Duma Key by Stephen King
rated: 3 1/2 out of 5
Edgar Freemantle, self-made millionaire, moves to a rented house on Duma Key, Florida after suffering a construction site accident, in which he nearly dies, loses an arm and has brain damage. He frequently forgets simple words and his doctor has given him a rag doll, he names Reba, to help him remember. It's kind of like an anger management doll. Edgar has angry outbursts after his accident and even tries to choke his wife Pam.
Pam decides to leave Edgar shortly after his accident. They have been married for a while and have two grown daughters. The youngest is Isle, whom Edgar admits to himself that he loves more than the eldest.
Edgar names his rented beachhouse 'Big Pink'.
His one neighbor is a rich elderly lady, Elizabeth Eastlake, who is in the early stages of Alzheimer's and lives with her caretaker, Wireman. Wireman and Edgar soon become friends. And Edgar finds out that famous people have stayed at 'Big Pink' including artist Salvador Dali.
Edgar's doctor suggested Edgar take up sketching as a creative outlet. So he begins to sketch and paint. He feels inspired by Big Pink and makes several paintings that he eventually shows to a gallery owner, who decides to showcase his work. Edgar's paintings are very good, and creepy as well.
Since the accident, Edgar has visions, and he puts them on paper. He dreams his ex-wife is sleeping with 2 men, both which he knows personally, he makes a painting of this. He has a vision of his youngest daughter and her boyfriend, he paints the boyfriend perfectly whithout ever meeting him or seeing him. And the 'supernatural' paintings keep on coming.
Another odd thing about Edgar's accident is that he feels his right arm is still there, even though he lost it. He feels it itching and can hear it when he snaps his fingers. He has a headache and massages his head with is phantom hand.
Edgar thinks that his visions and extraordinary painting abilities are a result of losing his arm, his body has given him an extra sense to compensate the loss of a limb. Whenever his lost arm itches, he has the urge to paint and feels that he is painting using both arms.
'Thunderheads stacked up, huge flatboats black on the bottom and bruise-purple through the middle. Every now and then lightning would flash inside them, and they looked like brains filled with bad ideas. The Gulf lost its color and went dead. Sunset was a yellow band that flicked feeble orange and went out. Little Pink filled with gloom.'
Edgar confides in Wireman, and tells him about the paintings being supernatural.
He also finds out some bizzarre things about his neighbor, Elizabeth past at Duma Key. She leaves all kinds of creepy messages on his answering machine, she tells Edgar strange things and Edgar soon finds out Elizabeth was a child prodigy, drawing her own works of art at very early age after she suffered a traumatic head injury.
She grew up there as a child and her twin sisters drowned in the ocean there.
characters:
I like Edgar's character, he's a good father, a decent person and very creative.
I liked Wireman as well, he has a good background story, and he genuinely cares for Elizabeth and takes good care of her. I disliked Edgars wife, Pam at first, she is a big b*tch, but later on in the story, she changes a bit, but you still don't trust her. I like Edgars youngest daugter, Isle, she and Edgar are very close. I thought Elizabeth Eastlake was creepy from the get-go. She has dementia, and randomly comes in and out of reality, she says some very odd and strange things from time to time, and you don't know what is real or what is the Alzheimers talking.
Anyway, at first I was dissapointed with this story. S.K. has always been one of my favorites, yet his last 2 novels I haven't really enjoyed much. I just kept wondering when would this story would 'take off'. Let me say, you need to get to page 400 before this story gets good! And the book is a little over 600 pages long.
Usually S.K. stories give me nightmares, scare me big time. I didn't find this scary, I found it too drawn out.
Being a slow reader, it took me about 3 weeks to read this long novel, and I was tempted at some points to put it to the side and pick up something else. I went a day or two at time without even picking it up to read at all.
However, near the ending, the story does get good, and he wraps it all up pretty well. I just wish it hadn't taken so long to get to the good part.
The good thing is, there's a few of S.K's older novels I haven't read. Maybe I'll try out Pet Semetary next.
http://www.stephenking.com/
read The New York Times review of this book.
This has been part of the Suspense & Thriller Challenge
