Lisey's Story

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Title Lisey's Story

Cover of Lisey's Story
Author Stephen King
Country Flag of United States USA
Language English
Genre(s) Fantasy, horror
Publisher Scribner
Released October 24, 2006
Media type Print (Hardcover)
Pages 528 pages
ISBN 978-0743289412

Lisey's Story is a novel by Stephen King. It was released on October 24, 2006.

Contents

[edit] Plot summary

Lisey (Lee-Cee) Landon is the widow of an award winning novelist, Scott Landon. In the middle of cleaning out Scott's study, Lisey realizes that there's a great deal about Scott's past (and the past they shared together) that she has blocked out--and with the introduction of a crazy man named Dooley, Lisey must figure out what she's hidden from herself (and what Scott has planned for her) if she's to remain alive.

[edit] Connections to other works by King

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Lisey's Story, like many of King's novels, takes place in Maine--in this case Castle Rock, a fictional town created by King.

Derry Home, the hospital in Derry, and Arcadia Mental Health, the mental hospital in Derry, are both mentioned in Lisey's Story. Derry is a major landmark in several of King's works (including It, Insomnia and Bag of Bones), and is in close proximity to the main location of Lisey's Story.

Near the end of Lisey's Story, the reader discovers that Dooley was born in Shooter's Knob, Tennessee. In King's 1990 story "Secret Window, Secret Garden," Mort Rainey is confronted by a man named Shooter from Mississippi; he was named because of Mort's ex-wife's new lover - also from the South - who grew up in Shooter's Knob.

While driving to her sister Amanda's house, Lisey crosses Deep Cut Road, a major landmark in King's novel Dreamcatcher.

Lisey's sister Darla waves Lisey's offer of company on the drive back to see Amanda, saying that she has a Michael Noonan novel on audio cassette that she can listen to. Mike Noonan was the lead character of King's 1998 novel, Bag of Bones.

At one point Scott says, "Hi-yo-smuckin-Silver" - In King's novel It, "Hi-yo Silver!" is what Bill Denbrough liked to yell as he sped through Derry on his bicycle.

Lisey compares her resurfacing memories to events happening "on some level of time's great tower," and also mentions "Gilead" (a location in the series) as a nearby town.

When discussing treatment at a nearby hospital, the option of "Kingdom" is offered.

Lisey calls the police looking for Norris Ridgewick and insteads gets Andy Clutterbuck. Both these characters played supporting roles in Needful Things. This reference is strange, considering that Andy Clutterbuck, an alcoholic widower, is said to have died (by drowning) two years after the events of "Needful Things." "Needful Things" takes place in the early 1990's.

Lisey thinks of her husband as having "lit out for The Territories" as part of a list of cliches for his death. In The Talisman and Black House, "The Territories" is the name of the alternate universe which the hero is pulled into.

[edit] Trivia

  • King's use of the term 'gomer' is a reference to Samuel Shem's The House of God. According to a character in Lisey's Story, a gomer is a catatonic person; in The House of God, a gomer is used to describe a very ill hospital patient who frustrates the staff by being "too old to die." 'Gomer' is an acronym for Get Out of My Emergency Room.
  • A short excerpt from the first chapter, in King's own handwriting, was included in his previous novel, Cell. The second chapter, titled "Lisey and the Madman," was published in McSweeney's Enchanted Chamber of Astonishing Stories. The version in McSweeney's is considerably different from the one in the final version. Among the differences is a Dark Tower reference; Scott Landon states "Discordia rises", a reference to the Crimson King's brand of evil. In the finished novel, however, the reference is absent.
  • King often references musicians and bands in his writing; in Lisey's Story, the pool is widened after his discovery of younger bands (which he has written about in his Entertainment Weekly article, The Pop of King). Here, Bright Eyes and My Chemical Romance are referenced--with Bright Eyes being alluded to as the preferred of people who take themselves too seriously.
  • Much like the King's previous novel Cell, he tends to use the conjunction "but" more often than in his previous works.

[edit] External links

v • d • e
Stephen King's bibliography

Novels:

Carrie (1974)
’Salem's Lot (1975)
Rage (as Richard Bachman) (1977)
The Shining (1977)
The Stand (1978; revised edition, 1990)
The Dead Zone (1979)
The Long Walk (as Richard Bachman) (1979)
Firestarter (1980)
Cujo (1981)
Roadwork (as Richard Bachman) (1981)
The Dark Tower I: The Gunslinger (1982; revised edition, 2003)
The Running Man (as Richard Bachman) (1982)
Christine (1983)
Pet Sematary (1983)
Cycle of the Werewolf (1983)
The Talisman (1984, written with Peter Straub)
Thinner (as Richard Bachman) (1984)
It (1986)
The Eyes of the Dragon (1987)
Misery (1987)
The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three (1987)
The Tommyknockers (1988)
The Dark Half (1989)
Needful Things (1990)
The Dark Tower III: The Waste Lands (1991)
Gerald's Game (1992)
Dolores Claiborne (1993)
Insomnia (1994)
Rose Madder (1995)
The Green Mile (1996)
Desperation (1996)
The Regulators (as Richard Bachman) (1996)
The Dark Tower IV: Wizard and Glass (1997)
Bag of Bones (1998)
The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon (1999)
Dreamcatcher (2001)
Black House (2001, written with Peter Straub)
From a Buick 8 (2002)
The Dark Tower V: Wolves of the Calla (2003)
The Dark Tower VI: Song of Susannah (2004)
The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower (2004)
The Colorado Kid (2005)
Cell (2006)
Lisey's Story (2006)
Blaze (2007)
Duma Key (TBA)

Non-fiction:

Danse Macabre (1981)
Nightmares in the Sky (1988)
On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft (2000)
Secret Windows: Essays and Fiction on the Craft of Writing (2000)
Faithful: Two Diehard Boston Red Sox Fans Chronicle the Historic 2004 Season (2005, written with Stewart O'Nan)

Short fiction:

Night Shift (1978, collection)
Different Seasons (1982, collection)
Skeleton Crew (1985, collection)
Dark Visions (with George R. R. Martin and Dan Simmons) (1988, collection)
"Dolan's Cadillac" (1989, chapbook)
"My Pretty Pony" (1989)
Four Past Midnight (1990, collection)
Nightmares & Dreamscapes (1993, collection)
"Umney's Last Case" (1995, booklet)
Six Stories (1997, limited edition collection)
"The New Lieutenant's Rap" (1999, chapbook)
Hearts in Atlantis (1999, collection)
"Riding the Bullet" (2000, ebook)
Everything's Eventual: 14 Dark Tales (2002, collection)

Audiobooks:

L.T.'s Theory of Pets
Blood and Smoke (2000)
Stationary Bike (2006)

Other:

The Dark Tower series and comics
The Bachman Books (novel collection) (1985)
The Plant (2000)
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