Duma Key - Stephen King
So I read my first ever Stephen King novel. Finally. I've never liked horror, blood and guts, undead zombies nonsense. But I do like suspense and thrillers. I told this to someone and they said well try this one then. Duma Key.
Brief summary of the start of the plot: (Don't think this counts as a spoiler, it's what the inside cover of the book says also)
Duma Key is a fictitious island, set in the Florida keys. The main character, Edgar, was a rich construction contractor before he had a serious accident. In the accident he lost an arm and had a serious head injury with memory loss that causes him great frustration. During his rehabilitation he is encouraged to draw pictures and shows a talent he didn't know he had. His recovery goes well but because of his memory loss causing him such frustration he drives his wife away. When he decides to make a change of scenery for his rehabilitation, he moves to Florida where he rents a house on Duma Key. His art flourishes, and he turns out to be a world class talented artist. Then the supernatural stuff starts to happen. Through his art he is psychic, drawing stuff about his wife back home that he didn't know, and he can also heal people by drawing them well. His talent and abilities turn dark as he comes to realise that it's not all him drawing the pictures. Duma Key is supernaturally connected to an ancient evil that has lured him there and is boosting his talent for it's own dark purposes.
Opinion:
I can really see what the world is on about when talking about King. Why he's regarded as a master writer. Character development, plot, execution, its all pretty dam good. I found only one or two continuity mistakes that doesn't influence the plot much. One guy had a cellphone one day and was too old fashioned to have one the next. The cellphone didn't mater in that scene cause there was someone else with a cell he could borrow, and the plot could go on it's merry way undisturbed.
My problem is with the first person past tense. I hate it. Stephen King is such a master he should not have needed to do this cheap trick to build tension. The first person teller in the past tense can ruin the story for you by telling you ahead of time what will happen. Or my personal pet hate, forward glimpses about doom that is approaching. "If I knew what would happen that day, I never would have gotten out of bed!" Such a cheap way to build the tension in a story. A master should be able to do better, and after this I'm quite sure King is a master. I found this so irritating, because the book doesn't need that crap. It's quite good enough to stand on it's own. It's like he doubts himself. Maybe this isn't enough tension to keep people reading, let's add some more. Maybe they'll lose interest after the first few chapters, time to make them worry about the future. Crap like that. I find that stuff so irritating I wanted to pull my hair out. But the rest of the book was good enough to keep me reading regardless.
I wish the world would learn this. If you want to say "meanwhile, back at the ranch...", you choose the third person. If you want the audience to be in the dark, trapped in the storyteller's head, you choose the first person present tense. You can't then say meanwhile back at the ranch, but the tension is built by the audience and the teller not knowing. And that is how you should write it. Choosing first person past tense is a cop out, trying to steal the best of both worlds. It's for people who want to do the back at the ranch as well as have the teller not know. But the problem is he does know, so it's not as convincing. It also means you gave the ending of the story away before you start, cause he couldn't well be telling the story in the first person past tense if he died now, can he? Mostly it's just infuriating when he says that ever present "If I'd known... " bit.
If that crap doesn't bother you, then Duma Key comes highly recommended. Such a pity that this great story is tarnished by such cheap tricks, because the first 6 pages is so captivating and good, he really had me at hello.
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