Lisey's Story Report

"Every marriage has two hearts, one light and one dark..." Lisey's Story deals with the dark side of a love. Lisey Landon shared a profound and sometimes frightening intimacy with her husband, Scott, a celebrated best selling novelist- and a man with many secrets. One was the place where his gifts of imagination came from, a place that could heal or destroy him. Two years after his tragic death, Lisey must face Scott's demons on a nearly fatal journey into the darkness he had inhabited. I believe that this is one of Stephen King's better novels. It has been highly praised by many including The Washington Post, Nicholas Sparks, Publisher's Weekly, Michael Chabon, Nora Roberts and the New York Times. This book deals with the strange and dark world that is the mind. It is creative and shows the true terror of imagination. It's a masterpiece.

When the story begins, Lisey is a middle-aged widow, unable to clean out her late husband's office because she's still in mourning over Scott's untimely death two years earlier. Then two almost simultaneous events occur: First her sister Amanda becomes so depressed she must be hospitalized, and the onus is on Lisey to take care of the details. When she begins to make arrangements, she discovers that before he died, Scott had made provisions for Amanda at a nearby facility, as if he'd known she'd have a breakdown. At the same time, Lisey is being stalked by one of Scott's rabid fans. When she refuses to acquiesce to the demands of the stranger, whose name is Dooley, he becomes increasingly menacing, such as putting a dead cat in her mailbox.

The novel also reveals key incidents in the past, such as how Scott and Lisey met, and details about Scott's childhood. Scott had an older brother, Paul, whom he revered, but when Paul becomes another in a long line of Landons to become insane, Scott's life is changed. The only things that keep him on an even keel are his ability to channel self-destructive impulses into his writing and Lisey's abiding love for him. In fact, Scott trusts Lisey so much that just before they marry, he teleports them both to a special place he goes when depressed. While there is beauty in this place, called Boo'ya Moon, during daylight hours, and its waters have