There are few authors alive today who have had the staying power of Stephen King. That's because few authors have the inate ability to weave a story with the level of intricacy, with such depth of character as King. Perhaps his greatest examples of this come in some of his short stories, but it is as a novelist that King has found the most resounding success. The "'King' of Horror" has published more than 50 novels, most of them rising high on every best seller list around the world. From his early works like Carrie and Salem's Lot, to his monster novels like "The Stand" and "It", it is amazing how, time and again, King manages to conjur up stories with such depth and sheer scope and volume. This is a man who must be passionate about his craft, for the volume of his work is staggering and, amazingly, almost always consistently excellent.
Perhaps because of the sheer volume of King's earlier works, I expected Lisey's Story to stand beside his earlier works as an equal. The novel promised a glimpse into the mind and heart of Stephen King and was praised by one critic as "his most personal work." While the novel was certainly a departure from the usual King offering of monsters and dreamscapes of sheer horror, I thought that the book was hardly a window into the author's soul. Perhaps that's because I found the novel incredibly difficult to relate to.
Lisey's Story is really the story of Scott Landon, a famed author who has passed away and left his grieving wife, Lisey, to sort through their complicated past as she puts his memory to rest. Like many of King's novel, one of the central characters is an author, perhaps lending to the idea that King is putting some part of himself into the story. The entire novel is written as a series of flashbacks interrupted only by a brief narrative in the present day as Lisey deals with a stalker who goes by the name of Jim Dooley. Dooley, who has sought out Scott Landon's widow with his own malicious intents, is a very typical King antagonist and lacks the depth or, for that matter, any real backbone to invoke any real terror in the reader. His appearance becomes the driving catalyst by which Lisey must remember a repressed series of memories that will take her back to the beginning of her marriage and the series of strange events that occurred throughout the course of her 25 year marriage to Scott.
Through the many flashbacks (the entire novel is really a collection of flashbacks taken from key points in Scott's childhood, his early marriage to Lisey and various later dates throughout their marriage), we learn that Scott had the ability to travel to an alternate reality called Boo'ya Moon, where he had escaped the abusive nature of his father as a child. Boo'ya Moon was where Scott and his brother Paul would go to escape the "Bad Gunky" that infected first his brother and later his father, causing each in turn to become savage monsters that were completely savage. Boo'ya Moon, for all it's beauty is a land of horrors that contains monsters that live on the outskirts of human conscciousness, including the "Long Boy" whose single all seeing eye reaches across the thresholds of time and space and seeks out anyone who lays upon it.
Herein lies the biggest problem with this story. King, whose narrative is so completely intertwined with action occurring in three different periods of Scott's life, never really allows his audience to connect with the world he is trying to convey. Lisey has complexities of her own with a sister, Amanda, who suffers from catatonic states after she attempts acts of self mutilation. She is also dealing with the very real issue of Dooley, who threatens to hurt her in places that "the boys hadn't touched her in school." However, most of the story deals with the idea that each of the protagonists escaped the reality of their horrors by going instead to a fantasy world with fairie forests and huge, silver moons that never set. In short, the simplist theme of this story is escapism and what happens when sanity allows us to escape reality in favor of fantasy. It is impossible for most of us to relate to this world that King portrays because ultimately, it is so removed from anything anyone of us has ever experienced.
Purists will doubtless love the momentum of the final third of the story, as the slowly progressing elements throughout the story come to a boiling head. King, of course, relishes in his graphic depiction of the mutilation that Lisey endures as she is attacked early on in the story by Dooley before escapting to Boo'ya Moon to receive healing from a magic lake. For those looking for a quick paced story however, this one meanders for the first several hundred pages before we really begin to glimpse any sort of thread to the story. Because of the abstract setting of much of this story, and the further departure as we enter into the memories of a badly abused child (Scott) and his fragile wife (Lisey), what we're really exposed to is a sort of psychosis that could be as much delusional as it is supposed to be real within the confines of this story. Ultimately, there just isn't a whole lot that readers will be able to relate to in this story. Even the dialogue shared between sisters (Lisey and Amanda) sounds contrived as they explore together the mysteries of Boo'ya Moon in the latter part of the story.
I wish I could recommend this novel with as much enthusiam as I have for some of his other works, but I never found a way to embrace this story. Other works by King from this same period such as "Duma Key" and "Just After Sunset" are far stronger choices in my opinion. I cannot say that I did not like this book, but that I found myself spending entirely too much time trying to understand it-even in the final act when Dooley is defeated (sorry if I spoil the ending) by being swept away to Boo'ya Moon where he is devoured by the "Long Boy" before it turns and imprints itself on the consciousness of Lisey's psyche'. King attempts to weave a tenderness into his story, but his bravado for human emotion, which is usally one of his strongest attributes in any of his works, is awkward and clumsy, again leaving the reader feeling abandoned and not really able to connect with any of the characters.
I would encourage you to form your own opinion about this novel, which means you'll have to read it, but I would also advise looking elsewhere if you are seeking out a story with a lot of meat on it's bones....you'll work for your meal on this one, but maybe that's the point. King doesn't just give you a linear story, but a complex tale that ultimately leads to a glimpse of a woman torn between her past and present, dealing with the complexity of human loss and heartache.