“As always, the blessed relief of starting, a feeling that was like falling into a hole filled with bright light. As always, the glum knowledge that he would not write as well as he wanted to write. As always the terror of not being able to finish, of accelerating into a brick wall. As always, the marvelous joyful nervy feeling of journey begun.” “But characters in stories DO NOT just slip away! God takes us when He thinks it’s time and a writer is God to the people in a story. He made them up just like God made us up and no one can get hold of God to make him explain, all right, okay, but as far as Misery goes, I’ll tell you one thing, you dirty bird, I’ll tell you that God just happens to have a couple of broken legs and God just happens to be in MY house eating MY food."Misery is my tenth book by Stephen King, and he's written approximately ten bajillion books and novellas and short stories. In a way I'm sort of glad I never read Stephen King when I was younger, because now I have a whole mess of Stephen King books to experience for the first time and enjoy. And I enjoyed Misery very much. Just from growing up in the '90s, I was familiar with the general story, but I always assumed it was only a scary story about a writer being held captive by his number one fan, who was crazy and evil or something. And that is what it's about, but it's also so much more complex than that.Paul Sheldon is a successful novelist, the bestselling author of the Misery Chastain novels, a series of historical romantic melodramas that are ridiculously popular, much to their creator's dismay. The Misery novels have made Paul famous, but they make him feel creatively bankrupt, like a sellout. A hack. He wants to write something else for a change. He knows he will never be taken as seriously as some authors, but not feeling beholden to Misery would be a nice change . . . so he kills her. With pleasure. With laughter. Fast forward to the publication of that last Misery book, Misery's Child. Paul has been tucked away in a Denver hotel working on a new novel, Fast Cars. He's just finished, considers it maybe his best book yet, and has celebrated with a bottle of champagne and a drive on the freeway. Only a storm comes on, and the next thing he knows he's waking up in a fog of pain in a strange bed with a strange woman breathing foul, life-saving air into his lungs, and two shattered legs. The woman turns out to be Annie Wilkes, who describes herself as his number one fan.Within a short period of time, Paul quickly ascertains that Annie is not sane. She is smart, certainly, but is also manic-depressive, controlling, and above all, psychotic. A former nurse, Annie traps Paul in every way possibly: physically, emotionally, pharmaceutically. They soon develop a toxic relationship, Paul learning how to gauge Annie's moods, trying to make the best out of a horrible situation. A situation which is made worse, by the way, when Annie reads the new Misery book and FLIPS HER SHIT when she learns Paul has killed her beloved Misery. Paul then becomes a sort of modern day Sheherazade, telling a story to save his life. And not just to placate Annie, either. The new Misery book, in which he must resurrect his own murdered creation (fittingly called Misery's Return) becomes an escape for him as well, a way to bear his captivity and pain as he and Annie rocket towards a final inevitable confrontation.Annie is a brilliant creation. She's scary, smart, driven, terrifyingly specific, and ultimately even in her psychosis and acts of criminal insanity, relatable. You pity her even as you fear her, and the toxic relationship she and Paul build, at first built on him trying to butter her up, eventually evolves to a place of mutual understanding that is equal parts horrifying and satisfying.Along with this escalating and extremely dysfunctional fan/author, nurse/patient, captor/victim dynamic between Paul and Annie, the book has a running undercurrent concerning stories and creativity and what it's like to be a writer. These parts were absolutely fascinating for me, and were made more so when Wikipedia informed me after the fact that this book was partly inspired by King's own frustration at his readers' seeming rejection of The Eyes of the Dragon, his first non-horror book, and one of which he was extremely proud. (P.S. I love that book.) He felt pigeonholed as a horror writer, and he was also struggling with his own drug and alcohol addiction at the time, of which both Annie and Paul's addiction to Novrol are evidence. Neither of these facts are necessary to enjoy the book, but they deepened my appreciation for it.All in all, this is a great novel, probably made better by Lindsay Crouse's narration for the audiobook. I will be seeking out a print copy ASAP, because I know this cockadoodie book is one I'll want to return to over and over.
I've been re-visiting some of my King All-star Team this year as audiobooks and am reminded yet again that Uncle Steve is The Man. No matter what asshats and embittered douchebags like "literary critic" Harold Bloom say, King is one of the greatest storytellers in any language of all time, full stop. Is everything he's written pure gold? Of course not. Given the sheer size of the man's canon, that's to be expected. But even when I think King has put up something less than stellar, I always feel his heart is in the right place. In other words, King -- unlike so many other bestselling authors these days -- has integrity to spare. The words, the story -- they come first always. Even after all these years, I really believe he does it for the love of the craft, not for the next bloated paycheck (*cough* James Patterson *cough* whore). I first read Misery when I was seventeen years old. I started it about eight o'clock that evening, and finished it about four in the morning. Heart pounding, bleary eyed and afraid to open my closet door lest Annie Wilkes was waiting there for me with an axe or chainsaw raised over her head. Whenever we're excited about a book, readers will often say "OMG, I couldn't put it down!" but we probably did, at least once, to go to work, get supper, put the kids to bed, whatever. It's not meant to be a literal expression per se, though sometimes it is and whoah to the power of a book that can hold you in its ironclad grip with such uncompromising resolution. That will make you stay up til the wee hours of the morning even though you have work or school the next day. Or breakfast to make for a screaming brood of little ones. I couldn't put Misery down that first time. King has penned some page-turning mothers over the years, but the story of Paul Sheldon and his number one fan Annie Wilkes has got to be the most page-turning of them all. I guess you could classify this book as psychological suspense, since there are absolutely no supernatural elements introduced here, but for me Misery will remain classic horror because I really do feel like King's ultimate goal in writing it is to scare the shit out of us. And in this he succeeds brilliantly. We're trapped in that room with Paul Sheldon. The desire to escape is overwhelming. You begin to understand how an animal can chew its own leg off. And Annie Wilkes? Has there ever been a literary creation able to make you lose control of your bladder so effectively? She haunts my nightmares still. (view spoiler)[One of the things I love about Annie is that she's not just "crazy as a shit-house rat". King writes her with real depth and nuance. Like Paul, we can see who she might have been if the chemicals in her brain were balanced, or her childhood was different, or all the other permutations that contribute to madness were absent. One of my favorite scenes in the novel is when Paul discovers Annie's "Memory Lane" scrapbook, a collection of all her murders. I love that singular moment of pure, crystalline terror when Paul realizes what he's really up against. How deep her sickness really goes. How twisted her mind really is. (hide spoiler)]
What do You think about Misery (1988)?
Misery was my first ever Stephen King novel.There I was, an impressionable 14-year-old girl drunk on romances with none-fade-into-black sex scenes. Then my favorite English teacher recommended I read Misery. "Your life will never be the same," he said.He was right.Misery is about the kind of fan that loves their chosen celebrity a little too much. Like the man who shot John Lennon. Or stalkers that drive to Miley Cyrus's house with a bouquet of roses and a foam finger. The odd buttons that spoil a fandom. In this case, Paul Sheldon was rescued from a car crash by his number one fan, Annie. She loves his books, so when she finds out Paul killed her favorite character in the latest installment, she gets a little... upset.But no matter, she has the brains behind the masterpiece right here! Paul is going to bring his character back from the dead for one last encore or she'll get upset again. And you do not want to make Annie upset.You scared yet?King's writing has a way of putting you directly in a character's shoes. Only he can make the abhorred third-person into first-person, so you're there with Paul every second of the way. You feel his terror when he realized his caretaker is not quite right in the head. You feel his pain from drug withdrawal. You feel the resignation of burning your only first-draft manuscript in order to obtain said drugs. “The work, the pride in your work, the worth of the work itself...all those things faded away to the magic-lantern shades they really were when the pain got bad enough.” The shame. The rage. The hate.This is horror at its finest. One human imprisoned in a house by another. No cheap jump-scares. No bloody gore factor. No dime-store costume. This is nail-your-balls-to-the-wall psychological shit, and damn if you don't lie awake at night wondering if the dark shape in the corner is Annie with a chainsaw in hand. So come along with me, dear Constant Reader. And be King's number one fan.
—Natalie Monroe
My first time ever picking up Stephen King, it was this book. And ever since then, my entire reading list was everything he's ever written, and I hailed Stephen King as my favorite author for years. Of course by now, having read most of his works, I wouldn't still say he's "the best writer ever". He's definitely produced some trash along with a few treasures. Misery is, without a question, one of the treasures.Before Misery I had no idea that it was possible to sit at the edge of my seat, literally, with my jaw hanging, my entire body too tense to move, too afraid to keep reading yet dying to find out what's going to happen. It was my benchmark for a good read for years, and every Stephen King I picked up thereafter, my undying faith of his ability to write a good story, was a progeny of the moment I laid eyes on Misery.Of course, by now I also wouldn't say Misery was his best work, or even my favorite SK book (that would be The Shining). But boy, was it an intense, thrilling ride of a read!
—Alice Lee
Of course, I've seen the movie. Many, many times. Kathy Bates is uh-mazing, and always freaks my shit out in that movie. The book is even freakier. Misery is now the one and only Stephen King book I've read, and I didn't want to like it as much as I did. I always imagined King's writing to be simplistic, and even terse; such writing would make for great screenplays (and great movies (Kathy Bates!)), but not necessarily high art. I mean, how can an author THAT major actually be worth reading? #snobberyBut, it turns out, Stephen King and Misery are both more complex than I had assumed. The book is masterfully written, and develops a sense of brooding horror that I could not stop reading until absolutely necessary. And Annie Wilkes. Mother of God, Annie Wilkes. The movie is a Lifetime Original compared to the book. Annie Wilkes's psychopathology and horror extend well beyond the parameters of the film adaptation, and are well worth the time and effort. So, don't cheat yourselves, bookish friends. Watch the movie, because it's a classic, but also read the book, because it is haunting.
—Jordan
