Lisey's Story (currently $8.54 on Kindle; $8.99 paperback) is a bit of a departure from King's earlier novels. It's much more subtle and speaks with the empathy of a middle-aged writer, something his earlier novels lack.
About Lisey
Lisey's Story tells the tale of Lisey (rhymes with CeCe) Landon, the forty-something widow of best-selling horror novelist, Scott Landon. The reader meets Lisey two years after her husband's death. She's finally decided to tackle the heart-wrenching and laborious project of cleaning her husband's study--his work room. As she sorts and reminisces, she is faced with a family crisis, she is threatened by a deranged fan of his husband's work, and she is forced to relive the mostly good of a 20-some year marriage.
In her searching, she finds what she could swear are clues left by Scott, clues that lead her to discover more than she ever knew about her husband's troubled childhood, his tortured imagination, and his love for her. At the end of the search is the last story he wrote--the one he wrote just for her: Lisey's Story. In finding that tale, her healing can really begin.
Is Scott Landon Really Stephen King?
The similarities between Scott Landon and Stephen King are unmistakable. Both are successful horror genre authors. Both live in Maine. Like Landon, King confessed in On Writing that he once struggled with alcohol. That King and his wife, author Tabitha King, have an enviable marriage is obvious. Although he states in the afterward that Tabitha isn't Lisey, King couldn't have written so tenderly and insightfully about Lisey's and Scott's marriage without having walked down that road himself.
King even pokes a little fun at his early success. Scott Landon became an overnight bestselling author with his horror fantasy Empty Devils, the only one of his novels Lisey doesn't like. Could Empty Devils really be Carrie?
One of the Best Novels of 2006 or any Year
I confess, although I've read much of Stephen King's work, I haven't really been a fan until recently. I've always found his flights of imagination a little too "out there" for my taste. With Lisey's Story, however, he's found a way to combine his fantasy world with touching human emotion. If it has a flaw, Lisey's Story relies a little too heavily on Scott Landon's made-up language. At times, you think that you might need a glossary. But, linguistics is not King's forte. He's a storyteller, and wow, what a story this is. Stalwart King fans will find enough fantasy to satisfy them, but they'll also find something new. Don't miss this novel.
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