Duma Key--**spoiler thread**

[Erin]

Wow! I just finished Duma Key today at work on my lunch break. I absolutely loved it.

This was by far King's best effort in recent years. There were many scenes in the book which actually scared me, like Edgar's frenzied painting during the thunderstorm and the lawn jockey moving around the yard without moving his legs. That last one sent chills up and down my spine.

I also loved all the tension in the book. Like how agonizing it was when Edgar went to sleep, thinking all his paintings were either destroyed or crated up in the art gallery, when we damn well knew that he gave Ilse a painting earlier in the story. I could barely stand reading, knowing something bad was going to happen to her.

Overall, I really really loved it. Especially Wireman. He was such a great addition to the story.

[Matt]

I'm finished now too--I also loved it.

I was so heartbroken at the end--the fact that he left himself a purposeful "out" with his sandy ifsogirl. How he resisted that.

I also loved Miss Eastlake, she was a really amazing character and her development (the kind of side story all the way through the book) was so satisfying. I really wanted to go back to it from the main story which is rare for me.

I got a really hard dose of Shawshank at the end. Wireman in Mexico--come to see me...I really wish it would have turned out that way but I also understand why it couldn't.

[Darkthoughts]

Yes, I found that really sad too.

[bodacious ta-tas]

Tower smilarity:
Melda has two fingers and part of a third finger on her right hand bitten off.

I noticed that, too, but you're the first person to mention it that I've seen.

The book was FABULOUS! I loved it-gonna read it again soon, just waiting for the right time...
I wish I could see some of the paintings. I bet we have some artists here who could whip something up. If there is a thread for the paintings already, can someone give me a link? I'm new here, and kinda lost...

[jayson]

i enjoyed the whole "unbottling" thing with edgar's art. i saw a lot of my own artistic process in it [aside from the phantom limb stuff obviously]. like edgar i started painting [digitally in my case] on a whim bc i used to draw. what i was able to do was a surprise to me, and much like edgar, it pretty much all came at once. the 100-something pieces i've done to date were all done in about a 9 week stretch. unlike edgar, i've yet to have a first show and hit it big, but i am planning a show at some point this year, and will be entering some stuff into some group shows in my area. edgar was right about western florida sunsets, that i can tell you! they are very inspiring. i like sunrises myself, but i did at least one sunset. anyway, it was interesting to read a creative person like king on a different style of creative art than his own.

[CyberGhostface]

As I didn't care for Memory when I read it at the end of Blaze, I'm happy to say that I enjoyed Duma Key a lot. Probably his best work in a long time. Lots of great characters as well, from Edgar to Ilse to Wireman to Elizabeth...

[jhanic]

Lilja just posted this on his site:

From King's message board:


I recently sent this thread to Steve to read and he asked me to post this message:

Several astute readers have commented on Edgar's last name. The answer is yes, of course he is related to Abagail Freemantle. He is in fact her great-great-grandson. (One has to remember, however, that the Abagail Freemantle readers know existed in an alternate Stephen King universe....call in the Stand-verse.) He has no idea of his Afro-American heritage.
Steve

That answers that!

John

[Darkthoughts]

Awesome find! Ms Mod at the official site originally posted it, so I've asked if she minds if I include it in my Tower Connections article

[fernandito]

I finished Duma Key today, and I'm sad to say that I didn't enjoy it much. I at no point felt 'grabbed' by the story as it usually happens with other King books, and I felt that the ending was a perfect example of anti-climatic.

[ZoNeSeeK]

I completely agree with you FP, and I'd say its the first time I've been a little disappointed after an SK tale, but after reading this thread it obviously just didn't sit well with me but most people loved it... but hear me out.

It was entertaining, but there was very little in it that was surprising, and a story quickly becomes tired if you can see where its going and roughly whats going to happen. The characters were all great (although as awesome as Wireman is, he could have done with a few less Muchachos) but what really let it down (in my retarded and uneducated selfish opinion) was the 1st person narrative.

I considered how the story would have unfolded if the perspective was not limited to Edgar on Duma and thought it may have made for a much wholer, fleshed out story. What really pissed me off was Ilse's death - an answering machine message and a phone call, that was it, with some details filled out later on. I didn't feel it, thats for sure. And I fucking hate criticism like this because I'm not a literary editor and appreciate that art creates itself, but its just my initial reaction after reading it. It was a good story, it just didn't meet my needs, which I'm fully aware it isn't supposed to

Diem read Duma Key, and immediately followed it with Lisey's Story, and absolutely loved Lisey's and thought Duma was so-so. I agree with her on that aswell - Lisey's kept me guessing and was dark and original and surprising, it really got to me. I found the mystery in Duma lacking and predictable.

But what made the story worthwhile for me was the backstory of Elizabeth's history that was uncovered. That was truly gripping - if Duma was entirely set in the 1920's and covered that tale a would have been a happy boy I reckon - I thought it was chilling and terrifying, that these horrors were being produced from the mind of a genius toddler, the sense of desperation as the distracted father didn't seem to realise what was going on, the whole race-issue with the black nanny trying to hold everything together, then the deaths of the twins and the terrible fate of the older sister, and the harrowing climax at the end. I thought it was masterful, and the contemporary story and narrative felt worn out and hollow by comparison - it felt like I was reading and reading but the real story was dead and gone 80 years previous. You could really feel the isolation of the characters in the backstory.

That brings me to another point, which I'm interested in seeing what everyone else thinks. We know that SK likes to keep up with the techology of the times, and we've seen its emergence in his latest novels, with e-mail, mobile phones, google being referred to and involved in plotlines. Do you think this adds to, detracts from or has no effect on the atmosphere created in his stories?

I find that when you increase the ways and methods of communication in any particular environment, you're obviously increasing the exchange of information. Many plot constructs rely on characters 'only knowing so much', and I think effective mystery and terror can become more difficult to create when the characters can just jump online and google away. It worked in Cell, I thought it worked against the atmosphere of Duma Key.

[Darkthoughts]

Wow, although I loved Duma Key, that was an awesome review Zones

I found the use of modern technology very apparent in DK too. It seemed slightly out of character for King to make so much use of it, but it didn't detract for me, it made it more realistic and gave a contrast to Elizabeth's world.

I'd definately have liked to of had more flashbacks from Elizabeth's childhood. You're right, it was very eerie - it reminded me of Bag of Bones for the sheer fright factor - King is so good at ghost stories, it was almost a shame he didn't milk that aspect of the story more.

[jayson]

I'd definately have liked to of had more flashbacks from Elizabeth's childhood.

me too, provided they weren't all italicized for pages and pages and pages like they were in what we did get of her story. It may be a nit-picky thing, but I find multiple pages of all italics to be riddiculous on the eyes. I think I enjoyed the younger Elizabeth stuff less bc of it.

[Jean]

I hate it when more than a couple of phrases is in italics... especially in a language other than Russian... gr gr gr grrrrrrrrrr....

[jayson]

me too, i suffer from bad migraines and the overuse of italics in Duma Key was a little harsh on the eyes.

[Jean]

there ought to be a law...

<--- another migraine sufferer

[jayson]

yes, i will second the Sparing Use of Italics Act.

[jhanic]

I never had a problem with King's use of modern technology in his books. I've been around (and reading King for) a long time and King has always been "attacked" (okay, maybe not the right word, but...) for using current items in his works. Go back and read some of his early works, and you'll note that his use of these sometimes dates them, but the stories are still great.

John

[ZoNeSeeK]

You mean criticised .. but I don't have an issue with it necessarily being used in a story, but for me when reading DK it lessened the overall feel. But you're probably right - its a perspective thing. I'm used to reading King stories set in the 70's, in the 90's and 2000's, reading about one world from another, in a way.

Oh, I loved Reba aswell. Oooouuuww, you nasty man! Diem kept saying that to me in Thailand and i didnt know what the fuck she was going on about.

[Girlystevedave]

I just wish the story had ended with something bigger that a china doll being crammed into a flashlight.

[Matt]

Well, for me it was really cool but mostly based on the idea of character development. I knew enough about his ifso girl from their previous encounters to make what happened with her death take me the way it took him, from his perspective as much as possible I guess.

Loved the back story with Libby--totally cool.

It was really good for me in the way that Kings new books seem to be, very introspective on the human front.

[ZoNeSeeK]

That is true, his perspective seems to becoming from a much more mature place. Gone are the child heroes and young adults, now its all about the middle years. You write what you know, as the saying goes.

[obscurejude]

Finished Duma Key and I'll have more thoughts to add soon, I'm really not sober.

Overall, I liked it and found it very frightening in parts, reminding me of much older King tales. I must confess, though, I was very pissed off at a lot of the foreshadowing- particularly Ilse's death. I just don't understand why it needs to be so blatant.

[Darkthoughts]

It was, wasn't it! I mean, even I totally saw that coming and I can't even figure out whodunnit in Scooby Doo

[Matt]

I think King is the "king" of..."...and that was the last time he ever spoke to her"

But I believe it is always done on purpose and acts as a way build suspense.

[jhanic]

King does the foreshadowing bit in lots of his stories. It seems to always bother me, too. Maybe, as Matt says, he does it as a way to increase suspense, but it simply annoys me.

John