Misery

Signet. Paperback. 0451153553 In Misery (1987), as in The Shining (1977), a writer is trapped in an evil house during a Colorado winter. Each novel bristles with claustrophobia, stinging insects, and the threat of a lethal explosion. Each is about a writer faced with the dominating monster of his unpredictable muse. Paul Sheldon, the hero of Misery, sees himself as a caged parrot who must return to Africa in order to be free. Thus, in the novel within a novel, the romance novel that his mad captor-nurse, Annie Wilkes, forces him to write, he goes to Africa--a mysterious continent that evokes for him the frightening, implacable solidity of a woman's (Annie's) body. The manuscript fragments he produces tell of a great Bee Goddess, an African queen reminiscent of H. Rider Haggard's She. He hates her, he fears her, he wants to kill her; but all the same he needs her power. Annie Wilkes literally breathes life into him. Misery touches on several large themes: the state of possession by an evil being, the idea that art is an act in which the artist willingly becomes captive, the tortured condition of being a writer, and the fears attendant to becoming a "brand-name" bestselling author with legions of zealous fans. And yet it's a tight, highly resonant echo chamber of a book--one of King's shortest, and best novels ever. --Fiona Webster --This text refers to the Mass Market Paperback edition. Audio Review If Misery loves company, it's found a friend in Academy Award nominee Lindsay Crouse (The Verdict, Places in the Heart). King's ghoulish tale of psychotic "number one fan" Annie Wilkes holding her favorite author, Paul Sheldon, prisoner, unfolds in perfect pitch. Crouse switches from Sheldon to Wilkes (think Kathy Bates) to narrator with smooth, flawless transitions, making the unabridged, 12-hour reading of a writer's hell a listener's paradise. (Running time: 12 hours, eight cassettes) --This text refers to the Audio Cassette edition. books carefully packed and shipped promptly . Very Good. 1988.