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50 of 54 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Amazingly King, August 23, 2002
This review is from: The Breathing Method (Audio Cassette)
This refers to the CD version of the book - but it is frighteningly and amazingly Stephen King at his best. I use audio books to help me on my exercise walks, and this one was so intense and so dripping with drama, I did extra laps just to see what would happen. Stephen King's extraordinarily ability to take the mundane and add the creep factor reigns supreme here. An unwed pregnant woman goes to her OB-GYN, at a time when unwed mothers were a huge taboo, and her OB-GYN is impressed by her strength and her fortitude and determination to go through with this birth. He is so impressed in fact, that he follows her carefully through each stage of her pregnancy. When it is at last time for her child to be born...well, then there comes a dark and gloomy night at a men's club, years later, where this certain OB-GYN proceeds to tell this tale. The club has been meeting for years, each member telling extraordinary tales, some old war tales, some cigar smoking tales, the usual, but THIS story, well this story is called "The Breathing Method", and the OB-GYN who chooses to tell the story begins by recalling that at the time of this woman's entrance into his life with her illegitimate pregnancy, he was just beginning to introduce the Lamaze technique (not yet called that) to his pregnant patients. He was adamant that it worked, and he was nearly called a fool because of the little pamphlets and booklets he encouraged pregnant woman to read and to try and use during labor. His unwed patient takes the breathing method to heart. So focused and so determined is she to use this method, it becomes almost a part of who she is. But I will leave you there, so as not to spoil the ending for you, however, I will say, the ending is shocking, and you will think about it long after you are finished this story. The reader, Frank Muller is perfect, just right for what Stephen King wants to say. Enjoy the breathing method, if you will, it's power will amaze you.
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24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Absolutely fantastic!, September 26, 2000
By A Customer
This review is from: The Breathing Method (Audio Cassette)
Listen to this on a dark night by the fire, or while driving out on a lonely road. Stephen King truly outdid himself on this one. The descriptions are exceptional -- the dark, snowy streets... the warm, cozy club... you can clearly picture every detail. The story itself is two-fold, one within the other. While the recounting within the book of a young women's pregnancy gives the book its name, it is the experiences of the main character, an attorney, that are the truly terrifying part.
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39 of 44 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
This tale unfolds like a blossom with a bee in the center!, May 15, 2000
This review is from: The Breathing Method (Audio Cassette)
Deceptive as usual, King sets the hook with a story that starts off in "Normal" gear and races before you know it into "Spooky" and beyond into gruesome. The story is told in retrospect by an aged attorney who, during his career at a New York law firm, gets invited by a senior partner to join him at a private men's club. Members are greeted and served by the ubiquitous semi-sinister butler-type character. The club and its furnishings have some mysteries of their own that are tantalizing but never fully revealed. The main activity at the club is storytelling, which leads to King's central plot. Christmas time at the club was reserved for a scary story, and a doctor recounts a poignant and horrible tale from his past about a young woman patient "in trouble" in the mid-1930's. Surprisingly, (along with the revulsion) I was saddened by the intimate view of the way women were treated at that time.
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