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No more than a dark pencil line on a blank
page. A horizon line, maybe. But also a slot
for blackness to pour through... A terrible
construction site accident takes Edgar
Freemantle's right arm and scrambles his
memory and his mind, leaving him with little
but rage as he begins the ordeal of
rehabilitation. A marriage that produced two
lovely daughters suddenly ends, and Edgar
begins to wish he hadn't survived the
injuries that could have killed him. He
wants out. His psychologist, Dr. Kamen,
suggests a "geographic cure," a new life
distant from the Twin Cities and the
building business Edgar grew from scratch.
And Kamen suggests something else. "Edgar,
does anything make you happy?" "I used to
sketch." "Take it up again. You need
hedges... hedges against the night." Edgar
leaves Minnesota for a rented house on Duma
Key, a stunningly beautiful, eerily
undeveloped splinter of the Florida coast.
The sun setting into the Gulf of Mexico and
the tidal rattling of shells on the beach
call out to him, and Edgar draws. A visit
from Ilse, the daughter he dotes on, starts
his movement out of solitude. He meets a
kindred spirit in Wireman, a man reluctant
to reveal his own wounds, and then Elizabeth
Eastlake, a sick old woman whose roots are
tangled deep in Duma Key. Now Edgar paints,
sometimes feverishly, his exploding talent
both a wonder and a weapon. Many of his
paintings have a power that cannot be
controlled. When Elizabeth's past unfolds
and the ghosts of her childhood begin to
appear, the damage of which they are capable
is truly devastating. The tenacity of love,
the perils of creativity, the mysteries of
memory and the nature of the supernatural --
Stephen King gives us a novel as fascinating
as it is gripping and terrifying. |
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The Washington Post -
Brigitte Weeks
With a
hero crippled on the job and then
tormented by a demonic spirit in
recovery, King's new novel, Duma
Key, is a tale of conflict between
the forces of horror and the
redemptive power of
creativity…King may be meditating
on the diverse powers of the
creative soul, but he has in no
way lost his unmatched gift for
ensnaring and chilling his readers
with "terrible fishbelly fingers."
The New York Times Book Review -
James Campbell
The plot
of Duma Key, ghastly in itself but
certain to bring horrified
pleasure to King's enormous
readership, could have been
sketched on the reverse side of
Wilde's Picture of Dorian Gray, a
grisly examination of the magic of
art.
The New York Times - Janet Maslin
Mr. King's
use of horror is not what it used
to be. It may still be the impetus
for his stories, but it is no
longer the foremost reason they're
interesting. Sure, he can still
use supernatural effects to scare
the wits out of you. But lately he
also shows off other interests. In
the wake of the 1999 roadside
accident that permanently altered
his consciousness, he has turned
the evanescence of health and
sanity into his books' most
disturbing source of fear…Mr. King
constructs this story with
patience and rigor.
Publishers Weekly
King's
latest novel is a fantastically
eerie tale in line with his best
psychological thrillers. John
Slattery offers a triumphal
performance-his firm, gripping
tone perfectly suits this story of
the darker side of human memory
and creativity. The characters are
each so different and complicated,
creating a challenge for even the
most seasoned narrator. But
Slattery does the near-impossible
and physically becomes Edgar
Freemantle. In fact, the two
become so inseparable the listener
almost feels guilty listening to
his heartfelt confessions. King's
vision of Freemantle's fictional
personal memoir demands a narrator
so believable and solid in his
delivery that it seems almost
impossible. But Slattery creates a
truly moving experience,
commanding and truthful.
Simultaneous release with the
Scribner hardcover (Reviews, Dec.,
10). (Feb.)
Carolann Curry - Library Journal
Construction multimillionaire
Edgar Freemantle has a violent
side. After he loses his right arm
in a critical work accident, Pam,
his wife of more than 29 years,
asks him for a divorce. In a spurt
of anger, Edgar uses his remaining
limb to stab Pam with a plastic
knife. Heeding the advice of his
therapist, Edgar packs up and
leaves Minnesota for some
psychological rehabilitation along
the Florida Gulf Coast on the
undeveloped island of Duma Key.
There aren't many other residents,
and Edgar quickly begins to
discover the hidden family mystery
of the elderly Elizabeth Eastlake,
who owns most of the island's
houses. In his new rental home,
Edgar begins to experiment with
drawing and painting, sometimes in
a frenzied manner, as if
controlled by some outside source.
As Edgar's artwork begins to
bloom, the haunted mysteries of
Elizabeth's past unfold. While not
alike in plot, this book has a
feel of such books as Bag of
Bonesand the more recent Lisey's
Storyand is essential for any
popular fiction or King
collection.
Kirkus Reviews
The
prolific master of psycho-horror
returns to the mysteries of the
creative process, a subject that
has inspired some of his most
haunting work. This could be
considered a companion piece to
The Shining, offering plenty of
reversals on that plot. In both
cases, isolation has severe
effects on the psyche of an
artist, yet where the former novel
found its protagonist in a lethal
state of writer's block, the
latter sees a one-time building
magnate transformed into an
impossibly prolific and powerful
painter, due to circumstances
beyond his control. And where the
isolation in the former had a
family cut off from society by a
frigid northern winter, the
setting of the latter is a
mysterious Florida key, lush and
tropical in its overgrowth,
somehow immune to commercial
development. A self-made
millionaire, Edgar Freemantle
narrates the novel in a
conversational, matter-of-fact
tone. He explains how a job-site
accident cost him his arm, his
sanity (during the early part of
an extended recuperation) and his
wife (whom he had physically
threatened after the accident
transformed him into something
other than himself). What he
gained was a seemingly
inexplicable command as a visual
artist, particularly after his
recuperation (from both his
accident and his marriage) takes
him to the isolated Duma Key,
where the only other inhabitants
are an elderly, wealthy woman and
her caretaker. It seems that all
three have suffered severe traumas
that bond them and that perhaps
have even drawn them together.
Soon Edgar discovers that his art
has given him the power not only
to predict the future, but to
transform it. He ultimately pays a
steep price for his artistic
gifts, particularly as his
investigation ofthe mysteries of
Duma Key lead him to discover the
tragic origins of his artistic
vision. Edgar's own story in the
present is more compelling than
the revelations of the key's past,
and the novel might have been
twice as powerful if it had been
cut by a third, but King fans will
find it engrossing.
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