{"id":556,"date":"2008-08-04T11:15:57","date_gmt":"2008-08-04T16:15:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/?p=556"},"modified":"2014-03-28T22:39:50","modified_gmt":"2014-03-29T03:39:50","slug":"duma-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2008\/08\/duma-me\/","title":{"rendered":"Duma Me"},"content":{"rendered":"

Book report: Duma Key<\/a><\/em> by Stephen King<\/p>\n

I can be a snob sometimes: I enjoyed most movies based on Stephen King novels but read nothing of his until seeing a short story or two early this decade in The New Yorker<\/em><\/a>. The plan’s not to catch up on everything he wrote, but so far I’ve enjoyed the early now-classics and recent books, including On Writing<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n

Cell<\/a><\/em> is normal King, a creature thriller set as a road story, great fun, hiding a societal satire. The much-praised Lisey’s Story<\/a><\/em> was nearly a standard novel: a woman resumes living after the premature death of a beloved spouse. An insight then became more manifest when I grabbed this year’s Duma Key,<\/em> another formal novel with a twist: The man can’t help adding a monster or ghost or giving a character a bit of the old telepathy. [King cannot be trying to hold his core audience — fans of the Dark Tower series aren’t getting near a 40-something woman dealing with her husband’s estate and her sisters.]<\/p>\n

Both Lisey and Duma would have been fine works as detailed character studies, bringing King critical praise from literary types. I don’t think King added the paranormal to thumb his nose at them. The old boy can’t help himself.<\/p>\n

Edgar Freemantle is an established Minnesota builder, an American success story, until a debilitating accident. He moves to Florida’s fictitious Duma Key<\/em> to recuperate not just from his injuries but what they brought: chiefly a divorce from his wife and a divorce from the life they built, forced to retire, one-armed, gimp leg, brain damage. Get a hobby, he’s advised, and he recalls he’d taken an art class or two in school. Edgar in his rent-house turns out to be a painting prodigy, but is his gift his own?<\/p>\n

Stephen King, by emphasizing that plot-question instead of keeping this pulpy gimmick a subplot, is being honest with using what he likes in storytelling. Every creativity-targeted how-to writing book, including his own, says write for yourself. (The other kind is market-oriented.) He dares infect a post-9\/11 saga with what may be zombies, refining the question to, Does he jeopardize the book’s integrity? The plot would collapse in the drafting of thousands of other writers.<\/p>\n

What I like about King is what the supernatural aspect represents. He is not a fiction writer who merely rearranges the deck chairs of his own life time after time, memoir pulled like taffy. That’s not to say the true fiction writer doesn’t use his own life; of course he does. King knows about convalescing from multiple injuries. As a subtext, the man has a lot to say in Duma about pulling work from the creative process. After skads of Oprah author interviews (except the Cormac McCarthy<\/a>), you’d think “let’s pretend” was a perversion past the point where sick sells so well. God bless Stephen King for believing in imagination.<\/p>\n

His On Writing<\/em> belongs with just a few other decent books of that sort, Anne Lamott’s and Natalie Goldberg’s, and the mighty godmother of them all, On Becoming a Writer<\/em><\/a> by Dorothea Brande.<\/p>\n

There’s one other book, and, today, gratitude must be expressed.<\/p>\n

Ten years ago today, My Beloved and I began the 12-week exercise program in The Artist’s Way<\/em><\/a> by Julia Cameron. It’s so important we mark the date on calendars, for it changed our lives.<\/p>\n

A few days earlier, an east Arkansas artist stayed the night at the B&B<\/a> we managed that year. She made bas relief renderings of homely houses and barns in painted clay, less than a foot in size. Her work sold pretty well in our gift shop. It was midweek, and she was the only guest (I’ve forgotten her name). The crafter evangelized about the book but in a no-nonsense way, or I would have politely disappeared into the laundry or kitchen. MB and I found a copy in a Eureka Springs bookshop and ordered a second on Amazon.com so we each could make notes in the margins.<\/p>\n

In what Cameron would call synchronicity, we were shopping for supplies in Fayetteville and saw a poster for an Artist’s Way class starting right away. We already were falling for Fayetteville, having to make frequent Sam’s Club trips, and we’d stay for a movie or a band at a club. The teacher<\/a>, our fellow students and most important the friends<\/a> of all these folks quickly made us family. And family’s for keeps.<\/p>\n

What’s this have to do with King? Art teacher Betty Edwards<\/a> says a lucky few figure out on their own how to paint (or write), but the rest of us, if we want, can start with learning blind contour drawing. Cameron teaches contour writing. King’s a natural.<\/p>\n

You can find good lessons everywhere, but when you find a hot spot loaded with them, why not lock it in.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Book report: Duma Key by Stephen King I can be a snob sometimes: I enjoyed most movies based on Stephen King novels but read nothing of his until seeing a short story or two early this decade in The New Yorker. The plan’s not to catch up on everything he wrote, but so far I’ve […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[19,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-556","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mr-boo-klist","category-course-of-words"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":289,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2007\/03\/a-driving-walking-ramble\/","url_meta":{"origin":556,"position":0},"title":"A Driving, Walking Ramble","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"March 4, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Not every book works well as an audio. If it's adequate, it may not be a successful work-commute diversion. For most of eight years, I've had a long-enough drive (20 minutes one way) where audio books are more satisfying than, public radio. Spoken word holds the attention better than even\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Technical Difficulties"","block_context":{"text":"Technical Difficulties","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/briefs\/technical-difficulties\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1741,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2010\/01\/positive-positions-perhaps\/","url_meta":{"origin":556,"position":1},"title":"Positive Positions Perhaps","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"January 6, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"\"Think, men, think.\u201d \u2014 Prof. Harold Hill, The Music Man New Year's Resolution No. 1 for 2010 is modest: Keep a book list. Then in a year there'll be a better best books Brick. One could say that if the books I read were memorable then I'd remember 'em. It's\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Mr. Boo Klist"","block_context":{"text":"Mr. Boo Klist","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/mr-boo-klist\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2059,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2010\/07\/finally-a-book-list\/","url_meta":{"origin":556,"position":2},"title":"Finally, a Book List","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"July 6, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"This is a list, a record, an accounting. Dull in some lights, if not pretentious, condescending and childish: Look at what I've been reading, Mommy!\u00a0But in recent years, I've heard of more people keeping lists of books they've read. I've enjoyed looking at them. Nick Hornby's is a feature in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Mr. Boo Klist"","block_context":{"text":"Mr. Boo Klist","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/mr-boo-klist\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2263,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2010\/10\/but-seriously-folks\/","url_meta":{"origin":556,"position":3},"title":"But Seriously, Folks","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"October 1, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"The following is my column for the October 2010 edition of the monthly newsletter of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists. Defining and analyzing humor is a pastime of humorless people.\" -- Robert Benchley To avoid betraying my idol, Mr. Benchley, I'll rationalize. This is not analysis but a lesson\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The Course of Words"","block_context":{"text":"The Course of Words","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/course-of-words\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2423,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2010\/11\/third-quarter-i\/","url_meta":{"origin":556,"position":4},"title":"Third Quarter, I","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"November 7, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Four months ago, I entered here in Brick for the record a list of books I read or started to read, or heard or started to hear, for the entire year 2010, to date. You can stop here, this is just for me. There will be mini-reviews, though, for reference\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Mr. Boo Klist"","block_context":{"text":"Mr. Boo Klist","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/mr-boo-klist\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":286,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2007\/02\/my-575-worth-matinee-price\/","url_meta":{"origin":556,"position":5},"title":"My $5.75 worth (matinee price)","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"February 26, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"It was disappointing tonight to see The Departed and Martin Scorsese win Best Picture and Best Director. I know that's against the grain; these were universally predicted. 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