think the characters and their problems were believable? Well, no. But I don't think I'm meant to. There is another world that the characters visit in a vaguely Narnia-like way. Those who can visit that world have amazing healing powers.
From whose point of view is the story told? Lisey's.
Was location important to the story? There are a lot of references to King's fictional places in Maine. For details on those connections, click here.
Was the time period important to the story? It seemed more like current technology interfered with the story. For example, in order to make some of the isolation Lisey experiences more plausible, she had to be completely clueless about her own cell phone.
Was the story told chronologically? Was there foreshadowing? No, it wasn't told chronologically. There were a lot of flashbacks, both to the time that Scott (Lisey's husband) was alive and to Scott's and Lisey's childhoods. Yes, there was some foreshadowing.
Did you think the story was funny, sad, touching, disturbing, moving? It wasn't as sad and disturbing as it was probably meant to be. I think a stronger sense of grief was required from Lisey, whereas there was really more a problem-solving air about her.
What did you like most about the book? As always, I enjoyed King's wordplay.
What did you like least? The disgusting scenes featuring the violent stalker. But I think they were meant to be that disgusting.
Share a quote from the book. A "long boy" is a sort of monster from the alternate world the characters travel to.
Her own fear is so great it's incapacitating, and any sense of exhilaration at having him back is gone. Has he lived with this all his life? If so, how has he lived with it? But even now, in the extremity of her terror, she supposes she knows. Two things have tied him to the earth and saved him from the long boy. His writing is one. The other has a waist he an put his arms around and an ear into which he can whisper.
Share a favorite scene from the book. I have two favorite scenes.
In the first, Lisey and Scott are spending a winter in Germany. King did a wonderful job evoking the sense of despair and desperate homesickness the two experienced. I also like how this scene captured the way in which the mental anguish of one person in a couple can be contagious for the other.
I also enjoyed the flashbacks to Scott's childhood. King has a gift for characterization, particularly with child characters. The events of Scott's childhood are so horrific, but so real in spite of their basic unreality, that I had to wonder if King himself had lived with a mentally ill parent.
What about the ending? To be honest, this book really bogged down in the last 1/3 or so. I got to the point where I just wanted to finish. The end contains some writing of Scott's that Lisey found, which gives her a sort of closure. I'm not sure I believe there is such a thing as closure on losing someone you have lived with and loved for 25 years. But Lisey comes as close as she could probably hope for.
What do you think will be your lasting impression of this book? I think my lasting impression will be "one of the Stephen King books with a female main character." Not one that stands out.
Thanks to Bonnie for her version of the book review questionnaire.
Here's an interview with King about this book, though they don't get to discussing this book in particular until halfway through the four minutes. The playful humor you find in King's books is apparent also in this interivew.
I hate DNF's but I actually found myself avoiding the reading of this book today so that is a sign I should just let it go.
I didn't have any problem with the writing style. I had a problem with the fact that Lisey's interaction with Dooley and the flashbacks to Scott's childhood were images I don't like having in my mind but I can't get rid of them.
Maybe Stephen King is too good at his job. I like spooky, I like creepy, I like mystery, I like paranormal. I want to say it's because I was feeling hopeless and sad while reading this but I certainly wasn't dancing while I read "The Road." I don't know what it is. I just didn't like it.
I have only read one other book by Stephen King("It") years ago. I finished and though I don't remember loving it, I don't remember being as bugged by it as this one.
I guess you can file me under the category of "Not a Stephen King Fan" and no satisfaction in crossing it off my list.
I admit that Stephen King may not be for every reader (more's the loss for them), but revile him for his proliferation, mourn his flops, question his "I've retired/ I'm back again" games, and you still can't deny the fact that when King is "on", he is masterfully brilliant. I have sentimental ties to King because his writing was something my father and I loved to share. I cried when I finished the Gunslinger series because it was something my own father did not live to see, and he would have loved it. Since then I have been less than impressed with King's releases, but again I find myself saddened that my Dad and I can't share Booya Moon. While completely fictional, I do believe that this work is the most intimate look the readers may ever see of the landscape of Stephen King's mind, and I have no doubt that Scott Landon's love for Lisey finds no small inspiration in the relationship between King and his wife. The one difficulty I had with book was the "private language" between Scott and Lisey, which must simply be accepted for a time before it is explained. Otherwise King has written a completely unique work with the stylistic elements he is famous for, but in a genre which I would never have imagined he would try. To quote my husband: "In his own inimitable way, Stephen King wrote a love story." And indeed, he did.
509 pages, library, hardback published in 2006 started 3/13/07, finished 3/19/07
First Sentence: "To the public eye, the spouses of well-known writers are all butinvisible, and no one knew it better than Lisey Landon."
Reason for reading: For the NYT Notable Books Challenge
Summary: Lisey Debusher Landon lost her husband, Scott, two years ago, after a twenty-five year marriage of the most profound and sometimes frightening intimacy. Scott was an award-winning, best selling novelist and a very complicated man. Early in their relationship, before they married, Lisey had to learn from him about books and blood and bools. Later, she understood there was a place that Scott went-a place that both terrified and healed him, that could eat him alive or give him the ideas he needed in order to live. Now it's Lisey's turn to face Scott's demons, Lisey's turn to go to Boo'ya Moon. What begins as a widow's effort to sort through the papers of her celebrated husband becomes a nearly fatal journey into the darkness he inhabited.
Thoughts: Believe it or not, Stephen King has written a love story! Oh, don't worry, the Stephen King we have come to know and love is still here, but the underlying love story between Scott and Lisey is just plain wonderful. And the reader gets the feeling this is a very personal book for Mr. King, near and dear to his heart. What I really enjoyed was Scott and Lisey's "secret" language. Anyone in a relationship knows there are phrases or words that you only use with each other and that only you will understand completely. King captures that beautifully. I have to admit, though, it did take awhile to get used to this language because a lot of things are not explained right away. But, if you are patient, you slowly find out the meaning of these words and phrases and how they tie in with Scott and Lisey's past. Words like "bool" become common and flow off your tongue after awhile. Stephen King is known for the thrills and chills he puts into his books, and this one is no exception. When Scott's past and his "long-boy" and Boo'ya Moon are finally fully revealed to the reader, it will send shudders down your spine. I haven't read a Stephen King book in probably 10 years, and I found that I still enjoyed him after all this time.
Favorite part: To me, the best part of the book was the relationship between Scott and Lisey.
It had been over 20 years since I had read a Stephen King book. I used to love horror and love his books. I really, really did. That changed and I don't like horror at all now. I like scary, suspenseful stories-just not horror. I think I had convinced myself that surely there wouldn't be that much horror because he put so much of his wife/marriage into the story. I guess there probably wasn't as much as in his other books, but it was still too much for me.
Title, author, and date of book? 
