Rating: 5.0
What it's about:
BUT ALSO A SLOT FOR BLACKNESS TO POUR THROUGH...
A terrible accident takes Edgar Freemantle's right arm and scrambles his memory and his mind, leaving him with little but rage as he begins the ordeal of rehabilitation. When his marriage suddenly ends, Edgar begins to wish he hadn't survived his injuries. He wants out. His psychologist suggests a new life distant from the Twin Cities, along with something else:
"I used to sketch."
"Take it up again. You need hedges...hedges against the night."
Edgar leaves for Duma Key, an eerily undeveloped splinter of the Florida coast. The sun setting into the Gulf of Mexico calls out to him, and Edgar draws. Once he meets Elizabeth Eastlake, a sick old woman with roots tangled deep in Duma Key, Edgar begins to paint, sometimes feverishly; many of his paintings have a power that cannot be controlled. When Elizabeth's past unfolds and the ghosts of her childhood begin to appear, the damage of which they are capable is truly devastating.
The tenacity of love, the perils of creativity, the mysteries of memory and the nature of the supernatural -- Stephen King gives us a novel as fascinating as it is gripping and terrifying.-taken from Barnes&Noble.com
My thoughts:
Edgar Freemantle loses an arm and almost his life in an accident at his construction site. He's left with a 'phantom' limb and an ability to paint. Edgar's wife leaves him and his two daughters are grown so he decides that the change of scenery his doctor recommends sounds pretty good. He's got nothing left to lose....except maybe his sanity. He moves down to the Florida Keys...namely Duma Key. He rents a big pink house literally right on the Gulf Coast and meets a couple of very interesting characters who live down the beach. This is where Edgar discovers his new found artistic talent. This is where he starts effecting reality with his paints. This is where he learns about the Eastlake family from down the beach and how a little girl named Elizabeth once made birds fly upside down and lawn jockeys come to life with her own paintings. Duma Key is magical and horrifying all at once.
Duma Key seems somehow more mature and mellow than his other novels. Maybe it's the change of scenery but this book just seems different. The horror in the novel is more subtle I think and more emphasis is placed on the mystery surrounding the storyline. The storyline by the way is very intriguing....I will file this book under page-turner for sure! I won't go into details about the characters but I will say that the relationship between Edgar and the neighbor man down the beach, Wireman, is beautiful and affecting. Wireman is going down as one of my favorite characters in a King novel. Longtime fans of King as well as people just looking for an eerie and wonderful story should be impressed with Duma Key.
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