Lisey's Story

There's no way to do justice to Stephen King's Lisey's Story by simply recounting the plot (potential spoilers below):

But let's give it a shot: Lisey, the widow of Pulitzer Prize winning author Scott Landon, is just now, two years after his death, beginning the process of taking care of Scott's "things" - books, letters, miscellaneous notes, etc. To date, she has resisted allowing any curious academics or intellectuals to take possession of the materials, but unfortunately by denying a professor from the University which Scott attended an opportunity to go through his papers, has set in motion a series of events that results in her being terrorized by a psychopath who claims he wants to ensure that the papers see their way to that professor, but really wants nothing more than to hurt, torture, and perhaps kill Lisey (sorry for the long sentence).

At the same time, Lisey deals with her troubled sister Amanda, who falls into a comatose state with seemingly little hope for recovery. And she reminisces about her marriage to Scott. Over the course of the novel, we learn much about their relationship, and much about Scott's awful and tragic childhood, and how he channeled that tragedy and turned it into the inspiration for his work.

We also learn about another world, "Boo'ya Moon," where Scott goes when tragedy or danger finds its way to his doorstep, where wonderful things can be found, not the least of which is his inspiration, and where terrifying and awful things can be found. And can be made use of, particularly if you are being terrorized by a psychopath. If you can figure out how to get there, now that your husband is no longer there to help you.

But, as we learn, Scott is there. As is Amanda.

It's a terrific book - one with enormous breadth and depth, and one that I'm not sure King could have written 10, or 20 years ago. It does not start at breakneck pace, but gathers momentum throughout, and in the final 150 pages reaches a level of drama, intensity, and poignancy that can stand with any moment in any King novel. It tells a story of terror, but it also tells a story - two stories, in fact - of love. Of the love between Lisey and Scott, but also the love between Lisey and her sister Amanda. Eventually, all the threads begin to come together - with Scott's help from the grave, Lisey figures out what she needs to do - and figures out that she needs Amanda in order to do it:

"There, she said to Amanda, "are you happy?"

"Yes," Amanda said, and put her left hand over Lisey's right one, caressing it, making it give up its death-grip on the steering wheel. "Glad to be here, very glad you came for me. Not all of me wanted to come back, but so much of me was just...I don't know...sad to be away. And afraid that pretty soon I wouldn't even care." So thank you, Lisey."

"Thank Scott. He knew you'd help."

"He knew that you would too." Now Amanda's tone was very gentle. "And I bet he knew only one of your sisters would be crazy enough to give it."

Lisey took her eyes off the road long enough to glance at Amanda. "Did you and Scott talk about me, Amanda? Did you talk about me over there?"

"We talked. Here or there, I don't remember and I don't think it matters. We talked about how much we loved you."

Lisey could not reply. Her heart was too full. She wanted to cry, but then she wouldn't be able to see the road. And maybe there had been enough tears, anyway. Which was not to say that there wouldn't be more.