Duma Key

Duma Key Duma Key, a fictional island off the west coast of Florida is the main setting for the novel, though it opens in Minnesota. The story begins after Edgar Freemantle, a Minneapolis based construction company owner has a near fatal accident. Left disabled and with brain injuries that cause problems with his memory among other things, Edgar divorces his wife (with what is a rather amusing scene which goes something along the lines of: “Get out, you quitting birch!” “The word‘s bitch!” .) On the advice of a psychologist, he chooses to relocate, moving to a privately owned Island off the coast of Florida. Settling into the house, Edgar finds himself becoming a new person, and in becoming a new person he starts to paint. To cut a long story short and to avoid spoilers, Edgar’s new hobby causes him more than a little bit of trouble.

As stated in the description, I found the plot captivating. I thought the book, compared to the previously published Cell, was well written. I liked the breaks between chapters entitled ‘How To Draw A Picture’, which often contained beautiful quotes. I also, liked the pace of the novel, nice and slow at the start it got faster in the middle and the end was a brilliant rush of action and emotion that kept me reading until I’d finished the very last page. From the general overview of critics opinions, the thoughts on the pace were mixed, though the general consensus was that Duma Key really kind of killed the idea that King was losing the spark that had made him such a sensational writer.

So now, its time to discuss characters. When reading King’s material, certain characters stand out, almost to the stage of being iconic. Examples would be The Dark Tower’s Roland Deschain, the character of Randall Flagg (also known as Walter O’Dim, Marten Broadcloak and The Walking Dude) who appeared in various novels including The Stand and the Crimson King, the villain of Insomina who, like Flagg appeared in other works. Many of King’s characters however are rather bland, say, for example Susan from ‘Salem’s Lot or Alice from Cell, both examples of characters that are just there. Duma Key has its mix of both these character types, Ilse Freemantle is one character who just doesn’t do it for me. She’s the damn Susan Norton of the novel. Though she is a good character at moving the plot along at certain points. I really, really don’t want to focus all that much on the characterization of many of the characters, in fact, possibly the ‘iconic’ character of the novel, and hands down favourite of mine is the one character I’m going to really discuss.

Jerome Wireman, better known, predictably as Wireman is possibly one of my favourite book characters ever. When he was first introduced he irritated me, as in big time, I just couldn’t stand him, but as the novel progressed the character was explored. I grew to love his personality which was caring yet in ways strict, kind of like someone’s dad. He also had the eccentric edge, though the word insane may really cover it better depending on how you perceive him. I am a sucker for cocky characters, which, though it isn’t in your face, Wireman essentially is that character and as he, and his past unravelled which each new chapter I grew more and more intrigued. I think, though maybe not on the same level as some of King’s better characters (that’s to say, what characters could ever beat Randall Flagg?) Wireman is defiantly a favourite of mine.

In terms of horror, like a lot of King novels, this isn’t terrifying. It, as usual, is psychological. I don’t know if it would have the same effect on others that it had on me and friends who recommended it to me. This is purely down to geography. I’m not from Florida, but, I do live on the coast and horror stories about the sea have unnerved me since I was a child. When my older sister said “oh yeah, they’re right you should read it because it’s all underwater-y and creepy” I was a little apprehensive. Certain scenes from the novel left me unnerved, one night, I found myself unable to roll over, convinced something from the book would be behind me. Irrational, but then again I have an overactive imagination. Another element from the novel, which I won’t name as its kind of a spoiler similarly freaked me out as the object in question, the object that is causing the misfortune on the Island, is something that I find rather creepy.

Duma Key was the first of four King novels to creep me out on any level, all of them creeped me out for personal reasons, (childhood fears and whatnot) as opposed to the nature of them. However, regardless of that, I would recommend this novel to anyone and everyone. Not because I think it would unnerve them, as I said before, I think my being a little scared was heavily influenced by location. I would rec it for the wonderful plot and for its nice twists. The way King uses pace, and I think the appropriate word I’m looking for is adrenaline to keep the reader hooked in. It is foreboding and emotional which again, adds to hooking a reader in, but, most of all I’d rec this for the characters, who, with the exception of the bland ones are really likable this goes from Wireman through to the protagonist Edgar, right through to Alzheimers sufferer, Elizabeth. If giving this a rating out of ten it easily gets a nine, seeing as certain characters really let it down for me.

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