Lisey's Story

This long, fat book had me stymied for the maybe two-thirds of the book, but I hung in there and the payoff was well worth it. I only give it four stars because I know it was a struggle to get to the payoff. At first, I accused King's editor of doing him an injustice, but the end of the book clarifies that in his acknowledgements. It says:

“Quite often reviewers of novels–especially novels by people who sell great numbers of books–will say, ‘So-and-so would have benefitted from actual editing.' To those tempted to say it about LISEY'S STORY, I would be happy to submit sample pages from my first-draft manuscript, complete with [his editor's] notes. I had first-year French essays that came back cleaner.”

So, the mystery was intentional. I'm not sure if the narrator was supposed to be unreliable, but that's how it felt to me.