Duma Key

A Novel

by Stephen King

Hardcover, 611 pages

English language

Published Jan. 28, 2008 by Scribner.

ISBN:: 978-1-4165-5251-2
OCLC Number:: 966533360

View on OpenLibrary

(9 reviews)

From the Flap:

NO MORE THAN A DARK PENCIL LINE ON A BLANK PAGE. A HORIZON LINE, MAYBE, BUT ALSO A SLOT FOR BLACKNESS TO POUR THROUGH . . .

A terrible construction site accident takes Edgar Freemantle's right arm and scrambles his memory and his mind, leaving him with little but rage as he begins the ordeal of rehabilitation. A marriage that produced two lovely daughters suddenly ends, and Edgar begins to wish he hadn't survived the injuries that could have killed him. He wants out. His psychologist, Dr. Kamen, suggests a "geographic cure," a new life distant from the Twin Cities and the building business Edgar grew from scratch. And Kamen suggests something else.

"Edgar does anything make you happy?"
    "I used to sketch."
"Take it up again. You need hedges . . .
    hedges against the night."

Edgar leaves Minnesota for a rented house on Duma Key, …

From the Flap:

NO MORE THAN A DARK PENCIL LINE ON A BLANK PAGE. A HORIZON LINE, MAYBE, BUT ALSO A SLOT FOR BLACKNESS TO POUR THROUGH . . .

"Edgar does anything make you happy?"
    "I used to sketch."
"Take it up again. You need hedges . . .
    hedges against the night."

Edgar leaves Minnesota for a rented house on Duma Key, a stunningly beautiful, eerily undeveloped splinter of the Florida coast. The sun setting into the Gulf of Mexico and the tidal rattling of shells on the beach call out to him, and Edgar draws. A visit from Ilse, the daughter he dotes on, starts his movement out of solitude. He meets a kindred spirit in Wireman, a man reluctant to reveal his own wounds, and then Elizabeth Eastlake, a sick old woman whose roots are tangled deep in Duma Key. Now Edgar paints, sometimes feverishly, his exploding talent both a wonder and a weapon. Many of his paintings have a power that cannot be controlled. When Elizabeth's past unfolds and the ghosts of her childhood begin to appear, the damage of which they are capable is truly devastating.

The tenacity of love, the perils of creativity, the mysteries of memory and the nature of the supernatural--Stephen King gives us a novel as fascinating as it is gripping and terrifying.

26 editions

Kadomi reviewed Duma Key by Stephen King

Review of 'Duma Key' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

I have been a Stephen King fan for many years. I think I was 15 when I read my first King, It, followed by Misery. I then read his full back catalogue at the time. I have to admit that the only books of his that don't work for me at all are The Dark Tower ones. They never clicked, but I still intend to try again, eventually.

In recent years, I always felt the quality of his work decline. Some of his least favorites for me are From a Buick 8, The Girl who loved Tom Gordon and Dreamcatcher. The last book I truly loved was Hearts of Atlantis. But enough of my King backstory.

Duma Key is written from the first person view of Edgar Freemantle, a man in his 50s who had a terrible accident. His car was crushed by a crane on one of his construction sites, causing him to lose his right arm, some of his memory and his temper. In order to recover and find himself again, he moves to Florida, to a small island called Duma Key, where he discovers art. Until his art turns sinister.

That's about the plot. It builds slowly, and from the start King uses heavy amounts of foreshadowing that just keep you reading. Everything seems idyllic, and yet at the same time not. You know bad shit's about to happen, and it does. The book very closely reminded me of The Shining in its way. A similarly deserted setting, though not quite as deserted as the Overlook Hotel, and the protagonist discovers his calling. There are dead people and mysteries of the past to be solved, to find out what really happened on the island of Duma Key. It was also vaguely reminiscent of Pet Sematary at the end of the book.

The pacing seems off a bit, there are long stretches where nothing but character building and exposure happen, and then the last part turns a bit frantic.

Ultimately, I thought it was great entertainment. I enjoyed the characters, though I sometimes thought Wireman was irritating, and Jack seemed a bit of a pale cardboard sidekick. It's no second The Shining, despite my earlier comparison, but if you enjoy Stephen King, you might enjoy this book of his as a return to old form.