To my wife, Claudia Inez Bachman

First Line

"Thinner," the old Gypsy man with the rotting nose whispers to William Halleck as Halleck and his wife, Heidi, come out of the courthouse.

About the Book

Billy Halleck, a 300-pound lawyer, kills a gypsy due to his negligent driving. But thanks to some false evidence, the judge lets Halleck go. However, the deceased's father, a 109-year-old gypsy king, takes justice into his own hands by putting a horrible, ironic curse on the obese man. Soon, through no effort of his own, Billy becomes thinner. And thinner. And thinner. While this seems like a godsend at first, the hex put on Billy quickly becomes a living nightmare -- with no end in sight...

Media Reviews

Christopher Lehmann-Haupt
''Thinner'' is very bad. It is not just bad because it overindulges Mr. King's mannerisms of employing brand-name and vernacular cliches. It is also bad because its story about a Connecticut lawyer forced by a gypsy's curse to lose weight endlessly is sloppily plotted and morally confused. . . . He has the instinct and the style and the God-given ability to tell a story. If he would only rid himself of the gimmicks - if he would only stop reaching for effects and take his instincts seriously - he could perhaps be considerably more than simply a certain type of writer. -- New York Times