Critical Review: Misery by Stephen King (no spoilers)

[Ryan]

Published in 1987, Stephen King's Misery is a complex but entertaining novel in which popular author Paul Sheldon wakes to find himself in the care of a "number one fan" called Annie Wilks who has rescued him from a car crash. But from the beginning Annie's erratic behavior reveals much about the danger that awaits him as he struggles to escape her hospitality.
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.

[Mike_Lang]

Very nice review! I read the book many years ago, unfortunately the movie version has completely obscured any memory I have of the book.

[willo]

Good book. I prefer it more than the movie.

[Mary wegrzyn1061]

Hi, I have seen the Movie, Misery many times and tottaly loved it. It was so scary, thinking that it could really happen, but after reading the book, I was so much more horrified beacause Stephen King writes the original story which was so much more terrifying than the Movie. The Movie was less scary, I believe so the younger people who saw it wouldn't get really terrible Nightmares as they would have if they actually read the original story. It is a definate Must Read for all Stephen King-(the Master of Horror) fans.

[halismom1016]

The movie was good, but I prefer the book.

[Kailani_Fox]

I both read the book and watched the movie, and I almost feel as though the movie did the book unjustice. It was an okay movie, if you just want something to pass the time, but it doesn’t even come close to what Stephen King put into his book. It’s almost like night and day, as they are on just such different levels of horror.