STEPHEN KING - "INSOMNIA" (NEW ENGLISH LIBRARY)

 

The more pages there are in a Stephen King novel, the better. Given sufficient space, King gets the chance to explore personalities more in-depth, add sidelines, supply the novel with colourful additional characters. After reading just about every 600+ page Stephen King novel there is, I was glad to discover in the shops "Insomnia".

The book tells the story of Ralph Roberts who, after his wife's death, gets increasingly insomniaic (if that's not an English word, it ought to be :-). Due to this lack of sleep, he becomes a part of what is called hyper-reality, and you become part of the world of auras as well as powerful forces that are about to render the world a lesser place to live in. Inevitably this leads to a supernatural element that is somewhat bigger than usual in this case. In fact, the latter third of the book requires hanging of disbelief, with nails and restraints. Nonetheless, it's yet another compelling and very imaginative story by the master himself. At start, curiously, "Insomnia" tended to be a powerful sleeping tonic, but later on it became the 'supreme page-turner' as mentioned on the jacket.

"Insomnia" definitely ranks up there with the finest horror/suspense books, at least as far as they've been written by King. Definitely worth buying, this one.

Released 1994, ISBN 0-450-60848-4

RK

 

Written October 1999

 

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