Oxford Dictionary

[TeresaF]

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Stephanie wrote:
Teresa,

I think if you conspired with ALL of your friends and family members, you might be able to receive that "little" 20 volume set! Someday an entire room of my house will be dedicated to books. Until then, I'm keeping my husband's heart healthy by purchasing no more than six at a time.

Stephanie

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Not likely, Stephanie - that’s alot of $20 gift cards. Soooo, I’m thinking that B&N should have a Book Club raffle with the Oxford set as the prize. Book Club participants can earn a chance ticket for each posting. Of course, I get 50,000 tickets because I suggested it.

[Fozzie]

I just wanted to give my general, overall impression before I respond to others' thoughts.

The two words I use to describe this book are bizarre and brilliant. It was not at all what I expected. Having not read Stephen King before, I didn't know what to expect, of course, but it wasn't this!

The book, to me, is about how mental health issues affect families. We see the effects of Scott's father's mental health on is sons, Paul's transformation and its effect on Scott and his father, Scott's effect on Lisey, and Amanda's effect on Lisey, her sisters, and on Scott.

Another theme equal in strength to the mental health issues is love within families, with Scott and Lisey being considered a family, as well as Scott, his brother and father, and Lisey and her sisters. The relationships within these families were not easy, and downright abnormal in some ways, but the love always came through.

One other thing I found interesting was how the author was able to mix the fantasy of physical trips to Boo'ya Moon with the otherwise reality based story. Before we knew that Boo'ya Moon was a place that could be experienced physically, I had assumed it was a fantasy world created by Scott and his brother. I have heard of people creating safe places in their minds and going to those places mentally while suffering physical and/or mental abuse. While I don't believe that people can physically go to the safe havens they create, Stephen King blended this fantasy element in so well that I felt no disjointedness (is that a word?) between the realistic and the fantastic parts of the book. If anything, I almost find myself contemplating whether a place like Boo'ya Moon could actually exist. Almost.

A very thought provoking book, indeed!

[Stephanie]

Laura,

You raised an interesting point about mental health and its effect on families, which made me think a lot about Paul. I wondered throughout the book if he had really become so deranged before he was locked in the cellar, or if that was his mental breaking point. Or did he even have a mental break?

What do you all think?

Stephanie

[TeresaF]

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Stephanie wrote:
Laura,

You raised an interesting point about mental health and its effect on families, which made me think a lot about Paul. I wondered throughout the book if he had really become so deranged before he was locked in the cellar, or if that was his mental breaking point. Or did he even have a mental break?

What do you all think?

Stephanie

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If Lisey’s Story is an indication of Mr. King’s other books (which I have not read), I can certainly see how readers get sucked-in and creep-out by the blurred lines between normal and insane and bizarre. My thoughts on Paul’s mental state(s) are all over the place, and I’d buy off on pretty much any theory anyone wants to propose. The murkiness of having it filtered through Scott as the younger brother makes it even more chilling and sad. Truth be told, I found some of it too disturbing, so I ran through it pretty fast with my eyes closed. I did expect Paul to reappear though, to help out some how, someway.

Amanda, on the other hand, well, we knew she would be around. Not only is she mentioned in the first paragraph, but “Amanda” is another Waylon Jennings song (Amanda, light of my life . . .). She is such a wonderful supporting player, and we get to see interesting glimpses of both Lisey and Scott through her. But just when and where she is with-it, without-it, above-it, and beyond-it, I can’t really say either. The lines are so blurry sometimes. I just love the whole crazy-or-not way Amanda helped Lisey sort out Scott’s stuff. Figuring out that 846 of the 3,000+ documents have pictures of Lisey is not the work of an insane big sister, no matter how she gets there.

[Stephanie]

Teresa,

Great points about Amanda- she is one character that I wanted to see come out a winner- I'm glad she did. Also loved that bit about the pics and the notebook, sometimes I just can't imagine how King comes up with this stuff. Amazing!

Stephanie

[TeresaF]

On page 103, Lisey is trying to remember a poem about how the world just keeps rolling on no matter how much pain you are in: “Who had written it? Eliot, Auden? The man who had also written the poem about the death of the ball-turret gunner?” Does anyone know the answer? I found the poem “The Death Of The Ball Turret Gunner” by Randall Jarrell (all five lines of it), and I see B&N has a book titled “Randall Jarrell on Auden” by Randall Jarrell.

[Stephanie]

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TeresaF wrote:
On page 103, Lisey is trying to remember a poem about how the world just keeps rolling on no matter how much pain you are in: “Who had written it? Eliot, Auden? The man who had also written the poem about the death of the ball-turret gunner?” Does anyone know the answer? I found the poem “The Death Of The Ball Turret Gunner” by Randall Jarrell (all five lines of it), and I see B&N has a book titled “Randall Jarrell on Auden” by Randall Jarrell.

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Teresa,

Did you felt the poem made a connection to the story in some way? I'll have to go look for it and check it out.

Stephanie

[TeresaF]

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Stephanie wrote:

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TeresaF wrote:
On page 103, Lisey is trying to remember a poem about how the world just keeps rolling on no matter how much pain you are in: “Who had written it? Eliot, Auden? The man who had also written the poem about the death of the ball-turret gunner?” Does anyone know the answer? I found the poem “The Death Of The Ball Turret Gunner” by Randall Jarrell (all five lines of it), and I see B&N has a book titled “Randall Jarrell on Auden” by Randall Jarrell.

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Teresa,

Did you felt the poem made a connection to the story in some way? I'll have to go look for it and check it out.

Stephanie

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Stephanie, from my reading of King’s sentences, I am assuming I am looking for another poem by the same poet who wrote The Death Of The Ball Turret Gunner (i.e., Randall Jarrell), not specifically the poem The Death Of The Ball Turret Gunner. However, TDOTBTG could fit the bill once I looked up the explanation.

I found the poem and a bit of explanation in an essay by Ernest Hilbert at
http://www.randomhouse.com/boldtype/0502/jarrell/essay.html

From my mother’s sleep I fell into the State,
And I hunched in its belly till my wet fur froze.
Six miles from earth, loosed from its dream of life,
I woke to black flak and the nightmare fighters.
When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose.
–Randall Jarrell

“Most readers would not have known, for instance, that the ball turret gunner on an American bomber was often positioned like a fetus in the womb or that at high altitude blood would instantly freeze to the fur-lined jacket.”

Oh, and yes, I did find the part about Jarrell's death creepy since we are taking about a Stephen King book. It seems he was in the hospital for slashing his wrists and then Jarrell " . . .went for the last walk of his life; he was struck by a car on the edge of a highway and died instantly."

Message Edited by TeresaF on 12-21-200606:48 PM

Message Edited by TeresaF on 12-21-200606:50 PM

[Stephanie]

Oh, and yes, I did find the part about Jarrell's death creepy since we are taking about a Stephen King book. It seems he was in the hospital for slashing his wrists and then Jarrell " . . .went for the last walk of his life; he was struck by a car on the edge of a highway and died instantly."

Message Edited by TeresaF on 12-21-200606:48 PM

Message Edited by TeresaF on 12-21-200606:50 PM

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Teresa,

This sounds appropriate to this novel, just this bit. You're right, creepy is definitely the word!

Stephanie

[TeresaF]

Being a near rookie at this Stephen King game, I’m sure I’ve skipped over gobs of stuff. I had no idea he was so mischievous with his details. I enjoyed that King followed-up his pg. 103 comment with an additional Randall Jarrell comment on page 105: Amanda is asleep and Lisey is musing “ Madam, Will You Talk? she thought. Maybe Helen MacInnes wrote that book. It surely wasn’t by the man who wrote the poem about the ball-turret gunner . . .”

Message Edited by TeresaF on 12-24-200605:02 PM

[Stephanie]

Teresa,

Don't worry about being a newcomer to King's idiosyncrasies - he surely makes us continue to make connections, though, doesn't he? There were times during the reading of Lisey's Story that I began to feel that I could hear King thinking out loud.

Stephanie

[TeresaF]

Yes, Stephanie, I do feel King’s wheels whirling away throughout this story. My lack of familiarity with King’s novels didn’t stop me from reading his “On Writing” a couple of years ago. I’m having fun re-reading parts now. Anyhow, the crooked path(s) Lisey takes as she fights her way through this story seems to match-up with King’s comment that he only plots things out infrequently (p. 163). Very practical really. As he later explains, he is “not just the novel’s creator but its first reader. And if I’m not able to guess with any accuracy how the d**ned thing is going to turn out, even with my inside knowledge of coming events, I can be pretty sure of keeping the reader in a state of page-turning anxiety.”

Of course, when King ends a section with a bit of foreshadowing, you know you’re in for a ride. Take page 192 of LS for example, end of section 2: “Then she went upstairs to the attic, with no idea that she would be lying on her bed fully dressed two hours later, exhausted and weeping.” Uh oh, here we go again.

**I’m not concerned about the profanity, it’s just that I’m afraid that B&N might have put some sort of filter on these posts, so I’ll save somebody the trouble of editing it out.

[Stephanie]

Teresa,

Good call on the profanity filter- it's actually automatic though, and if you'd typed in the word you would likely have seen *bleep* when it posted.

As to King's foreshadowing, that's a great observation. Sometimes I want to know that something's coming, and sometimes I don't! I think this is because when I know an exciting part is coming along, I tend to read too quickly, and then I feel that I've missed something!

Stephanie

[TeresaF]

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Stephanie wrote:
As to King's foreshadowing, that's a great observation. Sometimes I want to know that something's coming, and sometimes I don't! I think this is because when I know an exciting part is coming along, I tend to read too quickly, and then I feel that I've missed something!

Well, Stephanie, we are opposites on that one. Stephen King type “exciting” means scary to me. Scarey triggers avoidance. Thus, I read a little bit of Lisey’s Story, then a little bit of Terry Pratchett’s Mort, a little more Lisey, a little more Mort, etc. My anxiety kicked in early when I couldn’t get a handle on Lisey’s reliability. We spent so much time inside her head recalling her memories -- was she recalling things correctly or had she caught a bit of Scott and/or Amanda’s mental maladies? It seemed, at times, that the sudden burst of crisis in her life was an odd way of shaking her out of her two years of grief, i.e., a way to force Lisey to get past “that hard and ashy sadness”. Was it real? Was it just in Lisey’s head? Was it real but just in another world? Frankly, there was plenty for me to avoid, but I’m glad I pushed on. Thanks to Terry Pratchett’s Mort for being my security blanket.

[Stephanie]

Teresa,

I began, at some point early on, to take Lisey's Story at face value- that indeed, all the things that were happening were indeed happening. I suppose you could say I just "went with the flow" and allowed myself to transported. Pardon the pun.

Stephanie

[TeresaF]

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Stephanie wrote:
Teresa,

I began, at some point early on, to take Lisey's Story at face value- that indeed, all the things that were happening were indeed happening. I suppose you could say I just "went with the flow" and allowed myself to transported. Pardon the pun.

Stephanie

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Stephanie, going with the flow would definitely be the wiser choice. You were probably doing that before you even started the book though. I, on the other hand, had myself psyched out before I started – that’s why I wanted to finally read a Stephen King novel. Surely my imagination was making it worse than it was really going to be. Stephen did keep me on pins & needles waiting for him to mention his beloved Red Sox, too. Naturally, he shows Lisey in action with: “Lisey pivots like a hitter going after a fat pitch . . .” I do own O’Nan and King’s “Faithful”. Haven’t read it though. My Mom swiped it and then passed it around to her friends before returning it a year and half later. I’m sure come Spring Training time, I’ll be inspired to read it. (You know, after I read in “On Writing” that “-ly” type words (adverbs) were one of King’s pet peeves, I can’t help myself. They are popping up everywhere!)

[JoLelaK]

Hi,

I am a long time King reader, starting with the Stand when I was nine. I enjoyed Lisey's Story, but felt that it went on well after it should have. I listened to the audio book and when I got to the part after Lisey and Amanda defeated Dooley and were driving off to the family farm, I was surprised that there was more. That felt like the end. While Scott's story of his father's death was interesting, I didn't find it necessary. I think we knew enough about Scott to know that he wouldn't have killed his father in cold blood.

I enjoyed the way it depicted a long marriage. I have been married over seventeen years and the shorthand that develops rang true. Also being one of four sisters, I thought he captured the sister thing well.

My favorite King book is Rose Madder, which I think suffers from the same thing. I get the feeling that King isn't ready to leave the characters yet. Although in his last book, the Cell, I would have like a little more of an epilogue.

Jo

[Stephanie]

Jo,

It's interesting that you were ready to wrap it up much earlier on than King was - I'm a greedy reader, I always want more, and was glad to hear Scott's story, and get all the background on that part of the whole. Sometimes I feel that writers leave much up to the reader to surmise, and while that's generally fine, I do admit I like definitive answers.

Stephanie

[windowpane]

I just finished Lisey's Story and it immediately reminded me of Rose Madder how about anyone else?

[Clay]

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LizzieAnn wrote:
I don't even know where to begin. I found this story mesmerizing, compelling, and totally different than anything I had anticipated. Makes me wonder about King's own "pool." I also really liked the fact that this story was centered around a mature and reasonable character, which made the story more intriguing. This wasn't a young naive girl, this was a grown woman with many years of life experience behind her.

...

The greatest thing was that underlying this story was love. The love shared between Scott and Lisey was so strong - it transcended so many bonds and boundaries.

I'll leave off for now, though I know I'll return to add more!

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You are so "right on target" with the book and what it is offering it's Constant Reader. Plenty of symbolism and product placement made the reading very enjoyable. This is what makes Stephen King my absolute favorite storyteller. No other writer takes you along the journey better (even seven volumes of Dark Tower). Lisey's Story was one of his best "roller coaster rides" since The Shining. Probably my favorite part was actually reading Scott's letter at the end under the yum-yum tree.