Duma Key is a good novel for healing.
When I first read the novel, I was in serious need. For one thing, my faith in Stephen King was wavering. For the previous decade or more I disliked a number of his books, and I outright hated a few. I never could get into the swing of the Dark Tower and it was infiltrating everything he wrote for a while.
There were other things going on in my life that were giving me pain. Nothing like poor Edgar Freemantle was enduring, but pain is pain and hurt is hurt.
My marriage was in terminal condition. Part of me knew it needed to end and another part was afraid of being alone. My drinking was part of the problem, so in January 2008 I began my first serious attempt to quit. It was, to say the least, difficult.
I was trying to better myself and I started working out at the YMCA. Like the damned obsessive fool I can often be, I went too hard and was paying for it.
Duma Key was published on January 22, 2008. I was the first to receive a copy from my local library. I was bedridden from muscle strain and alcohol withdrawal. I was spiritually and physically in a tremendous amount of pain.
Duma Key was therapy for me. I was happy, almost deliriously so, to be enjoying a Stephen King book again. I identified with Freemantle's struggles. King's writing is so vivid I feel like I am living the story with the characters.
Edgar Freemantle, a prosperous building contractor, is injured on the jobsite. He lost his arm, his brain was damaged, his hip shattered. Healing was as bad, if not worse, than the actual incident.
In an effort to change his perspective and live in privacy, Freemantle rents a house on Duma Key, on a remote beach in Florida. There he discovers an untapped resource of artistic talent. Edgar begins to paint. Or maybe Duma Key is working its dark magic through him.
There are old secrets buried in the sands and marshes of Duma Key. Something ghastly is reaching out to be released.
I didn't consider Duma Key to be amongst King's best work in 2008, and upon reading it again, I still don't. However, it's a good novel. Duma Key passes a litmus test I sometimes make with horror stories. Would I be satisfied reading about the characters and situations if no horror were in the story?
In this case, yes. In fact, the ghostly intrusion in Duma Key is a bit of a disappointment. Edgar Freemantle befriends a local man called Wireman. The conversations and interactions between the two characters are glorious. I could read about them for hundreds of pages. Freemantle's burgeoning painting talent, the local members of the art community, and a charming old patron of local artists are all beautifully rendered.
Now it's 2025 and I am healing again. Thankfully drinking is long behind me. I retired a few months ago, and I am working to get rid of the physical and spiritual detritus accumulated from forty years as a machinist. My legs were in terrible shape from all those years on concrete floors. My outlook on humanity withered from seeing too much corruption and greed. My nerves shot from operating dangerous machines. My patience worn to nothing from years of a soul-killing commute.
I recently had double cataract surgery. One eye went smoothly. The other, not so well. I had the choice between being near or farsighted. Being a big reader I chose to be nearsighted. Well, my right eye is now nearsighted and my left ended up being farsighted, resulting in imbalanced vision. It makes reading a lot more difficult. Weeks after the surgery I am still seeing halos in the left eye.
Still nothing like old Edgar Freemantle experienced, but it's been a struggle.
Duma Key helped me then and it helped me now.
Life is going on. I will still be able to read and conduct my life as more or less usual. It's not perfect, but as we get older very little is.
I am preparing for the Authorcon convention this coming week. I put a photo on Facebook of the Stephen King books I will have for sale. Some people had nice things to say, but one asscrack who Friended me somewhere along the way chimed in with a sensitive comment: "Compost Material". I never had any interaction with him beforehand.
Unfriend. Block. I have no energy to deal with a pill like that guy. Fuck him. Not because he doesn't like Stephen King, but because he rudely stuck his snout into a thread with the simple purpose of being a jerk.
For some of us, constant readers all, Stephen King is more than just entertainment. His stories enrich us. They nourish us. They are a comfortable place we can retreat when we need to escape the world. Just as Edgar Freemantle, a regular guy like most of us, went to Duma Key to get better.
Duma Key is a fine example of King's humanistic storytelling. For me it was a new beginning for him, and the book helped usher me into a new beginning in my own life. For the second time.
Written by Mark Sieber
When I first read the novel, I was in serious need. For one thing, my faith in Stephen King was wavering. For the previous decade or more I disliked a number of his books, and I outright hated a few. I never could get into the swing of the Dark Tower and it was infiltrating everything he wrote for a while.
There were other things going on in my life that were giving me pain. Nothing like poor Edgar Freemantle was enduring, but pain is pain and hurt is hurt.
My marriage was in terminal condition. Part of me knew it needed to end and another part was afraid of being alone. My drinking was part of the problem, so in January 2008 I began my first serious attempt to quit. It was, to say the least, difficult.
I was trying to better myself and I started working out at the YMCA. Like the damned obsessive fool I can often be, I went too hard and was paying for it.
Duma Key was published on January 22, 2008. I was the first to receive a copy from my local library. I was bedridden from muscle strain and alcohol withdrawal. I was spiritually and physically in a tremendous amount of pain.
Duma Key was therapy for me. I was happy, almost deliriously so, to be enjoying a Stephen King book again. I identified with Freemantle's struggles. King's writing is so vivid I feel like I am living the story with the characters.Edgar Freemantle, a prosperous building contractor, is injured on the jobsite. He lost his arm, his brain was damaged, his hip shattered. Healing was as bad, if not worse, than the actual incident.
In an effort to change his perspective and live in privacy, Freemantle rents a house on Duma Key, on a remote beach in Florida. There he discovers an untapped resource of artistic talent. Edgar begins to paint. Or maybe Duma Key is working its dark magic through him.
There are old secrets buried in the sands and marshes of Duma Key. Something ghastly is reaching out to be released.
I didn't consider Duma Key to be amongst King's best work in 2008, and upon reading it again, I still don't. However, it's a good novel. Duma Key passes a litmus test I sometimes make with horror stories. Would I be satisfied reading about the characters and situations if no horror were in the story?
In this case, yes. In fact, the ghostly intrusion in Duma Key is a bit of a disappointment. Edgar Freemantle befriends a local man called Wireman. The conversations and interactions between the two characters are glorious. I could read about them for hundreds of pages. Freemantle's burgeoning painting talent, the local members of the art community, and a charming old patron of local artists are all beautifully rendered.
Now it's 2025 and I am healing again. Thankfully drinking is long behind me. I retired a few months ago, and I am working to get rid of the physical and spiritual detritus accumulated from forty years as a machinist. My legs were in terrible shape from all those years on concrete floors. My outlook on humanity withered from seeing too much corruption and greed. My nerves shot from operating dangerous machines. My patience worn to nothing from years of a soul-killing commute.
I recently had double cataract surgery. One eye went smoothly. The other, not so well. I had the choice between being near or farsighted. Being a big reader I chose to be nearsighted. Well, my right eye is now nearsighted and my left ended up being farsighted, resulting in imbalanced vision. It makes reading a lot more difficult. Weeks after the surgery I am still seeing halos in the left eye.
Still nothing like old Edgar Freemantle experienced, but it's been a struggle.
Duma Key helped me then and it helped me now.
Life is going on. I will still be able to read and conduct my life as more or less usual. It's not perfect, but as we get older very little is.
I am preparing for the Authorcon convention this coming week. I put a photo on Facebook of the Stephen King books I will have for sale. Some people had nice things to say, but one asscrack who Friended me somewhere along the way chimed in with a sensitive comment: "Compost Material". I never had any interaction with him beforehand.
Unfriend. Block. I have no energy to deal with a pill like that guy. Fuck him. Not because he doesn't like Stephen King, but because he rudely stuck his snout into a thread with the simple purpose of being a jerk.
For some of us, constant readers all, Stephen King is more than just entertainment. His stories enrich us. They nourish us. They are a comfortable place we can retreat when we need to escape the world. Just as Edgar Freemantle, a regular guy like most of us, went to Duma Key to get better.
Duma Key is a fine example of King's humanistic storytelling. For me it was a new beginning for him, and the book helped usher me into a new beginning in my own life. For the second time.
Written by Mark Sieber
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