Critical Review: Misery by Stephen King (no spoilers)
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- Ryan
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Critical Review: Misery by Stephen King (no spoilers)
Throughout the novel the metafictional elements of the piece force the reader to engage with not only the subject of horror itself, but also King's precarious (and often difficult) position as an author. Around the time, King became tired of the genre and wished to explore others but his proficiency in it eventually forced him to carry on writing in his usual way. Annie Wilks, therefore, is an important figure within the novel as a physical embodiment of King's readership. Neurotic, uncontrollable, selfish and often fickle, Annie is (for both Sheldon and King) a representation of the dangers of authorship and creativity. Indeed, the wonderful interplay between the two characters brings the narrative and all its horrific events to life in a conflict that in many ways transcends the physical: an ideological one. From the beginning the tension between Sheldon and Wilks is developed beautifully, right up until the novel's soaring climax in which Sheldon finds both physical and ideological victory. The sharp and witty dialogue is molded to each character's unique personality: whether it's Sheldon's often prosaic and highly ambiguous quips or Wilks' childish or often shockingly direct counterblasts, each characters never fails to jump off the page. Even more so when each discuss the one thing they share: the love of Paul Sheldon!
However, for the more experienced reader, the exploration is hardly a thorough one (though such a claim should be made with circumspection because of the genre) and often feels laboured compared to King's later efforts at abstraction. (For example, the relationship between ethics and law in The Green Mile or society and ecology in Under the Dome.) With a little less subtlety the novel have been a metafiction tour de force and sealed King's reputation as more than a yarn-spinner. Despite that, King is never afraid of developing a theme and sticking to it and often with integrity.
For the average reader, however, the novel is unstoppable. Fantastically paced with pauses in all the right places, gripping events full of tension and gore, nice interplay between characters and a wonderful use of shading (by which I mean the juxtaposition of lighter, perhaps humorous moments and the darker, perhaps more gory moments). With plenty of scenes offering great description (of the messy kitchen, for example) and many parts offering up a hearty laugh, the novel is an emblem to King's craft as a writer.
For anyone wishing to read more of King, I would recommend The Green Mile and Dolores Claiborne (and even though the former is arguably the better written, the latter offers an interesting story). If anyone is interested, there is a very good film adaptation of the novel, starring James Caan and Kathy Bates. Much of the tension between the characters is made explicit by these two great actors.
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