Book Review: Duma Keys by Stephen King

April 24, 2008

Stephen King fans rejoice! After what seems like a very long wait, the Master is back to doing what, in my opinion, he does best: scare the pants off readers! When it comes to creating riveting stories that are filled with vibrant details that put you inside another world, there is no finer writer than Stephen King.

Normal is the new Scary

It, Misery, the Stand are some of my favorite novels because King takes normal life, teases out our everyday (and sometimes unknown) fears, and amplifies them beyond normal to almost unbearable proportions. Not fun for everyone, but if you’re a horror fan like I am, it’s heaven.

I used to wonder about what kind of brain could think of the bizarre twists he achieves. Like in Pet Semetary where a devoted father becomes so distraught he buries his child in a graveyard rumored to ensure his return after death. Or Misery that takes fandom to a whole new unimaginable level of worship. I used to wonder, but now I’m just glad he does.

A Return to Horror with a Domestic Twist

Anyway, after a detour into non-horror writing, he’s returned to the horror genre in rare form with Duma Key

Dumas Key retells the recovery story of a successful boomer, Eddie, as he faces a life-shattering accident that would undo most of us. This is especially interesting since King himself suffered a relatively similar fate when he was hit by a car in Boston. This leads me to wonder (what doesn’t?) how much of the story is autobiographical of sorts.

The story, which isn’t strictly linear in its telling, transported me to Sarasota, FLA and Duma Key (is this a real place?). I was fascinated by his description of the island, it’s landscape and history. There’s a passage where he talks about the murmuring of the shells that kept me up at night. The Key becomes a complex character as important as Eddie, or Wireman-the caretaker with a mysterious past, or Elizabeth, the octogarian with a dreadful secret. If you love Florida or the regional art scene, you’ll love this book.

Here’s small excerpt:

How to Draw a Picture
Start with a blank surface. It doesn’t have to be paper or canvas, but I feel it should be white. We call it white because we need a word, but its true name is nothing. Black is the absence of light, but white is the absence of memory, the color of can’t remember.

How do we remember to remember? That’s a question I’ve asked myself often since my time on Duma Key, often in the small hours of the morning, looking up into the absence of light, remembering absent friends. Sometimes in those little hours I think about the horizon. You have to establish the horizon. You have to mark the white. A simple enough act, you might say, but any act that re-makes the world is heroic. Or so I’ve come to believe.

Imagine a little girl, hardly more than a baby. She fell from a carriage almost ninety years ago, struck her head on a stone, and forgot everything. Not just her name; everything! And then one day she recalled just enough to pick up a pencil and make that first hesitant mark across the white. A horizon-line, sure. But also a slot for blackness to pour through.

Still, imagine that small hand lifting the pencil… hesitating… and then marking the white. Imagine the courage of that first effort to re-establish the world by picturing it. I will always love that little girl, in spite of all she has cost me. I must. I have no choice. Pictures are magic, as you know.

Marriage at the deep end of the pool

But what really captured my attention was how King wove the complexities of a long-standing marriage into the plot, giving the impression that for Eddie (and perhaps King) marriage is a marathon. He asks a startling simple question that will be the subject of my next post (this is the first of three). I’d love to dive into the details, but as a former English and publishing studies major I can’t divulge more. It would spoil the book.

If you’ve read the book, drop me a comment below and tell me your favorite part. If you haven’t read it yet, what are you waiting for…grab this book! Duma Key: A Novel (aff)

Enjoy this post? Here are some more posts we think you might like:
What role does loyalty play in marriage?
Dive into Carnival #82 over at LifeTwo.com
Bedtime Stories for Grown Ups

If you like this post, please subscribe | Posted by Dina

Comments

One Response to “Book Review: Duma Keys by Stephen King”

  1. Cathy on June 29th, 2008 2:08 pm

    I love King. His last name says it all! This book is one of his better novels and much better than his last attempt. My all time favorite book of his is IT followed by the Shinning. My only frustration with IT as well as some other stories such as Dreamcatcher were the endings. The giant spider in IT and the boy who was really an alien in Dreamcatcher really hurt and made the entire story fall short of a A+ for me. Duma Key is a wonderful read! I couldn’t put in down! The ending was a bit flat and disappointing….almost as if he wasn’t sure how to end it. A china doll that talks and a death ship! I wish the whys of the doll and where she came from was more explained in the book. The character development was a masterpiece! You almost became Eddie. A solid A on this one from me. Can’t wait to add another King book to my stack of masterpieces.

Got something to say?