Insomnia

Derry, Maine, is the setting for some very weird goings-on, and two old-timers are the only ones to see them. King's thriller is ably read by Eli Wallach. On the whole, his characterizations are very good, and the hero, Ralph Roberts, is perfect. The packaging of three tapes to a small box is handy in a car. However, the strange musical interludes come up so suddenly in the narrative that they sound like the police in pursuit; the car might not be the best place to listen to this book. Nonetheless, given the length of the story and the excellent narration, Insomnia is very good in audio. S.F.W. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine

Starred review from October 3, 1994
Forget the lean, mean King of Misery, Gerald's Game and Dolores Claiborne. This is the other King-the Grand Vizier of Verbosity who gave us It, The Tommyknockers and Needful Things. There's much of everything in these 800 pages, including the worthy. Notable is a rare septuagenarian hero, recently widowed Ralph Roberts, whose broodings on old age immerse readers into the aging psyche almost as clearly as other King heroes have revealed the minds of children. Then there's the slam-bang final 300 pages, in themselves a novel's worth of excitement as Ralph battles demonic entities to prevent a holocaust in his small town of Derry, Maine (site of It). The problem is that the finale is preceded by more than a novel's worth of casual, even tedious buildup: Ralph's growing insomnia; his new ability to see auras around all living things; his dismay as Derry's citizens divide violently over the impending visit of a radical pro-lifer; his slow realization that celestial forces have marked Derry as a battleground between good and evil. King remains popular fiction's most reliable mirror of cultural trends, in particular our continuing love affair with horror (Barker and Koontz are palpable influences here). If this novel were liposuctioned, it would rank among King's best; as is, it's another roly-poly volume from a skilled writer who presumes his readers' appetite for words is more gourmand than gourmet. 1,500,000 first printing; $1 million ad/promo; paperback rights to Signet; simultaneous audio release from Penguin Highbridge; BOMC selection.