Dolores Claiborne
(Libby/OverDrive eAudiobook)

/*STARRED REVIEW*/ Like Gerald's Game , King's second novel this year is short by his standards, isn't concerned with supernatural horrors, and takes place mostly on one October day and, in flashback, on July 20, 1963, when a total eclipse of the sun laid a diagonal band of darkness across central Maine. A further resemblance is that it also features a female protagonist, but while King wrote Gerald's Game with third-person omniscience, he offers Delores Claiborne in that tough old Mainer's voice as she tells the sheriff of Little Tall Island about two deaths she's been involved with. One, just the other day, is that of her wealthy, invalided employer, Vera Donovan, whom it's suspected she fatally pushed downstairs. The other, which happened during that long-ago eclipse, is that of her drunken, good-for-nothing husband, Joe St. George. She didn't kill Vera, but she did kill Joe, and as she fills us in on the hows and whys of both deaths, King secures his place in the highest echelon of contemporary American novelists. For cantankerous, profane, scatological, and fiercely maternal Delores is as vital and vivid a character as any in American fiction. Moreover, the death of her husband is as virtuosic an essay in grand guignol as King has ever written. King is well out of the slump that so many of the contributors to the recent mid-career assessment, Reign of Fear , seemed to think he was in. In fact, he's never been better. (Reviewed Sept. 15, 1992)0670844527Ray Olson

King's portrait of a Maine housekeeper accused of her employer's murder--a nine-week PW bestseller--shows him to be a magnificent storyteller. (Dec.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

King again eschews supernatural horror, as he did recently in Gerald's Game , to study the equally monstrous things people can inflict on one another. The story, sparer than much of King's work, is a monolog by the title character, who is suspected of murdering her loutish, insensitive husband and the difficult, rich, and senile woman for whom she has kept house for many years. As Dolores tells her story to the local authorities, the details of a life of drudgery and marital unhappiness emerge, along with the ironic truth behind the deaths. In theme, style, and setting a companion piece to Gerald's Game , this new work is a quietly terrifying tale of desperation, abuse, and revenge that showcases King's talent as a powerful storyteller. Certain to be a best seller, it should appeal to a wide audience. For all popular fiction collections. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 9/15/92.-- Eric W. Johnson, Teikyo Post Univ. Lib., Waterbury, Ct. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

As Jessie Burlingame lies handcuffed to her bed in Gerald's Game (p. 487), she recalls how, on the day 30 years ago that her dad molested her, she had a vision of a woman--a murderer?--at a well. King explains that vision here: Dolores Claiborne is the woman, and her story of how she killed her husband, and the consequences, proves a seductively suspenseful, if quieter, complement to Jessie's shriek-fest of a tale. The garotte-tight Gerald's Game is one of King's most stylish novels, and the Maine author flexes more stylistic muscle here, having feisty Dolores tell her tale in a nonstop monologue, rich in Down East dialect, that steadily gathers force. Dolores, 65, is speaking to Andy Bissette, sheriff of the island offshore Maine where she's lived her life, most of it as housekeeper for Vera Donovan, a wealthy ``bitch.'' We soon learn that Dolores has a confession to make--in her own sweet time (``I feel a draft in here, Andy. Might go away if you shutcha goddamn trap''). Amidst details--often crudely funny--of her power-plays with Vera, and of her early life, we learn how, years back, Dolores's rotten husband began molesting their teenaged daughter, then stole her college funds. Dolores's retribution--the killing--forms the story's centerpiece, and, taking place on the same day that Jessie's dad molested her, forges the psychic bond--neither elaborated on nor explained--between the two women. It's Dolores's final years with Vera, though, and the bitter manner of Vera's death, that have brought Dolores to the sheriff--and that ultimately transform this, like Gerald's Game, into a devastating tale of heroism in the face of life's suffering. Without the flash and twisted fun of Gerald's Game, this may not sell as well (despite a 1.5 million first printing); but Dolores is a brilliantly realized character, and her struggles will hook readers inexorably. (Book-of-the-Month Dual Selection for December)

King again eschews supernatural horror, as he did recently in Gerald's Game , to study the equally monstrous things people can inflict on one another. The story, sparer than much of King's work, is a monolog by the title character, who is suspected of murdering her loutish, insensitive husband and the difficult, rich, and senile woman for whom she has kept house for many years. As Dolores tells her story to the local authorities, the details of a life of drudgery and marital unhappiness emerge, along with the ironic truth behind the deaths. In theme, style, and setting a companion piece to Gerald's Game , this new work is a quietly terrifying tale of desperation, abuse, and revenge that showcases King's talent as a powerful storyteller. Certain to be a best seller, it should appeal to a wide audience. For all popular fiction collections. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 9/15/92.-- Eric W. Johnson, Teikyo Post Univ. Lib., Waterbury, Ct. Copyright 1992 Cahners Business Information.

Described by the publisher as a companion piece to King's last book, Gerald's Game , this new novel surpasses it in every way, and shows that King, even without the trappings of horror and suspense, is a magnificent storyteller whose greatest strength has always been characterization. His sterling title character this time out is a Maine woman in her 60s who made a living as a housekeeper and now is under suspicion in the death of her senile employer, Vera Donovan, who fell down a flight of stairs. Did Dolores push her? Responding to the charges against her, Dolores recounts her life in a tightly woven narrative that is beguiling and touching at the appropriate moments. The friendship between these two lonely women ``livin' on a little chunk of rock off the Maine coast'' was the anchor of both their lives, and it soon becomes clear that Dolores didn't kill Vera. But she freely acknowledges--30 years after the fact--that she did kill her husband, Joe, during a solar eclipse on July 20, 1963, ``my day for seein' eyes everywhere.'' Presenting Dolores's story in her own remarkable colloquial voice, King brings readers face to face with a goodhearted, lovable woman whose honesty is ultimately unforgettable. 1.5 million first printing; BOMC main selection. (Dec.) Copyright 1992 Cahners Business Information.

King's portrait of a Maine housekeeper accused of her employer's murder--a nine-week PW bestseller--shows him to be a magnificent storyteller. (Dec.) Copyright 1993 Cahners Business Information.