King Stephen : Delores Claiborne(Large) [Large Print] [Hardcover]

As a King fan of too many years, I have no qualms in saying this is my favourite King book so far. It feels like a long, short-story if you get me. It has more of the feeling of the excellent 'The Body' than of 'The Stand' where the main tale is all, and there are no sub-plots.

It is told in an unusual way that is at first hard to get into. But once you have, you can really feel the character of Delores as the story develops. Her pain and suffering are your pain and suffering. You want her to come out of this well. And does she? Well, read it. You won't be disappointed.

It's Stephen King again! Or is it? When Dolores Claiborne was first published, {and a few years later, when another King novel, ROSE MADDER appeared} speculation was rife that in fact the book had not been scribed by the author of THE STAND and IT, but actually by Tabitha King, his author wife. Hmmm. Let's see...

DOLORES CLAIBORNE is the story of the eponymous woman from Little Tall Island, Maine, and is told [almost] entirely in the first person, by Dolores herself. She is telling the story of her life to the police chief after the mysterious death of her elderly and eccentric employer, Vera Donovan; a death where foul play is involved and Dolores is the chief suspect. Talk on the island has been rife about Delores; several years ago her husband also died in mysterious circumstances, and there have been malicious rumours and whispers about her ever since. But now is the time for Dolores to tell her story; of her married life with her alcoholic abusive husband, and how he began to sexually molest their young daughter, and of what happened on the night he died. Delores' tale is also the story of her employer, Vera Donovan, and Dolores' back-breaking filthy and degrading years working for this stark, wanton and perhaps a little crazy old woman, and also of the events leading up to her death. Throughout the novel, also, Delores often goes off track a little, and her little diversions and asides are equally as entertaining as the main plot.

I think that the main reason that critics and commentators were quick to suggest that King's wife had written DELORES CLAIBORNE are quite clear; the voice of Delores, a mildly elderly woman, is clear and vibrant and very individual, and her thoughts and feelings captured very well. The theme of the novel is very feminist and deals with touchy issues like murder and child abuse. Clearly, the critics opined, someone like Stephen King, writer of cheap horror stories about demon dogs and killer cars could never have written this highly literate and very feminine story. Naah, it must have been his wife, and they tagged Stephen's name on it so it would fly off the shelves. Or perhaps, and more realistically, these critics had never actually read much of King's back catalogue, and hadn't realised that despite his choice of horror subjects, he is a very adept and stylistic writer, capable of works [previous to DELORES] like CUJO, DIFFERENT SEASONS and "The Reach". You might have thought critics would enjoy this novel more too, because as well as being highly readable, tense and exciting, and being full of Kings acclaimed style and substance, DELORES CLAIBORNE contains nothing of traditional horror, but much of the horror that man makes; here, also, is only the tiniest smidgeon of the supernatural, a vision of shared crisis at the height of an eclipse.

In conclusion, this compact not-overlong novel is an entertaining, sometimes hard-hitting read, and in Delores Claiborne, King has created another very real flesh-and-blood character. The book is perhaps not a favourite of lifelong King fans who might prefer the monsters and splatter, but for fans of good writing it is a winner. I believe that in fifty or a hundred years time, DOLORES CLAIBORNE will be still being read, and will be seen as a classic regional novel, written by "that pulpy horror" writer Stephen King, and not his wife.

SPOILERS

Dolores Claiborne is being questioned by police over the death of her employer, Vera Donovan, who broke her back falling down the stairs - or was she pushed? But as Dolores tells her story, it turns out she is responsible for a death, just not Vera's.

Stephen King chose to write this novel in the first person voice of Dolores who speaks in a very folksy, colloquially New England style, and it's up to the reader whether or not this voice is something you can handle or not as it goes on for the entire book. At times it feels like Grandpa Simpson telling a story, rambling on and on about something completely unrelated and uninteresting, and Dolores always must comment on anything anyone says. So when she relates a conversation she tacks on her thought on what that person said after it. It makes for an exhausting read.

My real problem was that this book didn't need to be this long. There's an extended section of the novel at the start where she talks about her relationship with Vera and focuses exclusively on her toilet habits. Then she relates everything about her family - bear in mind the framing device of this story is that she is sat in a police interrogation room - and then everything about her boring life.

There is a decent story here, of how she killed her husband after he molested their eldest daughter, but good lord it takes a helluva long time to get there. Most of the time I wanted to throttle Dolores and her endless banal platitudes that didn't add anything to the story and only made me angrier that King indulged so freely in tedious padding to what shouldn't have been longer than a short story of about 75-100 pages.

This is really only for hardcore King fans as it is far from his best work. There's no horror here, except some half-baked nightmares Dolores has, and the folksy nonsense Dolores spouts and her dull existence he seems to hold up as so virtuous because she's working class is nothing more than drivel coming from white trash. "Lisey's Story" is still the worst thing King's written but "Dolores Claiborne" runs a close second.