Stephen King Takes a Trip to "Duma Key:" A Review of His Latest Novel

Ever since Stephen King was hit by a van driven by a man named Brian Smith and nearly killed, the idea of people being involved in near-fatal accident has been a theme that has recurred many times in his books. In each case, there are some similarities between what happened with him and what happens with the characters in his book. While the details may be different, some of the aspects of his healing show up. This is also true in his latest book, entitled "Duma Key."

The story centers around a man named Edgar Freemantle. He is a contractor and builder of large buildings in Minnesota. One day, while on a job site, a crane backs into his truck. He is pinned inside and nearly dies. He suffers from severe brain damage, has his hip and leg seriously damaged and he loses his right arm. Whe he awakens he finds that he cannot quite remember all of the right words to things when attempting to have a conversation with his family.

"Sit in the char," he will say, instead of "chair." He discovers, rather quickly, that he also has explosive moments of blind rage. The most extreme cases of this end with him committing acts of violence, such as attempting to choke his wife, Pam. Soon, his marriage is on the rocks and he is wondering if he should just kill himself.

His friend asks him to remember something other than building buildings that made him happy. Edgar remembers that he used to like to draw. His friend suggests he leave Minnesota, get far away, and take up that hobby again. Edgar does some research and finds a huge, pink, house located on an obscure and nearly empty Flordia Key named, you guessed it, Duma Key.

Once there, he begins to heal. He also discovers that he has powerful urges to draw, and then he has urges to paint. Before too long he is creating vivid, amazing and dazzling works of art. He also meets a man who lives down the beach named Wireman who is the caretaker of a woman named Elizabeth, who is suffering from Alzheimers. He befriends them both. Then, he starts to think some strange things are happening on Duma Key. His paintings are revealing more than just the sunsets and shells he likes to paint. There is power in his creation, and then there is the constant itching of his missing arm.

Since this is Stephen King, you can count on some things to be standard. He will create vivid and rich characters. You will find yourself caring about them and living and dying with them as though they were real. He will reel you in slowly, pulling you into the story, and then he will start pulling out the boogly things that go bump and slash in the night.

The thing about this book that makes it so different from so many others, is that the book is truly more about how Edgar finds himself again, rebuilds his life, and finds a way to keep living. It is a story that slowly seeps into your brain. The tale is well-told and so when page after page and chapter after chapter is just about how Edgar is getting on with his life, learning to walk again, learning to talk with people, healing, you still find yourself wondering what is going to happen next. He creates Edgar so completely, I found myself utterly captivated by his life and wanted to know what would happen next to him and his family.

King doles out the scares slowly this time. In fact, the real chills don't begin until near the last two hundred pages in a 600 page book. Despite this, I found myself utterly drawn in, wanting to keep reading the next page, getting to the next chapter, and wondering what would happen next.

King has tried something like this before and I felt it was a disaster. His book "Madder Rose" was about a woman leaving an abusive relationship and how she slowly rebuilds her life. In that one, however, I found the secondary characters silly, unbelievable and found the plot infuriatingly slow and ponderous. It remains the only Stephen King book I have been utterly unable to read from beginning to end.

King does much better this time around. It is far from a perfect book even by King's standards. He scored well and high with me with his last book, "Lisey's Story," and feel he does well here, but he doesn't quite hit it entirely out of the park. I don't want to give away too much of the plot, but the actual evil force at work in the book is a little bit muddy to me. I didn't entirely understand what it was, how it worked, or why it was doing what it was doing. The scares were not quite as scary as some of the outright shocks King has produced in the past.

Still, King fans will find the book well worth the price and compelling. Casual readers will also find the book entertaining and likely to keep them awake at night, wondering what will happen next. He still knows how to create three-dimensional people and put them in extraordinary situations.