Customer Reviews

Rose Madder

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These three stories are not King's best works, but they are indeed great works. King's books are always interesting and fun to read. He has made an art of horror in modern literature.

The first story, Dolores Claiborne, is really a story about the trying times between a mother and a daughter. Dolores has been accused of killing the elderly lady she has taken care of for years. Her daughter, who she has not seen in years, comes to help her with the her legal problems. Soon the story takes a turn, going back 20 years to another murder that might have been done by Dolores. It was the murder of her husband...This is a very interesting story that takes wild turns and twist until the dramatic end.

Insomnia is the second novel included in this collection. This is a longer story about a man whose bad case of insomnia drives him near madness. But is his sleep problems all mental, or is there an outside force working on him and the town he inhabits? This story won't put you to sleep.

The last story in this collection is Rose Madder. Rose's husband, a small town cop, seemed like a good man when she decided to marry him, but she soon finds out she is wrong. He turns out to be a monsterious wife beater. She lives in hell with him for 10 years before finally walking out on him while he is at work. With nothing to her name she heads to the big city. But still she is not safe from her maniac husband, who begins a killing spree across the country to find his wife, Rose, and to make sure she knows that no one ever leaves him.

This is a great collection of Stephen King's novels. So get it, turn off all the lights in your house, and enter King's nightmare world of horror.

Previous Book Review Stephen King, Rose Madder

Synopsis

Norman Daniels is a complete nutter. Apart from being the nastiest bigot on earth, he regularly beats his wife, Rose, to within an inch of her life. After a miscarriage and several trips to hospital, Rose suddenly decides she's had enough, and leaves. Up until this point, she's never known anything different, and assumed that every marriage was this way.

The story takes a great many turns as it follows Rose's life as a free woman (although Norman is always hot on her heels - he wants to teach her a lesson), and through a paranormal encounter with what seems to be herself in a parallel dimension, she finds the power to turn her life completely around.

My Thoughts

A few years ago, it seemed to me that Stephen King was moving towards a v! ery formulaic style of writing, easy to get used to and to predict. I am happy to say that this has been improving immensely in recent publications. In Rose Madder, he has achieved something I never thought anyone would...

I very rarely find a writer who is able to stir strong emotions in me - reality always stays firmly rooted in the back of my mind ("This is just a book, it's not real"), and so the writing does not affect me too deeply (perhaps this is the reason I am able to read some pretty nasty horror books - and watch gross-out videos - without having nightmares afterwards?). Rose Madder is somehow different. I actually found myself vehemently hating Norman Daniels, and feeling sorry for Rose. Perhaps it is because I have met people who could so easily turn into Norman, or simply because I haven't been reading the ri! ght books - I don't know. Either way, Stephen ! King has matured with age.

I would recommend Rose Madder to anyone without too squeamish a disposition, whether Stephen King aficionados or not. The plot may seem a little thin at times, but the emotional content made it for me, and the almost surreal paranormal side-plot serves as an exciting distraction from the sometimes painful realism of Rose's situation.

My favorite Stephen King books have always been his Dark Tower series; that is until these three came out. And what convenience to have them altogether.
Dolores Claiborne is wonderfully written from the main charactrer's view point. Insomnia definetly made it hard to sleep, couldn't put it down. And Rose Madder, may favorite of the three. Involved a case of domestic violence, a woman fighting for her life and freedom from a twisted cop.
A must read trio. King's best three books in one.

Stephen King's ascent from free-lance scribe to multi-million-selling-brand-name-writing-industry is a fascinating case. His scintillating first novel, "Carrie", was published in an era where horror novels were quite out of vogue--but it still succeeded. His third effort, "The Stand", was an 800+ page monolith that broke every rule from "How To Become A Best Selling Novelist"--it was long (verrrrry long), multi-layered, and really really dark. But again, King succeeded. By the time the nineties rolled around, King's loyal fan base knew that their man could be relied on to deliver an entertaining, readable, and verrrrry long fright-fest. Through hard work and consistancy, Stephen King had deservedly earned the total trust of his readers. But sometime around 1988, I suspect the prolific scare-meister realized that his fans would, with very little question, follow him anywhere. So the Horror King decided to put it in cruise control. "Stephen King's Latest", a set of three novels from the early nineties, epitomizes the problems of King's more recent work. In "Dolores Clairborne," King's fascination (or obsession) with his homestate of Maine kills an otherwise interesting little mystery. The picayune historical details about the state, combined with the native-Maine dialect that permiates most of the dialogue, turns the book into somewhat of an endurance test. In "Gerald's Game", King semi-overbearing, soapbox-jumping attitude about feminism (he's all for it--what a guy!) overrides the clever, sexually-charged premise. And the creepy (and verrrrry long) "Insomnia"--though closer in tone and spirit to vintage King outings like "The Stand" and "The Dead Zone"--is in dire need of an editor's red pencil. All that said, this troika of books nonetheless demonstrates that even at half-power, Stephen King is a true pop fiction craftsman who will always be able to snare a reader by the cortex, and not let go. "Dolores Clairborne", "Gerald's Game", and "Insomnia" are relatively tasty in their own right, but to experience Steve at full power, stick with the early stuff.

How does KING do it? The mans middle name must be diversification/Rose Madder is one of his best - the story is suspensful and by the time you are half way through the book, you feel you personally know the charaers. King could have done away with the fantasy part and still have a great story! Bravo Mr. King!

I've been a Stephen King fan since I was in fifth grade (when I first read Misery), and I will be for life. He has never disappointed me. From his epic Dark Tower series (which is great) to his short stories he always writes with great depth. In the three books here: Rose Madder, Insomnia, and Dolores Claiborne he has yet again put together a trilogy of masterpieces. In Rose Madder a young wife finally works up enough strength to leave her abusive husband, who is also a cop. The cop doesn't let her go that easily and follows her cross country and tries to kill her. King throws a twist into the story, however, once the wife can enter a painting and go back and forth through time. A must read. Insomnia is about an old man who at first can't sleep but then begins to see "visions" and people who can cut the thread of life, so he knows who is going to die. His nemisis in the story is the Crimson King who...I don't want to tell to much. This story gets a little long at parts (near the middle), but it is a very long book anyway. Good read. Dolores Claiborne is about a woman who finds out her husband has had sexual experiences with their young daughter. During a solar eclipse she kills him and nobody ever finds out who did it, until... I love how this book ties in with Geralds Game. To find out how read the books. This one is very good (the movie was okay too - but not as good). So, I think everyone should read these books because they are 1)suspensful, 2)entertaining, 3)written by Stephen King, trust me you won't be disappointed. by the way my favorite Stephen King book is "IT"

One of King's best. Going through time by entering a painting. What a concept. The whole story was riveting. You cant put it down, because you want to know, what's going to happen to Rose next??????