Desperation

Stephen King\’s characters and plot devices serve to do more than speak and move the action forward, they also function as constant and profound reflections on the big (and somewhat smaller) questions that thoughtful people ponder their whole lives. Desperation seems to have at its heart a question: if we force ourselves to reconcile the teachings of western religious traditions with reality, we are left with a god that is fundamentally what? Cruel or kind? The novel doesn\’t bash you over the head with this question, and you can enjoy it without even considering that subtext, but it\’s there. The characters in Desperation are each fully realized and typically (for King) at least somewhat archetypal, the situations concocted to both tell a good story and to play around with fundamental ontological questions. In other words, King has a bunch of people who try to continue to be people when confronted by and plunged deeply into the center of a battle raging between good and evil that they don\’t comprehend. It is a full emotional ride; exhilarating, exhausting, funny, sad, poignant, heartfelt, heroic and heinous. It is grim and gruesome and hopeful and hilarious. It has you fully participating in the action and looking backwards and forwards to try to connect the dots. It is an immensely satisfying experience emotionally and intellectually. A quick note about King\’s performance: others have said that King is a bad reader, but I disagree. He\’s clearly no actor, but his unidimensional delivery allows the characters to develop in interesting ways in the mind of the listener. In a lot of ways, him reading it is akin to how you might hear it in your head, and I really liked his delivery for that reason.

he should stick with writing, narration wasn\’t great, story was poorly written in my opinion. I love all his other novels

I love unabridged books, and I am so glad Desperation is an unabridged option. I like this story better than The Regulators. I actually like to hear Steven King tell his own stories. He is not a professional reader, but his books \”sound like him\”. Please don\’t ask me to explain, some of you may actually understand anyway. He is one of the original \”kill off the good guy\” writers, and that keeps me interested.

I am a huge fan of Mr. King, but I did not like this book and had to force myself to keep listening. Not his usual but also his usual. I can\’t explain it…maybe the praying and God stuff which I do not expect out of him. It just seemed like a forced story. It was a decent book, just not a good one. If you need a good book of his try Duma Key, Dr. Sleep or Mr. Mercedes.

first half of this book was some of the best stuff I\’ve ever read from Stephen King. then something happened. all kinds of details that perhaps clouded the message being given but I truly struggled finished reading this book. one of my least favorites but I\’m a Stephen King fan through thick and thin. This is definitely the thin

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