I had planned to write a fancy review this time. I started writing this, with 3 stars in mind for the book and with timelines(in which I wrote) and many fancy things. I had almost completed 60% of this review, in parts, in a span of 2 days when I was actually only reading the book and not even completed it. But when I did complete, I felt that an excellent book deserved a decent regular review. So what you would read below(and this very para) is an edited version of my initial write-up.
Why I picked this book
There cannot be a better reason for this than’Stephen King’ the author. Had not read any of his book till now, but the movies based on his novels’Shawshank Redemption’ and’Green Mile’ are amongst my all-time favorites. Didnt give the title a damn; all I cared for is the author and it was’Stephen King’. The habit of the publishers printing the cover with the author’s name in a bigger font than the title of the novel just suited the way I opted to pick this book. Before I forget, the title of this book is’Misery’
When I started reading the first few pages.
. there was a strange familiarity. I did not take long for me to realize I had seen a movie in Tamil starring Jeyaram and Saritha on the same lines. Jeyaram was a writer and when he meets with an accident, he ends up in Saritha’s house. Coincidentally, Saritha happens to be a number one fan of Jeyaram. She is a psycho, as he later finds out. She gets so much attached to a character in his series of novels and when she finds out that the character dies, she is not able to take it. Now that the badly injured Jeyaram is under her care, she tortures him and makes him bring the character back alive in. I dont remember when I saw the movie, where I saw it or even the name of the movie. But, for some reasons I had liked the movie.
This book seemed to be a original version of that movie. Did not believe a tamil flick could be adapted from one of English Novels. So did some search in IMDB and did find a movie in the same name as that of this book. So, the tamil one is a remake of the english version which is adapted from this book, I concluded to myself.
As I continuted .
The familiarity with the story was bad. The book did not satisfy the expectations I had on a Stephen King novel. I was seeing only Jeyaram and Saritha when I read the pages. 1/3rd of my mind was reading the book, 1/3rd was replacing Paul sheldon with Jeyram and Annie with Saritha and’Misery’, the character Annie gets herself attached to, and another 1/3rd was writing a review. I was already giving it 3 stars. But continued to read; there was something that made me continue. I guess it was Stephen’s writing style. I liked it. It was capturing a person’s mind with such perfection. I started liking the characters as well. Paul Sheldon now remained as Paul Sheldon and not Jeyaram.
Slowly but surely whole of my mind was getting into the novel and I forgot about the movie and about writing review. When I close the book, review starts running and when I open the book Paul Sheldon starts to run away from Annie! 3 stars increased to 4 when I started liking the narration that so effortlessly portrays the mind of Paulie.
The characters
There are just 2 real characters in the novel(for most part) - Paul and Annie. Rest are -’Misery’ the character created by Paul, Rodymans the neighbours whom Annie hates, the missing’n’ in the typewriter and all that. These other characters are not there, but there. You should read to know, to feel it. Paul is a weirdo himself, or atleast becomes one after his lonely stay with a Pshychopath. He speaks to himself and the way he easily slips into oogy cockadoodie vocabulary of Annie is real fun. The climate of the novel just oscillates from funny imaginations of Paul and his sudden encounters with Annie. When the narration and style of language is such a joy to read, Annie the psycho brings in spine chilling story sequences. It is cruel, gruesome and dark(someone please give me better adjectives) that I even started commiserating with paul. Might be the best of psycho thrillers I have ever read.
The Author
At one stage, I forgot all about writing review on this book and stars. The book kept me deeply engrossed that I even planned to skip office to read it off. All this even when I was already familair with the story. Who knows, I might end up as a Stephen King fan reading all of his books(I have already grabbed another one). For once, ’No.1 Storyteller’ that we see on the book covers for almost every writer might be true when it comes to Stephen King. What blows me away is the variety in Stephen King stories. Grisham speaks law, Robin Cook speaks medicines, etc., and most writers are experts on one subject. Stephen King has variety; Shawshank redemption(Movie), Green Mile(Movie) and Misery(Book) all these I have across of Stephen king are very different from each other.
It is so strange that I have never heard about this book but only got hold of it by chance. I am glad I had that chance. The best of’solitude’ stories I have known was’Cast Away’(Movie). This one did beat that and is now on top of my list(Though this book has 2 characters, its mostly about Paul’s mind and Annie just comes in and goes).
There is no paradox when I say, Misery is fantastic
Smiles,
Envyram