Customer Reviews

Rose Madder

5 star:		(140)
4 star:		(73)
3 star:		(46)
2 star:		(27)
1 star:		(23)

 

 

The more I read by Stephen King, the more entranced I become by his work as a whole. In particular, I have come to seek out the various threads of the Dark Tower that are woven through many of his books. Rose Madder, which does indeed weave itself into King's masterwork (while maintaining its viability as a "stand-alone" novel) is a masterpiece.

Norman Daniels, though thoroughly human, is a monster more horrible that many of King's worst beasts. Cujo has nothing on him when it comes to ferocity. Annie Wilkes looks downright domestic when compared to Normie.

Yet evil is not the whole name of the game in Rose Madder. It is more of a story about finding life-even in the shadow of death. Norman's wife Rose is a character for the ages (one of King's greatest creations)-and in spite of Norman-this is her story.

I don't want to give away too much of this wonderful story. Rose Madder is a masterpiece of gradual revelation. So rather than sucking the life out of it, I'll just make a few random comments:

First, I give this book my full recommendation. There are scenes of horrid nastiness here...yet there are also moments of great hope and beauty. King captures a great truth of life in this.

Rose Madder has some wonderfully developed minor characters (one of which becomes a big character in one of King's later novels-Desperation). One character-Gert, is my all time favorite "King" minor character. She sends Norman a great "message."

I must finally note that the audio version of this book is wonderfully done by both King (Norman's Perspective) and Blair Brown (Rose's Perspective). Rose Madder is certainly not King's most "important" or even representative novel. That said--it still gets my five stars.

ROSE MADDER has everything. It's:

a real life thriller, with real life horror
a story of courage and survival
a fantasy adventure
a love story
a dark comedy
a satirical look at the left liberal political community

I'm sure I could come up with more, given the time.

Rosie McClendon is a heroine who gains the reader's utmost sympathy with the insane horror of the abuse she has endured, and her courage in leaving despite her terror. As she builds a new life and digs out her true character, long buried by subjugation to her brutal husband, we admire her and enjoy her humor and spunk.

Norman Daniels, the viciously abusive husband she leaves, is one of the most terrifying, compelling, horrifyingly likeable, and darkly funny villians I can imagine. The sections written from his point of view are chilingly enjoyable. He sets out to find her by getting inside her head, "trolling," as he calls it. He imagines he is her, and does everything she would do, tracing her every step with deadly accuracy, leaving a trail of mutilated corpses in his wake.

When Norman acquires a hokey rubber bull mask at a carnival, uses it as a hand puppet and begins having conversations with it, well, we know he has really lost it. I found these scenes quite funny.

When the painting Rosie bought at a pawn shop turns out to be a doorway into a secret world, the novel takes a disconcerting leap from gritty reality to mythic fantasy. When Norman follows Rosie and new boyfriend Bill into the painting, Norm merges with the mask to become a sort of Minotaur.

Norman's crimes, and the cunning with which he stalks his prey, are only too believable. In a fully realistic novel, his end would be predictable - lifelong incarceration in a prison for the criminally insane, or getting killed somehow. Only in a fantasy world with the aid of supernatural figures is it possible to wreak satisfying vengeance for such crimes.

WOW! What a book. I had not read any Stephen King in years, not since The Tommyknockers was released. I think I managed to wade through half of that book, and then could stand no more of the same stuff he had churned out for years. But, what a difference a day, or in this case several years, makes.

I read this immediately following Bag of Bones, the best Stephen King I have ever read. After racing through that, Rose Madder was recommended to me, as being another King book that offered something different. Demons of a different kind. Demons of the past, but demons that were just as real as the creatures of his prior novels.

Rose, the novel's central character, extricates herself from an abusive marriage, and leaves her life behind to start over when she has finally had enough of her husband, Norman. Suffering physical and emotional torture for years, she finally summons the courage to run. Norman isn't quite so eager to split, though, not until he 'punishes' Rose for daring to mistreat him so.

Starting over in a new town, with a new life, and finding new life in herself, Rose sinks into a false security of relative anonymity. She finds an old painting in a junk shop, of a woman in a 'red' dress, which seems to call to her to buy it for her new apartment. The painting continues to haunt and mesmerize her, and eventually becomes her salvation, for just when she thinks she has escaped her former life, found a new career, and perhaps a new love, the demons of her past come back to haunt her, in the form of Norman, bent on making her pay for her 'crimes' against him.

This book blends just the right amount of fantasy with reality as the story builds to a rather climactic finish, as hunter becomes hunted, predator becomes prey.

This is one of the strongest King novels I can ever recall reading, and proof that his writing gets better with time. In Rose Madder, he takes a very different turn and explores real humans and their emotions just as vividly as his horrific creatures have been. I recommend this book to King fans and non-King fans alike.

...a touch of The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe!!

I enjoyed (if that's the right word) the concept of the story and felt that King seemed to have remarkable insight into what the main character, Rose was feeling. He rather scarily manages to get into the head of a psychotic abuser too.

However I just didn't feel very happy with the ending. I felt it had kind of lost it's way from the stark reality of most of the book to a vague unsatisfying surreal feel.

I would still recommend reading it, but the ending just left me feeling a little cheated.

King truly establishes himself as a writer when he does well at what a lot of male authors won't even attempt - he makes the main character a woman and really gets deep into the problems that women have. Books like Dolores Claiborne and Gerald's Game and this one, are the books that really make me adore Stephen King. He deals with the tough issues these women face or have faced. Most of the time it is some form of abuse that they had to go through, but that's fine. Those are really tough and serious issues and I admire Stephen for having the guts to write all that. Rose Madder is a brilliant tale of a woman who has had enough. She leaves her abusive husband in the middle of the day, and embarks on a life changing journey. The descriptions are vivid and flavorful, the characters believeable and likable, and the story line is one that only King could think of. I don't want to ruin it for you, so I'll just say that it is a very well written and enticing story. You won't be disappointed.

Sttephen Kings book "Rose Madder" is a book that combines, fantasy, reality, gore, and humor. This is the first Stephen King book I've ever read, and it scared me. It is one of the most chilling books on the market. The book takes off right from the beginning. The two main characters; Rose McClendon- Daniels, and Norman Daniels are definetly another couple having problems. What scared me the most about this book is how inhuman Norman Daniels seemed to be. I mean..laughing as your wife has a miscarrage..come on..thats sick.In some places this is a major grossout book, and in some places, scary, but funny, especially the confrontation between a hefty black woman named Gert, and the villian, Norman. Hilarious! I must say this; Stephen king has created a story that will chill you right down to the bone. Go buy this book today and prepare yourself to laugh, cry, hate, and be absolutely terrified.

Rose Madder is part of a group of King books I had yet not read. Well, I'm glad I did. Like his best efforts, it is character driven. And in Rose Daniels/McClendon King supplies one of the best characters in all the books I've read by him. On the dark side of things, her abusive husband is one of his darkest villains. What makes both so interesting is that they are also complex. Rose, whose innocence covers a core of rage; and Norman, who for all of his brutality, is ultimately pathetic. What King offers up is not a black and white universe. And of course there is a whole slew of lesser but well drawn characters that propel the story along.

As a novel, the plotting is pretty good. However, somewhere around page 400 I thought, from a pacing point of view, King should of wrapped things up. But that would of left out Norman's horrible Bacchae-like fate (which practically has you feeling sorry for him - some things Are worse than death), and an ending that did seem, though strangely cryptic, right. Some padding, but not nearly enough to give me Tommyknocker nightmares.

There is mention here from others about King's Dark Tower series, and the symbolism King employs in "Rose Madder." Since I have not read those books, I can't comment on how effectively that works. I am aware of King's statements regarding how he is trying to tie much of his work together in such a way it relates to the Dark Tower series. To some extent I think this is (in a number of cases) an after the fact effort by King - and a mistake. Whatever. By itself, the symbolism of "Rose Madder" Is somewhat confusing, but I think the real-world rooting of the story helps the reader skate over these areas fairly lightly, with entertainment trumping confusion. "Madder" does veer from a dark fairy tale beginning, into Greek mythology, and closes with what some might consider a Christian allegory. Basically, wrath is a deadly sin, and Norman's fate is linked to that fact. Rose herself is warned of her own susceptibility to anger - even if it is well justified. Rose's remembrance of the "tree" is simply a need to bury the past. Read tree here as "cross," but in a way that supercedes the earlier mythological meaning (King getting deep here). Otherwise, "Madder" will become madness, as the spider goddess (clearly Diana) warns Rose. Underscoring this Christian take on "Madder," is the goddess being restrained by Dorcas (see the New Testament). Good stuff, with King (successfully) stretching himself, while still operating within genre. Not an easy thing to do.

"I'm really Rosie, and I'm Rosie real... you better believe me, I'm a great big deal." Stepehn King has done it again. I have read almost everyone of King's novels and i would have to say that this ranks near #1. This is a great story of a woman named Rose Daniels/Rosie McClendon. She's a wife of fourteen years and has been abused by her husband almost since day one. Rosie finally gained enough courage to leave the abusive relationship and finds herself in a strange, new world. As her life is moving at a very good pace, she has no idea that her husband has begun a search. The way that King writes his characters in this novel makes them easy to love or to hate. Rosie's outgoing personality makes her prone to meet new people and find new experiences. Overall I would say that this book is a very good read,it keeps you in the book from day one, you never want to put it down. I would recommend reading this book to anyone.

Why incorporate supernatural events into a book without explaining them adequately? Rose Madder has a supernatural sequence weaved into the plot which leaves the reader astounded. The character development is terrific, and up until a picture comes to life, the book has a lot of potential, but bombs completely thereafter.

This was one of my favorite King books when I first read it the 'old-fashioned way,' page by page. It's a great story about a woman's newfound independence, and what she has to go through to acheive it. The story itself is worth the price.

When I listening to it as an audiobook, one finds that the reading can make or break the presentation. Fortunately, King teams up with Blair Brown, with Ms. Brown reading all of the parts told from Rose's perspective, and King reading the parts told from Rose's violent husband Norman's point of view.

Blair Brown is a wonderful reader for any book. I've gotten to the point where I'll listen to an audiobook just because she reads it, whether I'm really into the book or not. She brings an individual subtlety and life to each character, without making it corny or overdone. The fact that Rose, the main character, takes a job as a reader of audiobooks about midway in the novel makes it all the more fitting.

King has always read his own work well, and this is no exception. His parts, because they are the parts of the 'villain' are not always easy to listen to, but they are always well-performed. His reading style, surprisingly, works well with Brown's.

This is not an easy book. The subject matter is difficult, ranging from miscarriage to spousal abuse of the worst kind. The calculated nature of Norman's character makes it all the more disturbing. The plot has twists and turns like any of King's best novels, and despite a slight misstep at the end, still leaves the reader (or listener) pretty well-satisfied. The reading is as close to perfect as one could hope.

This is one of my favorite audiobooks, and a prize of my personal collection.