elderly – Tony's Horror Corner

“A person can always find something to be grateful for, no matter how dark things get.” – Dolores Claiborne.

Dolores Claiborne lives on Little Tall Island in Maine with her husband Joe and three children, Selena, Joe Jr. and Pete. Dolores is a housemaid and caretaker for the wealthy Vera Donovan.

Dolores has worked for Vera for a long time, but at the start of the novel, we learn Vera has fallen down the steps of her home and died. Dolores has been accused of murder.

This 305-page novel released in 1992, takes place mostly in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s with some bits in the 1990’s.

The novel was adapted into a film in 1995 starring Kathy Bates as Dolores. Kathy also portrayed another strong (yet psycho) woman in the adaptation of King’s novel “Misery.”

The film was very good. There were some major differences from the novel, but nothing that took away from the overall story.

Kathy bates was a PERFECT Dolores Claiborne. I love Kathy in everything she does, and both King adaptations I’ve seen her in, she has absolutely nailed. Jennifer Jason Leigh played adult Selena and she did a great job too.

Overall the movie was good and gives readers a nice visual for the novel. I’d recommend checking it out. (After you read the book though!)

Back to the novel:

“Dolores Claiborne” is written like a testimony. Dolores Claiborne’s testimony to prove her innocence. The first 301 pages are written in what almost feels like one breath. No chapters and no real pauses or stopping points. Its Dolores talking, and members of the Little Tall Police Department listening and recording.

The last four pages are clippings from newspapers describing events as an epilogue to Dolores’s story.

The narration may seem weird or almost boring, and it did take me a few pages to get into it, but I quickly came to appreciate it. I mean REALLY appreciate it. King was able to write his usual vivid descriptions and amazing characters but all through Dolores.

Not only were the descriptions and characters amazing, but the story was incredible as well.

!!!!!SLIGHT SPOILERS AHEAD!!!!!

The testimony is split into thirds. The first third is about Dolores’s time taking care of Vera, who at this point is an old woman that frequently soils herself and has horrible nightmares and visions of dust bunnies preparing to attack her.

The second third is about Dolores’s life with her abusive, selfish, drunk husband Joe St. George. In this section of the testimony, Dolores confesses and describes how she killed him.

Dolores Claiborne is a certified badass.

She grew up fighting and working hard for everything. She married Joe straight out of high school and had three children with him. After marriage she learned Joe wasn’t the pretty-boy she had thought.

One night, Joe hit Dolores across the back extra hard and she decided she’d had enough of that and broke a creamer jar over his head… Joe never hit her again.

The hitting stopped, but Joe began to manipulate their daughter Selena and started to force himself on her. Dolores finally saw the signs just before it was too late and again stood up to Joe and got him to stop.

Joe went behind Dolores’s back and took the money from the college accounts of all three children and transferred it to an account in his name only. Dolores learned of his thievery and decided she’d had enough of Joe St. George… period.

“Sometimes, an accident can be an unhappy woman’s best friend.” – Vera Donovan

She plotted to kill him and kill him she did. Her plan occurred and succeeded on July 20^th, 1963, the night of the full solar eclipse. The same eclipse another King character experiences on her father’s lap in the 1991 novel “Gerald’s Game.”

“Gerald’s Game” is another great and disturbing novel with a strong female lead. It was adapted into a very good movie on Netflix in 2017 by director Mike Flanagan. Flanagan recently signed on to direct the film adaptation of “Doctor Sleep,” King’s sequel to “The Shining.”

Sorry, I got side-tracked again, back to Dolores:

Dolores has visions of this character, this little girl named Jessie, during the eclipse. King masterfully and very subtly ties in the two novels together through overlapping themes and the eclipse.

After the death of Joe, Dolores is freed, but she loses the love and trust of her daughter.

In the last third of the novel, Dolores tells the story of the day Vera died and how she was pegged as a murderer even though she was innocent. The similarities between Vera and Dolores and the secrets each has lived with add some nice little twists during the novel’s conclusion.

The novel was short and easy to read but beautiful. Like I said earlier, Dolores Claiborne is a certified badass. King knows how to write strong female characters and showed it here.

I actually really enjoyed the testimonial narration and I was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked this novel. I highly recommend you check it out.

“In the end, it’s the bitches of the world who abide… and as for the dust bunnies: frig ya!” – Dolores Claiborne.

4 out of 5

READ THIS NOVEL

There, review done. Just kidding. Seriously though, read it. Preferably after you’ve read “IT” and “The Dark Tower” series.

“Insomnia” takes place in the fictional Maine town of Derry, where “IT” is set. “Insomnia” has a lot of references to the 1986 novel and it’s also pretty much a “Dark Tower” novel without having “The Dark Tower” in the title.

“In some ways – a lot of ways, actually – Derry wasn’t like other places.”

This novel quickly, slid itself into my top 5 King books (I will make a post about my King rankings soon). The “IT” and “Dark Tower” references alone made this an above average King book, but those weren’t even the half of it. After finishing, and wiping the tears off my face, I stared at my ceiling for a good ten minutes just digesting it.

Needless to say, I didn’t pick up my next read, “Cell,” until after a few days, and I still can’t stop thinking about “Insomnia.” The last time I had to do that with a King novel was after the “The Dark Tower” series finale.

“Insomnia” left me speechless. The book had EVERYTHING. King was like a witch throwing ingredients into a cauldron. He threw in a dash of horror, a little fantasy, a bit of drama, some politics, a touch of violence, a lot of emotion, a triple dose of excitement, and a whole lot of suspense. As usual, the characters and descriptions were superb.

This 787-page giant hit shelves in 1993. 787 pages seems like a lot, and there are a few instances where King seems to drone on or dialogue just crawls, but in all honesty, every word is necessary. Throughout the entire novel I never found myself anywhere close to boredom.

Quick synopsis: Ralph Roberts, the 70-year-old protagonist of the novel, begins to suffer from insomnia following the death of his wife. Ralph begins to see auras surrounding his neighbors. Little does he know these auras have a deeper meaning and they’re not just pretty colors

!!!!!!!!SPOILERS AHEAD!!!!!!!!!

Alright, here’s where the real review comes in *insert sly smile emoji here.*
Like I said before, I can imagine King just pulling snippets from every genre and every book he has written and sprinkling pieces into “Insomnia.” Okay, maybe not every book, but a few of them.

King made me cry within the first 100 pages describing the death of, Ralph’s, wife, even though we as readers had little to no interaction with her. Seriously how does he do it? Pretty sure I cried three times throughout this novel, so we’re not done with the water works yet.

Later Ralph has a confrontation with a neighbor who is spouting nonsense about colors, little bald doctors and the Crimson King… YEAH, THE CRIMSON FREAKING KING!

Ralph starts suffering from insomnia and begins seeing auras (colors) around people. He soon discovers these colors correspond to moods or intentions. Each aura has what Ralph describes as a balloon string, attached to the head.

The descriptions King puts into Ralph’s visions are so vivid. I absolutely loved reading these. Some people who weren’t fans of the novel describe them as acid trips. Now, I’ve never done acid so I wouldn’t know, but I found these visions to be very cool and honestly beautiful.

Ralph sees three little bald guys (doctors) and had a lengthy 45+ page discussion with two of them. He names the doctors after the three Fates in Greek Mythology. Clotho and Lachesis, who serve The Purpose, and Atropos, who serves The Random.

The Purpose is where everyone has a designated time of death and Clotho and Lachesis will show up, cut your balloon string and send you to your death peacefully. Atropos on the other hand, slices the string and you die in some sort of random act of violence, tragedy or accident: The Random.

“We are all bound together by the Purpose. That’s ka-tet, which means one made of many.”

The Crimson King has been working on Ralph’s neighbor for years and influenced him to go against the Purpose and Random and fly a plane, with a bomb inside, into the Derry Civic Center where a pro-women’s rights activist is speaking to a crowd of 2000+.

King sprinkles in large amounts of pro/anti-abortion and pro/anti-women’s rights political arguments throughout “Insomnia.” The politics are often cited as an area of complaint for some, but to me, they made the novel feel grounded and real.

Anyway, the Crimson King doesn’t care about pro or anti-women’s rights. He cares about a 4-year-old boy who got dragged to the convention center with his mother. This boy is Patrick Danville. Patrick is destined to save the life of a man trying to get into the Dark Tower.

For “Dark Tower” fans, this is the same Patrick Danville from the 7th “Dark Tower”, and the man he is destined to save? Yeah, that’s Roland. Crazy right? I mean I was absolutely mind-blown.

Little Patrick sits inside the civic center drawing a picture while the activist is speaking. His picture is of Roland outside the Dark Tower with the Crimson King at the top. I can’t even express how excited I was reading that passage. OH MY GOD.

“His name is Roland, Mama. I dream about him, sometimes. Him’s a King, too.” – Patrick Danville.

Before the Civic Center we get a mini adventure into the depths of Derry through a little cave at the base of a tree: Atropos’ lair. Here we see a maze of all the trophies he collects from those he kills, one of which is little Gage Creed’s shoe… yeah I got a bit misty reading that passage.

Anyway, Ralph redirects the plane saving Patrick and defeating the Crimson King… for now. Ralph marries his neighbor and they live happily for a few more years… until Ralph gets hit by a car while saving a little girl. COME ON, KING, WHY?!?!?! Yeah, I bawled. I mean cried my freakin’ eyes out.

Sorry this review got a little lengthy but “Insomnia” is THAT good. All I want to do is talk about it, and I hope when you read it, you’ll feel the same way. King is incredible and once again delivers a beauty.