She Treads Softly: Desperation

Sunday, August 31, 2008

Desperation

Desperation by Stephen King was originally published in 1996. My hardcover copy is 690 pages. This is a novel with a strong redemptive, good against evil theme (although the God found in Desperation isn't quite the Christian God of the Bible). Still, even amid all the evil carnage, there is a strong sense of hope because God is in control. Desperation is extra creepy if you've ever lived in Nevada, or perhaps just drove across it. Rating: 4

From Cover:

"Nevada is mostly a long stretch of desert you cross on the way to somewhere else. And with someone else, if you're lucky...because it's a scary place. Headed down route 50 in the brutal summer heat are people who are never going to reach their destinations......In Desperation, Stephen King's sweeping brush paints an apocalyptic drama of God and evil, madness and revelation..."

Quotes:

"Why are they here, Pete? I mean I can understand Vegas and Reno... even Winnemucca and Wendover..." pg. 5

"Because Nevada's full of intense people, Marielle said so and Gary agreed, and this is how intense people act. In a word, weird." pg. 9

"Until Nevada, things had been fine. They started out as four happy wanderers from Ohio, destination Lake Tahoe." pg. 47

"Something about this bothered Ralph, but for now he paid no attention. His fright had grown into a sense of foreboding so strong and yet so diffuse that he felt a little as if he'd eaten something laced with poison. He thought that if he held his hand up it would be steady, but that didn't change the fact that he had become more scared, not less, since the cop had sped them away from their disabled roaming home with such spooky ease." pg. 59

"Kill you? Kill you?....I'm not going to kill you, Mare!... Not when things are just getting interesting." pg. 64

"I talk to God....That's what praying is, talking to God. At first it feels like talking to yourself, but then it changes....He wanted me to find out as much as I could about him....That's why I go to the Methodist church. I don't think the brand name matters much to God, though. He just said to do church for my heart and spirit, and Reverend Martin for my mind." pg. 186-187

1 comment:

Anonymous said...: i have said and will maintain to my dying day that Stephen King unrstands more about Spiritual warfare and the heavenlies than he realizes --or most people realize. If he actually became a Christian -- WOAH
I am rereading the gunslinger octet (octilogy?) in oct straight through--BRILLIANT treatise on the forces of good and evil.; September 1, 2008 at 3:40 PM

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1. Try to understand what the author wished to do, and do not blame him for not achieving what he did not attempt.

2. Give him enough direct quotation--at least one extended passage--of the book's prose so the review's reader can form his own impression, can get his own taste.

3. Confirm your description of the book with quotation from the book, if only phrase-long, rather than proceeding by fuzzy precis.

4. Go easy on plot summary, and do not give away the ending.

5. If the book is judged deficient, cite a successful example along the same lines, from the author's oeuvre or elsewhere. Try to understand the failure. Sure it's his and not yours?

To these concrete five might be added a vaguer sixth, having to do with maintaining a chemical purity in the reaction between product and appraiser.....Review the book, not the reputation.... Better to praise and share than blame and ban. The communion between reviewer and his public is based upon the presumption of certain possible joys in reading, and all our discriminations should curve toward that end.