Book Review: 'Misery'
Stephen King's Misery focuses on Paul Sheldon, a writer who has made a comfortable living for himself by writing a series of Harlequin-type historical romances featuring a gorgeous English woman named Misery Chastain. For millions of his mostly-female readers, the romantic adventures of Misery are as riveting as, say, the mayhem endured by Jack Bauer on 24 , and although Paul was willing to write more books in the series to get those royalty checks, he is now growing weary of his character and her non-contemporary world. And, like many novelists, he wants to get on with the business of writing a serious work that might place him on the same literary level as Faulkner, Steinbeck and Hemingway Giving in to his heart’s desire, he does what his legions of fans and his agent least expect him to do: he kills off Misery Chastain. Unfortunately, when Paul is involved in a one-car accident out in the middle of nowhere, he’s saved from certain death by Annie Wilkes, a former nurse who...