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David Haws's Reviews > Misery
Misery
by
by
“I thought you were supposed to be good, the typewriter said…Ho-ho, Paulie, you’re a real riot, the typewriter said, in the tough gunsel’s voice he had made up for it.” (pp. 103-104)
At this point, I thought King might be putting a little “ghost” in the Royal machine (who couldn’t voice a word with the letter missing from its grin). King may have been toying with the idea, which would have taken the novel in a very different direction, but opted for amputating a couple more, even more needful letters, later in the novel. This would have made the typewriter, as an alter ego, problematic. As it is, Misery may be King’s most well-rounded novel, balancing the equally fleshy protagonist and antagonist in a pot-boiler (apologies to H. Rider Haggard) storyline. Personally, I think Annie Wilkes, as a character, belongs up there with Roland of Gilead. Here are a few other notes.
P. 140: An “old…Chevy Bel Air” is not going to be “well-preserved” if it has to run through Colorado’s winter driving conditions.
P. 165: Stair surfaces have treads (not “levels”) and risers. Paul would know this, and I assume King would know this too, if he’d stopped and thought about it. Such a great story deserves more thoughtful editing. This is perhaps an artifact of King’s “two-draft” method.
P. 166: King is describing an 8-over-8, double-hung window (rare in my experience of the West, where the 6-over-6 configuration is much more common) but the window panes are separated by muntins, not “lathes”, and would not be that hard to break out.
P. 269: I had a 442 at about the time this novel was publish. It was a tank, got single digit mileage, but felt safe enough on the freeway (unless it contemplated going up against a semi). But it was an Oldsmobile, not a Plymouth. If memory serves, this isn’t the first time King has confused GM and Chrysler (Mopar) products.
P. 277: Is it a rifle or a shotgun? If it’s the .30-30, discharging it in the air is more reckless, but Annie’s “double-ought buck” comment on the previous page doesn’t make a lot of sense (although the comment would not be the craziest arrow in Annie’s quiver).
I really like the book, and the thought has occurred to me that some of the mis-assignments referenced above might be (more graciously) attributed to a stressed and less-than-reliable POV. I kind of doubt this, since if they were intentional, flubs might be better-placed in the sections of Paul’s typographically-challenged draft.
At this point, I thought King might be putting a little “ghost” in the Royal machine (who couldn’t voice a word with the letter missing from its grin). King may have been toying with the idea, which would have taken the novel in a very different direction, but opted for amputating a couple more, even more needful letters, later in the novel. This would have made the typewriter, as an alter ego, problematic. As it is, Misery may be King’s most well-rounded novel, balancing the equally fleshy protagonist and antagonist in a pot-boiler (apologies to H. Rider Haggard) storyline. Personally, I think Annie Wilkes, as a character, belongs up there with Roland of Gilead. Here are a few other notes.
P. 140: An “old…Chevy Bel Air” is not going to be “well-preserved” if it has to run through Colorado’s winter driving conditions.
P. 165: Stair surfaces have treads (not “levels”) and risers. Paul would know this, and I assume King would know this too, if he’d stopped and thought about it. Such a great story deserves more thoughtful editing. This is perhaps an artifact of King’s “two-draft” method.
P. 166: King is describing an 8-over-8, double-hung window (rare in my experience of the West, where the 6-over-6 configuration is much more common) but the window panes are separated by muntins, not “lathes”, and would not be that hard to break out.
P. 269: I had a 442 at about the time this novel was publish. It was a tank, got single digit mileage, but felt safe enough on the freeway (unless it contemplated going up against a semi). But it was an Oldsmobile, not a Plymouth. If memory serves, this isn’t the first time King has confused GM and Chrysler (Mopar) products.
P. 277: Is it a rifle or a shotgun? If it’s the .30-30, discharging it in the air is more reckless, but Annie’s “double-ought buck” comment on the previous page doesn’t make a lot of sense (although the comment would not be the craziest arrow in Annie’s quiver).
I really like the book, and the thought has occurred to me that some of the mis-assignments referenced above might be (more graciously) attributed to a stressed and less-than-reliable POV. I kind of doubt this, since if they were intentional, flubs might be better-placed in the sections of Paul’s typographically-challenged draft.
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