The Day the Televisions Stopped Book

Honestly, who among us hasn't gotten frustrated with their favorite writer and felt like holding them prisoner while forcing them to write the exact book that we want?

Well, don't do that because it would be wrong! What kind of twisted freaks are you people?!?

Paul Sheldon is a best selling author who just ended his popular series of romance/adventure novels by killing off the lead character, Misery Chastain. After finishing a new novel at a Colorado resort Paul has a car accident and awakes to find that his legs have been shattered, but that he's been saved by his self-proclaimed number one fan, Annie Wilkes.

Unfortunately, Annie turns out to be more than just a little crazy, and when she learns that Paul killed Misery in the latest book she demands that he write a new one that brings back her favorite character. Held captive by a madwoman, Paul is almost helpless to resist the physical and psychological tortures she uses to get her way while insisting that it's really for his own good.

This book seems eerily prophetic of King's career in some ways. Uncle Stevie hadn't yet frustrated readers of his Dark Tower series with long delays between books, and yet he absolutely nailed the self-righteous fury of a fan who feels somehow cheated out of what they deserve. You gotta think that later on King worried that he had some version of Annie out there just waiting to chain him to typewriter to finish DT. He was also years away from suffering his own enormous physical trauma after being hit by a car, but he still makes you feel every agonizing moment that Paul suffers from his accident and at Annie's hands. Like Paul, King would also have the experience of returning to writing being a matter of overcoming physical pain but also finding it to be a way to escape it.

One of King's biggest strengths is that he knows the power of a good story, and this plot serves him well by really letting him dig into that. Annie's obsession with Misery is something that probably almost every reader can relate to, but what's really interesting is how Paul's need to tell the story becomes just as compelling as Annie's threats. The set-up lets Uncle Stevie explore the whole notion of just why we gotta know what happens next as well as the rules that make it a satisfying resolution or a cheat.

I could make a pretty solid argument that this is King's best book. He was very much at the peak of his powers here, and either the simple two person structure of the story or good editing kept this at a normal novel length. That'd become a rarity in his bloated books after this, and it does feel like King at his most disciplined. In Annie Wilkes he crafted a character worthy of being included in a Villain's Hall of Fame, and he makes good use of her as a figure who can be terrifying, sometimes tragic, and weirdly humorous at times.

However, I'm not saying it's my favorite King book. (Probably The Stand or the last Dark Tower hold that honor.) Why wouldn't his best book be the one I enjoy most? Because he did just too good of job on making us feel Paul's pain. Sure, this is a book about a man who suffered a terrible accident and then found himself brutalized at the hands of a psychopath so it makes perfect sense that Uncle Stevie would want us to ache along with Paul. Yet, it's very hard to spend an entire book with a main character who is almost always at some level of agony without feeling worn down by it. It's necessary for the plot, but it also makes it a slog at times.

So it's definitely among King's best, but it's also one I haven't read it nearly as many times as some of his others because it's simply too damn tough to get through at times. Still it's a 5 star ride if you grit your teeth and keep reading as Paul keeps on writing.