Stephen King, �Dolores Claiborne�
Stephen King has written about six hundred million books a month if my calculations are correct. So it stands to reason, as he can write the word �booger� for 500 pages and it will still be a best seller, that he would try and play with form and structure. For the most part, he doesn�t, content to write the same book over and over and become filthy stinking rich for it.
But for some reason, he decided to try something different for this book. In it, he takes a first person narrative, which isn�t much of a stretch, literary speaking. Instead of doing a standard first person perspective, however, he�s set this book as an interview. The words we�re reading are supposed to be like we�re sitting in the police interrogation room, listening to some old crank drone on about her husband.
I suppose it�s a neat trick — there are no chapter breaks, no shift in tone or time or confusing moments where you have to figure out which character�s head we�re listening to. But there�s a flaw in this style — this is all supposed to take place during one interview.
I don�t think he realized how long it actually takes people to talk, especially back east. I did a little test, reading one page of this book aloud and timing it — it took me just under two minutes. Now take an average of two minutes per page, and multiply it by the 305 pages in the book. We�re supposed to believe this broad talked for 610 minutes straight. That�s over 10 hours of non-stop talking.
Actually, by the time this book was finished, I did believe it. I just wanted her to shut the fuck up.
