Bag of Bones: 10th Anniversary Edition (Paperback)

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Editorial Reviews

Review

What I admire most about Bag of Bones is its intelligence of voice, not only the craftsmanship -- the indelible sense of place, the well-fleshed characters, the unstoppable story line -- but the witty and obsessive voice of King's powerful imagination. It places both the ghost story and Stephen King in their proper place on the shelf of literary American fiction." -- Amy Tan

"Bag of Bones is, hands down, King's most narratively subversive fiction. Whenever you're positive -- just positive! -- you know where this ghost story is heading, that's exactly when it gallops off in some jaw-dropping new direction." -- Entertainment Weekly

Amy Tan

What I admire most about Bag of Bones is its intelligence of voice, not only the craftsmanship -- the indelible sense of place, the well-fleshed characters, the unstoppable story line -- but the witty and obsessive voice of King's powerful imagination. It places both the ghost story and Stephen King in their proper place on the shelf of literary American fiction.

Product Description

Ten years ago, Stephen King published Bag of Bones , a number one bestse ller, a tale of grie f, of love's enduring bonds, and the haunting secrets of the past .

Four years after the sudden death of his wife, forty-year-old bestselling novelist Mike Noonan is unable to write and plagued by vivid nightmares set at the Maine summerhouse he calls Sara Laughs. Mike reluctantly returns to the lakeside getaway and finds his beloved Yankee town held in the grip of a vindictive millionaire, Max Devore, who is trying to take his three-year-old granddaughter away from her widowed young mother, Mattie. As Mike is drawn into Mattie's struggle -- and begins to fall in love with her -- he is also drawn into the mystery of Sara Laughs, now the site of ghostly visitations and escalating terrors. What do the forces that have been unleashed here want of Mike Noonan?

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Product Details

• Paperback: 560 pages
• Publisher: Scribner; Reprint edition (October 21, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1439106215
• ISBN-13: 978-1439106211
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #266,697 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ten Years Later, October 21, 2008

By	Jamieson Villeneuve "Author at Large" (Ottawa Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I am enjoying what I think is perhaps Stephen King's best novel, ever.

The opinion on Stephen King's best work differs depending on who you talk to; but for me, it will always be Bag of Bones.

It's the one novel of Kings that I've read more than any other (nine times) and each time it's just as wonderful and beautiful and engaging as it was the first time I opened up my hardcover copy ten years ago.

I think it was the beginning of King moving away from horror and toward a more literary style of writing. Hearts in Atlantis, Lisey's Story and Duma Key (his most literary works) would come later, but Bag of Bones was the beginning of something, the capturing of time in the pages of a book.

I remember when I first read Stephen King's Bag of Bones. I was on welfare at the time and living in a boarding house with nine other people. It was this big sprawling Victorian house that still had the servants quarters in the attic and the servants stairs to the kitchen. I remember going to the bookstore early in the morning and spending more money than I had on the book.

Even though it was fall, I sat outside on the front porch of the big old house and opened my book to the first page. I remember smoking cigarettes and drinking coffee; but I don't remember much else except the words.

It was the words, the language that transported me.

I had thought that I was going to read a story of a writer haunted by ghosts. In a sense, that's what the book was about. But in reality, Bag of Bones was and is about a man haunted by himself, haunted by the past.

It was the most beautiful book by King that I had ever read. I felt for and ached for Mike Noonan, newly widowed writer of thriller novels. Newly struggling with a writers block so intense that he could not write a word.

I remember thinking when I brought that book home that it was so big, that it was huge. That it would take me forever to finish it (and thus worth the fourty some dollars I had spent on it).

The book lasted me three days.

Three glorious days where I was held spellbound, enraptured, in rapture. Bag of Bones for me was more than a novel. It was a gift. While reading Bag of Bones, I realized that I wanted to be a writer. I wanted to see if I could write something as good as Bag of Boens.

I'm still trying.

That hardcover copy was lent out, only to be lent out to someone else. It was lost to me, never to be seen again. And so, when the book came out in paperback, I bought a copy. I read that copy twice a year for many years, always saving it for a dark, rainy day. It somehow seemed appropriate, reading Bag of Bones when the rain was falling down around me.

It would call to me on my shelf, begging to be read. I swear I could hear the book sigh with contentment when I took it off the shelf and held it in my hands.

Not learning my lesson the first time, I lent it out to someone who either lost it or lent it out to someone else. It was never clear what happened to the book. Suffice it to say that I felt like I had lost a part of me. After all, it was Bag of Bones that showed me what I wanted to do with my life.

It's been a couple years since I've read Bag of Bones. So imagine my surprise when I saw a trade paperback edition on the shelves in the bookstore yesterday.

I had no reason being in the bookstore. I had little money but, when I saw Bag of Bones, sitting there nestled in between other paperbacks, I thought again of when I had first read the novel. I looked at the cover: 10th Anniversary Edition.

Ten years? That couldn't be right, I thought. It can't have been ten years. But I counted back and indeed it has been. Time flies when you're having fun. I picked up the book and stroked the cover lightly, letting the memories flood back into my consciousness.

It was not lost on me that I found myself in much the same situation as I did ten years ago: Staring at the gorgeous white cover with little money to my name but knowing that I would leave the store a few dollars poorer but all the more richer with that book under my arm.

And what a book it is. Bag of Bones reads as fresh ten years later as it did ten years past. What I love most about the novel, I think, is its gothic nature. Mike Noonan, trying to find the power to write again by delving into his past. As a writer myself, I identify with Mike, with his struggle. With his search for peace.

There is some bonus material enclosed: we get to read an interview about why Stephen King wrote Bag of Bones and learn a bit more about what he thinks of the novel. We also get a short story, The Cat From Hell, from Kings upcoming collection of short stories Just After Sunset which will hit the shelves on November 11th.

But for me, it's not the bonus material (though great it is) that makes the new edition of Bag of Bones so incredible. For me, then and now, it's about the story, the power of words and redemption from the ghosts of your past.

For, in the end, we are all bags of bones.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good Reading on Three Levels, December 8, 2008

By	John M. Ford "johnDC" (near DC, MD USA) - See all my reviews

I'll risk looking gushy and amateurish according to the standards of book reviewing (see The Slippery Art of Book Reviewing) by giving Bag of Bones 5 stars. So be it--I'll leave the literary analysis to those more qualified. I'll skip a plot summary, too, since there's a nice one-pager for this book on Wikipedia. Bag of Bones stands out from three different perspectives. If you connect with even one of them, the read is well worth your time.

First, it's a solid ghost story. The protagonist, Mike Noonan, begins by dealing with events in the natural world. Chief among them are his writer's block and the aching absence of his late wife. He gradually encounters the supernatural. We marshal our courage with him as he meets frightening people, both alive and dead. He has to figure out what to believe and who to trust. And we have to figure out the nuts and bolts of the author's supernatural world, what creatures inhabit it, and what they can do. What they can do to Mike--and how he can fight back.

Second, it's a typically good Stephen King story. There is a complexity in both the seen and unseen worlds that engages the reader. There are walk-on characters and passing references from his other works. These are enjoyable for experienced fans, but aren't necessary to enjoying the book or figuring out its supernatural world. There are few enough main characters that we can get to know them. And sufficiently many that the story can still go on after we lose some.

My third reaction is more personal. I read Bag of Bones about a year after my wife Lynnette passed away unexpectedly. I had gone through my numb, zombie phase and was beginning to function a bit more normally. Part of this was getting over sort of a "reader's block." I just couldn't read without her there. It's hard to explain, but I wouldn't have to explain it to someone who has been there. Or to Stephen King, it seems. I was helped--and impressed--by King's detailed understanding of the pain of losing a spouse. As far as I know, he has not been through this, making his skill as a writer more impressive for his having captured it so well.

He shows us how an interrupted life creates questions and doubts. Little things found in a pocketbook or closet raise questions that would be easily answered if they could be asked. Since they can't, we worry away at them, building them into patterns of greater worry. We do something similar as we relive old discussions, regretting small things we have said or left unsaid. King weaves these themes into the fabric of his story. As I appreciated them in the story, I also understood them better in my own world. I found some peace from this understanding that I am grateful for.

I recommend diving into this book, leaving the plot summaries and literary analysis for after the fresh first reading. It's good reading whether you huddle on the couch with a paperback or plug an audio book into your ear for comfort as you trudge alone along the cold paths of the winter night. It's good reading and good writing.

5.0 out of 5 stars superb, October 11, 2009

By	MichelleT. "natureartlvr" (oswego,il) - See all my reviews

Out of all the books I have happily read by Stephen King, this is my ultimate favorite! When I cannot put a book down to make dinner etc. I know it has captured my interest. I highly recommend it....