Needful Things by Stephen King 7.8/10
Needful Things, the new store in Castle Rock, is causing quite the ruckus. Whatever your greatest desire, the object that would make your life complete, the enigmatic Leland Gaunt is sure to stock it. The price is reasonable as well, whatever you can afford, and a small favour for Mister Gaunt. The residents of Castle Rock are about to learn that paying the price does not mean there won’t be any hidden costs.
Plot: 8/10
A new shop opens in the small town of Castle Rock, Maine. The proprietor, Leland Gaunt, always has the perfect item in stock for any customer who enters his store. The prices are low, but he expects selected customers to prank someone in town for his amusement. Gaunt exploits the grudges, petty annoyances, and feuds between the townspeople. The inscrutable influence of Mr Gaunt and the series of escalating pranks pushes the town to the edge of self-destructive madness.
It takes a while to get going, Mr Gaunt plays the townspeople like a game of chess, each of them needs to be in a specific place, and Stephen King can only move one piece at a time. The plot is a slow ride, take it easy, enjoy the journey.
Characters: 8/10
The principal characters are memorable and unique, each of them has some interesting character trait or mannerism. In a town of 100 people, you would find 100 distinct personalities, temperaments, and beliefs. Despite this, when an outsider enters the town, they will inevitably see him as odd… different from the locals. People in small towns are like river rocks, they shape and move each other around until the town has a…. and I hate myself for using this word… gestalt personality all its own. A small town is more than a sum of its parts. Stephen King knows this, his characters are not identical, yet they all have some intangible resemblance to the other townspeople.
Stephen King takes his time with character development. The book is almost 1000 pages thick; he gave himself enough space to introduce the characters and their development at a leisurely pace. The multiple storylines are a nice touch. I should note that some characters develop “off-camera” as he jumps from one story to the next.
Setting: 7/10
The town of Castle Rock is more than the sum of its parts. The town itself is dull, but it is dull by design. The characters bring it to life.
Theme: 8/10
Deals with the devil, the darkness that lurks in us all, the fragility of civilised society. The theme of the book is positively Faustian… if Mephistopheles hung around afterwards and struck deals like a time-share sales agent.
Style and Mood: 8/10
If they scratched his name off the cover and handed me the book, I would still peg this as a Stephen King novel.
The mood of the novel reminds me of turtledoves. I hated Sundays when I was in kindergarten. I remember scratchy corduroy pants that would not bend, serious conversations about scary things I could not understand. It felt like the sermons lasted forever. After church, we would go to my grandparents’ house in a small town in North-West, South Africa. The town was infested with turtledoves. Their incessant “koer-koer” awoke in me a low-budget, half-assed melancholy. To this day I find the sound of a turtledove to be more haunting than the caw of a crow near my chamber window. This book feels like that, only worse. Castle Rock is one of those towns; diluted depression, a slight sense of futility, like a ghost town full of people.
Regarding the writing style, I have one note to future readers. You cannot take your time with this book. The multiple storylines demand your attention. Some scenes are remarkably long, and you are working with multiple plots. If you only read a couple of pages a day for 3 days, it could be four days since you last read about a specific character.
Total Score: 7.8/10
Another terrific book by Stephen King. You should read it.
Thank you for reading.
JJ
Comments