Review of Stephen King's Book, Lisey's Story

Stephen King has published over forty novels, with a large percentage of them being best sellers. One of King's newest novels, "Lisey's Story", is bound to join the best seller list. It is very touching, full of his twisted sense of humor and is, of course, another step into the insanity.

Lisey's story is a book that keeps you wanting to read it till the end. It tells the story of a widowed writer's wife that is forced to deal with an insane fan of her late husband. Apparently her late husband wrote the same animal of books as King, with all the twists and metaphors and just plain silly phrases that mean nothing- or something. There is many fans like him, all of them nuts, and all of them believing that the author was writing clues, codes or telling the truth about what goes bump in the night.

Needless to say, that sort of fanatics are dangerous when it comes to getting what they want. And when this particular one learns from a "colleague" that there is piles of unpublished stories just sitting around the house, he takes it upon himself to correct the injustice that the wife is committing upon the world- upon the fans.

The mentally ill man and what he does is only part of the story though. As with every King book, there is really several stories going on at once. Although this is supposed to be the main plot, I believe King might have wrote the story of the couple even more intense. We learn throughout the story that the man is a product of his genes- his (insane?) family's genes and diseases. This business is both a hindrance and a glue to the couple's marriage and love. Although he tells her from the beginning that they cannot ever have children because of the mental illness in his genes, she does not realize what all his madness really does mean to her future. The telling of their life's up and downs due to mental illness is incredible.

Another story that blends into all of this is the story of Lisey's sister. She also suffers from mental illness, and shows the results through cutting, mutilation and catatonic episodes. Her husband helped her through the trying times of her sister's mental illness when he was alive, and has even made plans for the future when he won't be there that comes in very handy during a last minute insanity spell. True to King's style, the late husband at one point talks to Lisey through her sister when she was in a catatonic state.

Lisey must deal with all these things and more through the story. Although people must face the reality of mental illness everyday, Lisey gets the pleasure of dealing with the blood bools, gomers and bad-gunkies- all of which are real.

Lisey's Story is one that only Stephen King could tell, and I encourage you to read it for yourself. After all, you didn't think I would tell you the whole story did you?