Making fridge magnets spooky
What if death drives us insane? What if we survive, but it drives us insane? What then?
Stephen King, Bag of Bones
One of King’s strongest aspects in his writing is his sense of place. Though there are of course many exceptions, Maine is the character to whom he has returned to most. Like Alan Moore with Northampton, HP Lovecraft with Providence, du Maurier with her beloved Cornwall, all authors who write with such a strong sense of place and excavate their geographical history seem to both to love it and be repulsed by it. With Bag of Bones, King seems interested in excavating what he sees in Maine, in life and death and beyond.
In some ways, King makes discussion of this book easier than others. The frequent references to Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier set the tone for the book, and explicitly making it a ghost story in the same tone as his short story The Reach from Skeleton Crew. King seems particularly focused on making sure the description of the lush Maine lake life is prominent; I’m not sure there has ever been a stronger sense of place in his other books on a sensual level. All of this focuses in on the main location of the book: Sara Laughs.
The house, though not as lush as Manderlay is still a focal point of the book’s primary meditation on grief. In actuality, this book feels more like it is conversation, and in part a rebuke, to the message of Pet Sematary. In that, the characters are driven mad by death. Death consumes them, and as a result they cannot move on. Mike Noonan, best selling author (thus fully and finally breaking King’s promise made in Secret Window, Secret Garden!) is not consumed by death, but is struggling to process his grief. Him finding new life and meaning with Mattie and Kyra shows that there is hope after all. Life doesn’t stop with death. But nor is death forgotten. Much like Manderlay is filled with reminders of the first Mrs de Winter, Sara Laughs still retains the memories of Jo, Mike’s dead wife. du Maurier was a hell of a writer, and King invoking her presence certainly sets himself quite the literary gauntlet. And for much of it, particularly how it explores lead bag of bones Mike Noonan, it succeeds.
Much of the book is about how Mike Noonan is able to process and begin to move on from his grief, not allowing Jo’s death to be the sole meaning of his life. To regurgitate that journey here would be pointless, but those parts of the book are some of King’s strongest character work for his bag of bones. That this is a rare example of King writing in the first person probably helps go some way to get the reader to go on the journey that Mike does throughout the book, as well as in keeping that that best ghost stories are read aloud on Christmas evening. King even does the audiobook, making Noonan’s tale that much more personal. Death is a debilitating event for anyone to go through (particularly the person it happens to!), and grief does cause people to lose a part of themselves. Mike’s loss of Jo kills a part of himself that takes four years to recover, and even then there is still more loss. To begin with, it defines him. It isn’t until he begins to emerge that he finds meaning again.
Returning to the idea of King’s love of Maine however, it is important to look at the story of Sara Tidwell, a black singer from the beginning of the twentieth century who was raped and murdered and then never spoken of again in the tiny town of TR-90. King has explored the dark histories of Maine before, but those were writ large across entire towns. This, focused entirely as it is on King’s own Manderlay, makes the violence all the more horrific and impactful, especially considering how quiet the rest of the book is. Though King has a love for the beauty that Maine provides, he is not ignorant of the darkness the exists often still within living memory, even in a no name town like TR-90. Maine isn’t defined by its darkness, but much like Mike Noonan, it cannot be forgotten either.
One interesting aspect happens late in the game, where Sara’s vengeful spirit is possessed by some mysterious Outsider. King fans I am sure would love to draw a link between the non-corporeal form of the Outsider with the later book The Outsider, but I think that does more to diminish what King is trying to do by invoking that name. Sara was feared and hated by those of the TR-90, and to an extent in her vengeance she decides to become and embrace what they most feared. She was driven to become the Outsider because of the White Fear of what she might have been, not what she was, now defined by the death and insanity that ensued.
As much there is much to enjoy here, there are elements that stuck out as weak. King often relies on dream sequences, and there are at the fore here with extended dreams that are replete in meaning, foreshadowing and tedium. Some may find them thrilling, but as a writing crutch it’s one King relies on too much at times, and I would find my eyes glazing over when Mike Noonan was asleep. Though I appreciate it being told from the perspective of Mike, he seems so endlessly comment on how pretty and sexy and long legged Mattie is, which after the efforts King went to in Gerald’s Game, Dolores Claiborne and Rose Madder feels like a regression of sorts. Finally, as a climax to the novel, it just felt too damn loud. Ghost stories tend to be understated, which is not what King tends to aim for. But a drive-by, a storm of the century, dramatic poltergeist activity, dark familial revelations and a whole lot of ghosts drives the ending bigger and bigger, when something more understated is required. Your own mileage may vary, of course, and King only just about manages to get away with it. The quiet epilogue does a lot to redeem the last hundred or so pages.
Much is made historically that this is the first novel of King’s under a new publisher. He had been with Viking since 1979, but this marked his first book with Simon & Schuster, citing that he wanted to move to a more literary, prestigious publisher (this review goes into good detail here). There are elements of this book where you can really tell Stephen is putting in the effort to be more literary, what with its allusions to Rebecca, Herman Melville and the ghost story tradition, allusions it doesn’t really live up to. But in actuality, I think some of his other more recent books have carried greater literary weight, and this novel’s weaknesses make it interesting but ultimately its own bag of bones.
Observations and Connections
There are a number of references as we are firmly set in King County. Though the majority of the book takes place on the TR-90, Derry is the other prime location mentioned throughout the book, which of course first appeared in It. Noonan also frequently swims out on Dark Score Lake, which eagle-eyed readers may recall from Gerald’s Game. Castle Rock is also mentioned throughout, and Shawshank Prison gets a fleeting mention towards the end of the book.
As we are back to talking about writers in full force, it’s no surprise that some of King’s fictional authors get a mention. Thad Beaumont from The Dark Half is mentioned, and we get to learn what finally came of his ending after all is said and done (spoiler alert – he committed suicide). Will Denborough, from It, is also mentioned. It’s a bit of a surprise that Paul Sheldon isn’t mentioned – at one point, I thought King was going to have everyone from Ben Mears to Mort Rainey getting a mention as competing authors. Right at the end, Norris Ridgewick shows up, having also first appeared in The Dark Half, last in Gerald’s Game. He gives a confirmation about Alan Pangborn ending up Polly, which is nice. Speaking of The Dark Half, there was a mention in that book of an author from Maine who wrote horror novels. Ostensibly, this was King having fun with himself (filth), but could be retroactively be applied to Mike. There’s also a mention of a historical sheriff named Nehemiah Bannerman, likely an ancestor of George from The Dead Zone.
Actual in the flesh cameos include Ralph Roberts from Insomnia. He looks tired apparently, and the timing of this book coincides shortly before Insomnia‘s final ending. Joe Wyzer, the pharmacist from the same book, also very briefly appears.
Royce Merril appears as a character, a local toothless old coot who most are glad to see the back of. It’s not confirmed, but considering the theme of large Maine families he may be a relation to other Merrils we’ve seen, in The Body and Needful Things most notably.
I have also read some fan speculation that the house, Sara Laughs, is a bit of a thin spot and may have leaks into other worlds. The dream sequence with the ghost house has hints of other worlds than these, possibly linking it to the Dark Tower, especially with the many doors. More concrete a link is the reappearance of 19, which helps Noonan begin to realise the dark secret of the whole place. Having said that, I think it’s the Ralph cameo that qualifies it as Dark Tower connection more than anything else.
And a quick fun one – future president Donald Trump is also mentioned, which considering King’s avowed hatred of him is especially funny in retrospect.
UP NEXT: King turns his hand to television with the original series Storm of the Century
Deeper Thoughts for the Horror Inclined 