Dolores Claiborne
Stephen King

By her own account she's an old Yankee bitch, Dolores Claiborne: foul temper, foul mouth, foul life. Folks on Little Tall Island have been waiting thirty years to find out just what happened on the eerie dark day her husband, Joe, died - the day of the total eclipse. The police want to know what happened yesterday, when rich, bedridden Vera Donovan, the island's grande dame sans merci and Dolores's longtime employer, died suddenly in her care.
With no choice but to talk, Dolores Claiborne talks up a storm. "Everything I did, I did for love," she says, as this spellbinding novel is at once her confession and her defense. Given a voice as compelling as any in contemporary fiction, her story centers on a disintegrating marriage's molten core, where the mind's unblinking eye becomes huge with hate and a woman's heart turns murderous. It unfolds the strange intimacy between Dolores and Vera, and the link that binds them. It shows, finally, how fierce love can be, and how dreadful its consequences. And how the soul, harrowed by the hardest life, can achieve a kind of grace.

This book is really not at all like the type of Stephen King novel that I am used to. There's no element of the supernatural, there's no horror, no terror, and only a small bit of suspense. This novel is about the tale of a woman, her decaying marriage to a drunk man who not only beats her but also abuses their children, and her choice to kill him. It's also about her relationship with her boss (she cleans house for this woman) and the fact that this time, Dolores had nothing to do with a death. Even though things look bad for her, she would never have harmed her employer. They were too much alike and a "bunch of old bitches".

The writing is in the tone of the narrator, Dolores, and so it's a little difficult to read it because of the improper English. However, this does also add flavor because you end up reading it in her voice.

The one thing that bothered me about this novel was the fact that is has absolutely no breaks or chapters, which makes it very difficult to find a proper stopping point.

In general, this is an interesting read, but I do believe that a lot of younger people would find it boring and not much like the King they're used to.

Would I recommend it? Maybe. Just know that you're reading a story about a woman and her trials when you're going into it.

My rating: Three out of five snails.