Dolores Claiborne (Hardcover)

~ (Author), penguin group (Editor), bill russell;1993 (Illustrator) "What did you ask, Andy Bissette?..." (more)
Key Phrases: slightest idear, pretty good idear, rollin pin, Vera Donovan, Little Pete, Little Tall (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

More of a mystery than a horror novel, Dolores Claiborne contains only the briefest glances at the supernatural. The novel presents Stephen King as a writer experimenting with style and narrative, time and perspective. Fans looking for a skin-crawling, page-turning fright or an undead bloodbath will be disappointed, but a patient reader willing to savor King's leisurely study of character and island life will find many rewards. And all of this is not to say that the book is without suspense.

The story unfolds in one continuous chapter, told in the first person by the cranky, 65-year-old housekeeper, Dolores, who is explaining to police officers and a stenographer how and why she killed her husband, Joe, 30 years ago. At the same time, in her rambling monologue, she insists that she did not kill her longtime employer, Vera Donovan--notwithstanding what the residents of Little Tall Island may be whispering. Joe was a drinker, and, as Dolores gradually argues, he deserved to die for the horrifying crimes he committed against his family. But Vera, despite her cantankerous disposition as a lady governing her decaying estate with her precise rules about even the most mundane household chore ("Six pins! Remember to use six pins! Don't you let the wind blow my good sheets down to the corner of the yard!"), was a good woman--or at least not an evil one. She was the woman who hired the young Dolores and kept her on even after Dolores got pregnant again. Dolores cleaned and cared for her even as the old matron faded into senility.

Dolores Claiborne is a rich novel that recalls the regionalist writing of the turn of the century. It is a fine place for a skeptical newcomer--put off by King's reputation for outright terror--to start. And for fans, it is a book that offers new insights into an author who's an old favorite. --Patrick O'Kelley --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

From Publishers Weekly

Described by the publisher as a companion piece to King's last book, Gerald's Game , this new novel surpasses it in every way, and shows that King, even without the trappings of horror and suspense, is a magnificent storyteller whose greatest strength has always been characterization. His sterling title character this time out is a Maine woman in her 60s who made a living as a housekeeper and now is under suspicion in the death of her senile employer, Vera Donovan, who fell down a flight of stairs. Did Dolores push her? Responding to the charges against her, Dolores recounts her life in a tightly woven narrative that is beguiling and touching at the appropriate moments. The friendship between these two lonely women "livin' on a little chunk of rock off the Maine coast" was the anchor of both their lives, and it soon becomes clear that Dolores didn't kill Vera. But she freely acknowledges--30 years after the fact--that she did kill her husband, Joe, during a solar eclipse on July 20, 1963, "my day for seein' eyes everywhere." Presenting Dolores's story in her own remarkable colloquial voice, King brings readers face to face with a goodhearted, lovable woman whose honesty is ultimately unforgettable. 1.5 million first printing; BOMC main selection.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Viking Adult; 1 edition (January 1, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0670844527
• ISBN-13: 978-0670844524
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 5.7 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (142 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #956,940 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Dolores Triumphant, October 10, 2002

By	sweetmolly (RICHMOND, VA USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

This review is from: Dolores Claiborne (Paperback)

Stephen King answers critics who dismissed him as a "slick, horror writer" with "Dolores Claiborne." Written as one long chapter in the first person, in vernacular, King develops a character so strong that you are under the spell of a master storyteller. Cantankerous, blunt but sly Dolores has lived a long hard life. She is neither good nor bad, but has a fierce will and love for her family and a willingness to fight any and every battle to protect them.

The story is a taped interview with the police who suspect Dolores of killing her elderly employer, Vera Donovan, for whom Dolores has served as a housekeeper for over 40 years. Dolores thinks she must confess that she killed her husband Joe over 30 years ago to explain why she could not have killed her employer. As the story rolls, you are fascinated with the interplay between Dolores and Vera. Vera is a match for Dolores, equally strong minded and diverse. (Dolores is convinced Vera went senile just to aggravate her.) Her story of her marriage to the vile drunken Joe and her stealthy plans to kill him are riveting. Dolores can't remember any reason she married him except he had a "smooth, clear forehead." She is stealthy, not because she fears any person on this earth; she just wants to spare her children the knowledge that she killed their father. Nothing goes quite according to plan, and even powerful Dolores suffers long periods of mental exhaustion.

"Delores Claiborne" without monsters or the supernatural and told in an uneducated but perceptive, voice is brilliant. This is one of Stephen King's finest works and well worth the read.
-sweetmolly-Amazon Reviewer

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "An accident is sometimes an unhappy woman's best friend.", February 16, 2004

By	Lawrance M. Bernabo (The Zenith City, Duluth, Minnesota) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)

This review is from: Dolores Claiborne (Paperback)

The conventional street wisdom is that the best movies adapted from Stephen King novels are the ones that do not mention they are adapted from Stephen King novels. Of course, if you look at the films "Stand By Me," "The Shawshank Redemption," and "Dolores Claiborne" as well as read the King stories they were based on, you would find that they are atypical works in that they do not have the supernatural elements we have expected from King ever since he published "Carrie." Consequently I am mulling over the idea that in some distant time there could be an emphasis on King's "non-horror" fiction that would study him as an example of a regional author and make an argument that even if he was the best selling author on the face of the planet at one time, that he was actually a decent written (i.e., the Charles Dickens of the 20th century).

"Dolores Claiborne" was written between October 1989-February 1992 (future generations of King scholars will have fun studying the overlap of his novels to create some tapestry of analytical insight) and the title character is a foul tempered, foul mouthed, old Yankee who has been living all her life on Little Tall Island off the coast of Maine. The novel is told in the first person by the 65-year-old Dolores, who has just been arrested for the murder of Vera Donovan, the even older richer lady who had been her longtime employer and who suddenly died in Dolores' care under extremely suspicious circumstances. In explaining what happened, Dolores not only tells her life story but also defends herself from the charge that she murdered Vera Donovan by explaining her involvement in the death of her husband Joe thirty years earlier on the day of the total eclipse.

It takes a while to get used to the way Dolores talks. Those who have seen Kathy Bates' captivating performance in the film are in no way prepared for how thick King lays on the accent and colloquialisms with Dolores as narrator. But after a while you get used to the missing letters or idiosyncratic spellings employed by Dolores and focus on the story. However, the murder mystery is just the hook for this novel, where the bigger mystery is the true nature of the relationship between Dolores and Vera. It was strange enough that Dolores came to work for Vera, but even stranger that she stayed for decades as the old lady began her descent into senility. Meanwhile, Dolores has been putting up with her drunken, abusive husband Joe. But while she puts up with anything Joe heaps upon her, she is more protective of their daughter Selena.

Ultimately, "Dolores Claiborne" is a character study and when the nature of the bond that was forged between Dolores and Vera is revealed, it is true to the characters and their situations. There is horror in this novel, but it comes from real human beings. This is not to suggest that King is making some sort of belated attempt to acknowledge real horror in the real world because those things have always been in his novels; they just get overshadowed by telekinetics, vampires, haunted hotels and the like. But this time there is nothing in the way and the bare boned approach serves both King and his characters well.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Gets you into the head of a strong woman, December 29, 2002

By	Michael Bird (Yorba Linda, CA United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Written in the POV of the title character, and in the local dialect, this story took me a couple of pages to get into, but after that, it was a page turner.

Dolores is a tough and gritty woman and much of the story recounts her dealing with the stern and often cruel woman that she works for during a thirty plus year time span, her abusive husband and the towns rumors that she might be a murderer.

After reading "On Writing" my first King book, I thought I'd try something else and this was a good place to start. I wasn't interested in reading King in the past because I once picked up "Cujo" and happened to turn to a page that was filled with gross descriptions of violence.

But since I enjoyed the movie adaptation of this book as well as several others King has written, I thought it was time to put aside my previous concerns and read one of his novels. I guess if your looking for horror, blood, and the supernatural this book probably won't be as enjoyable as you'd hoped, but it is an engaging story and the main character is likable. I was rooting for Dolores almost from the start.

I doubt many King fans would need to bother reading a review like this, so if you got this far and are wondering if you should give one of his books a try for the first time, I recommend this novel as a good place to start.