Stephen King: Misery (Paperback, 2016, Scribner)
trade paperback, 351 pages
English language
Published Jan. 19, 2016 by Scribner.
BESTSElliNG NOVELIST PAUI SHEIOON has finally met his biggest fan. Her name is Annie Wilkes, and she is dismayed to discover Paul's plans to kill off Misery Chastain, the heroine of his beloved series. Annie is more than a rabid reader—she is Paul's nurse, tending his shattered body after an automobile accident. She is also his captor, imprisoning him in her isolated house, where no one knows he is.
Annie wants Paul to write his greatest work—just for her. She has a lot of ways to spur him on. One is a needle. Another is an axe. And then there's the blowtorch.
Winner of the Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel, a classic film starring Academy Award winner Kathy Bates, and recently adapted for the stage, starring Bruce Willis and Laurie Metcalf, Misery is one of King's most brilliant and formidably unnerving books ever. --back cover
I don't like Stephen King. I just don't.
I also do not like thrillers. I don't see the appeal. I think no one enjoys reading torture scenes, so why actually do people read these books? Is it so shocking??? Why do you like that feeling?
I am really disgusted, but I don't like feeling disgusted. Shall I feel empathy? For the victim or the torturer? Is there a moral? See all these question marks.
I found a beat-up paperback copy of Misery on the pavement, a few blocks from my old apartment, read it and put it back on the street. Highly recommend reading it this way.
