Cujo

I have read just about every Stephen King book. Cujo was the one novel from the early days that I had not finished before. This is my favorite period of King, early 70's - mid 80's. But Cujo doesn't work.

King has a great style. His prose is very simple, his words are conversational. King likes to string together story after story in creation of a larger one that holds them all together. In his work from the 90's on, his prose gets very long in the tooth. Its as if he has become unable to edit his own work with a critical eye. You can see early signs of this with Cujo. If I were editing this story, I would chop about a third of it out.

This is a hyper self involved story. You have a father/mother/young son at the core of the novel. You have a police officer/evil tennis pro/hick car repair guy/his wife/his son/next door neighbor/and more. The focus of the story drifts from one character to the next. Each one has DEEEP thoughts. They reflect on their lives in weighty repose. And this gets pretty old after a while.

King also pulls a 'boogy man', a 'monster' early on that is pretty interesting as a character, but this story line peters out. I have no idea why its there. Its sort of like if the story in 'Misery', (the one where some crazy lady holds a writer hostage)... if that story were started off with a vampire that was chasing the writer before he gets to that house. And then their is no longer a vampire mentioned ever again.

This is not kings finest work. I recently read Firestarter and that had a sweet start. the first 100 - 200 pages were perfect. And of course if you have not read them, Salems Lot, the Stand, or a short story collection like 'Skeleton Crew' are much better bets if you have not tried them before.

great read

Classic!! Don't read unless you have time to dedicate to it because you will not want to put it down.