Duma Key by Stephen King

Duma Key is one of my favorite books from Stephen King. I’m not sure why, since much of the wooj is in the background and back loaded in the last chapters of the book, which typically means he relies heavily on the characterization and description. Which, one he does well even if it’s not exactly terse and the latter… I don’t need that kind of in-depth information about anyone’s nipples, IT. 

Duma Key is about Edgar Freemantle, a man left broken physically, mentally, and spiritually by an accident at his construction business. To begin his second life, he travels to stay in Florida, at the old beachfront property known as “Big Pink.” There, he returns the hobby of painting, and that renewed passion for art brings him in contact with Sarasota’s elite; a illness-stricken old woman and her damaged carekeeper, both also in their second life; and a terribly, old consciousness hungry for death. Edgar also receives some supernatural side effects that leave him curious for what the island’s capabilities.

I, obviously, love this book. Though a slow build to the end, it’s one of those times when Stephen King’s love of description really works: he creates a claustrophobic, almost jungle-like atmosphere filled with strange ghosts and stranger history for the new artist seeing all of it for the first time. In a book about art, it doesn’t seem like a sometimes inappropriate drag. On the other hand, if you’re reading a book like this for frequent scares that keep your heart pounding, it’s not going to work. This one takes its time wrapping you strangle fig.

Would I Read it Again?: I’ve read this book numerous times. I’m even working on some art for it, if I ever manage to do more than sleep for days on end. Rating: 4. Maybe a 4.5. I’ve got to be real here, despite my love of this book. Sometimes it dwells too long on the atmosphere, even for someone used to Stephen King. Despite how much I love something, I try to insert some objectiveness into things.