Title: Dolores Claiborne
Author: Stephen King
Type: Fiction
Page Count/Review Word Count: 308
Rating: 4*/5
Stephen King – Dolores Claiborne
Dolores Claiborne is interesting because the entire book is essentially the narrative of a woman who’s been arrested for murder. We join her in the interview room at the local police station as she explains what happened, and I can’t actually tell you too much more than that without spoiling the plot.
What’s cool here is that despite the entire book being essentially just Dolores’ dialogue, it actually adds to the characterisation at a whole. It’s almost like the ultimate unreliable narrator, but it’s also impressive to see how strong the characterisation was. Considering all of the characterisation had to be conveyed by Dolores’ dialogue, I think he did a pretty strong job.
Similarly, King deployed dialect to great effect, and the way that Dolores speaks is itself a great little indicator of her personality, her upbringing and other key characteristics. Honestly, I found her to be a highly likeable character, and I was impressed by her resilience and how she stood up for what she believed in, even if that did lead to her spending time in the interview room at the station.
Overall then, this is a solid book and very much worth reading. It’d actually make a pretty decent introduction to Stephen King’s work as a whole, partly because it’s relatively easy to read and it doesn’t take a huge time commitment. But on top of that, it touches on themes like domestic abuse and alcoholism that crop up elsewhere. The good thing is that he doesn’t tackle those subjects just for the sake of doing it but rather because they’re integral parts of the story line, and it’s also a story of empowerment, in a way. I mean, Delores is pretty badass. What a character.
Stephen King
John Williams – Stoner | Review
Title: Stoner
Author: John Williams
Type: Fiction
Page Count/Review Word Count: 298
Rating: 5/5
I wasn’t too sure what to expect from this, and I basically picked it up because I saw a beautiful copy of it in a charity shop and then kept it on my shelves for a while until my BookTube friend Mara mentioned she was picking it up and I asked her if she fancied a buddy read.
I’m glad that it gave me the motivation to pick this up, because it turned out to be pretty much the perfect novel. Sure, it was bleak and sad throughout, but I like that from books and so I wasn’t exactly complaining. I also thought it did an excellent job of telling the story of Stoner’s life from start to finish.
If you’re looking for a plot-driven read then you should probably look elsewhere, because that’s not what this is. The good news is that I tend to prefer plot-driven reads to character-driven reads, but I thought this was fantastic despite my personal preferences, so there might still be hope for you.
I think what Williams did well was to show some very human characteristics in some very flawed characters. I even liked reading about Edith, Stoner’s wife, even though she was kind of a terrible person. Because she was a part of Stoner’s story and we follow his wife from start to finish, we can see how she becomes the way she ends up being. The same is true of his daughter, too.
Then there’s the commentary on the first and the second world wars, and you really feel their impact in the small community of Stoner’s university. This is a contender for my top ten books of the year.
Click here to buy Stoner.