Dolores Claiborne

How the hell does Stephen King create such sympathetic, multifaceted, complex and wonderfully written sixty-year-old women?I initially found myself extremely annoyed by the lack of chapter breaks. This is my problem, really, not King's, because I don't have the self control to stop reading without a discernible break in the action. But there is no break here, and that's the point--Dolores' four hundred page monologue sweeps the reader rapidly through a rather ugly life. By the time we get to the horrific act itself, she feels like an undeniably real woman, a consciousness as concrete as our own. I think I like King best when he's closest to reality--here, the supernatural is only delicately hinted at. What's horrific about the killing show more of Joe St. George isn't that there are supernatural spookies behind it, but that it's realistic, disgustingly so. The ending is a bit neat for my tastes, but after we've been so thoroughly convinced that Dolores Claiborne is worth cheering for, it's hard not to feel satisfied at her triumph. show less

Este es sin duda uno de los mejores libros que he leído en mi vida.

*La historia. Es original, increíblemente bien manejada, un ritmo espectacular, uno cree saber desde que comienza el libro que es lo que viene y cuál será el desenlace, pero no... King nos la juega bien y bonito y cuando llegué a ese final, no pude sorprenderme más, a pesar de la que sí sucede lo que sabemos que va a pasar, no fue ni por asomo lo que me esperaba.

Esta historia tiene mas, mucho mas de lo que se ve a simple vista, hay de todo, odio, amor, compasión, abuso infantil, venganza, culpabilidad, sinceridad, mentira, abuso físico, riqueza, pobreza y no solo en el sentido monetario de la palabra, hay felicidad y tristeza y cada uno de esos sentimientos, show more cada una de las razones que causan cada situación es manejada de manera magistral, es de esos libros que en algún momento hay que releer, porque se dice mucho, frases subrayables y el trasfondo de las entrelineas.

*El personaje. Aquí el gran personaje es Dolores Claiborne y le doy algo de crédito a Vera, pero no, Dolores es quien vale cada página, cada palabra, cada cosa dicha, cada cosa hecha y por supuesto toda su declaración.

Vera, como he dicho merece su crédito ¡Vaya personaje! tan complejo que cuesta entenderlo, es verdad que Dolores logra pintarnos muy bien su personalidad, matices y colores, pero hay tanto por ahí, tanto no dicho que hay que sobreentender que solo por eso la convierte en un personaje absolutamente fascinante.

*La narrativa. Contado en primera persona, pero no de una manera común, Dolores Claiborne llega a la policía a hacer una confesión o más bien dos, lo que estamos leyendo es exactamente lo que se transcribe en las cintas que grabaron a Dolores Claiborne, palabra por palabra.

La manera en que Stephen King ha logrado presentar, dibujar y hablar por una mujer es tan increíblemente bueno, que he terminado maravillada y sorprendida a la vez, no pude evitar pensar "que jodidamente buen escritor eres Stephen".

Es una narrativa espectacular, brillante y fascinante.

Definitivamente no puedo hacerle justicia suficiente con lo que sea que diga a este libro, baste decir que he puesto a este libro en mi "very top five" de los mejores libros que he leído en toda mi vida y por supuesto hoy por hoy uno de los mejores que he leído este año.

¿Recomendarlo? no, lo siguiente

Féliz cumpleaños Stephen King, sin duda leerte casi siempre resulta en un gran y enorme placer show less

“Sometimes being a bitch is all a woman's got to hold on to.”

One of King's greatest talents is in his writing of characters, making them come across as realistic paper-people with sympathetic emotions and believable motivations. Dolores Claiborne is a work of art - she's not the typical heroine that carries a novel with her beauty, intelligence, station in life, or luck of fate. Instead she's average with her life but takes herself up a notch, makes herself stand out by standing strong in the face of the brutal winds life storms her with.

It's easy to sympathize with a character who fell into the familiar pitfall of marrying the wrong man, marrying too young, and living life to regret and endure that decision. It's believable to show more follow a heroine who works hard, even if it doesn't get her far, who puts up with the dirt that's dished out.

She's crass, crude, loud-mouthed, and perhaps a little bitter - but she's also bold, hard-working, courageous, and intelligent with the way she handles people and the lemons life tosses her. Instead of bemoaning, she endures. When struggle is inevitable, she hangs on. And when murder is the only option left, well...

King writes Drama well. That can be seen here as well as other times he's ventured into it, such as his anthology Different Seasons. This is not a horror novel - save a few creepy scenes near the end that may or may not have been stress induced hallucinations. It focuses on the heart and hope of a woman who is pulled under by life's circumstances, having her reveal the mysteries of her life under interrogation. While she's being suspected in the murder of one, she chooses to start with another story instead.

The books a little strange since King has most of it in dialogue, and not all that dialogue is a smooth flowing pleasure to read. Island dialect holds strong and convincingly true. After awhile it flows together when you get into the story, though, and you hardly notice you're mainly reading about a woman sitting in a chair while she talks. The story is so interesting and demented that it's hard to put down. There surely must be slow spurts in the story-line, but I didn't notice them; the pacing held up well and it stands as one of his greatest works for me. A lot of his stuff is too fluffed out, but not in this case. The perfect length for an intriguing story.

Why four stars instead of five then? While I try to judge a book by its own footing and not compare it to its film, the movie wouldn't leave my mind. It's been a favorite of my mine for years, way before reading the book, and after seeing some of the magic they weaved with plot changes on film, I couldn't help finding that the book didn't hold up as well. Selena's memory lapses and emotional angst added to the story while rolling on the TV, and I found myself missing some of those touches in the written version.

Both versions hold the point: a friendship forged into strong bonds that last through life and beyond, no matter the station or the circumstance; a mother's protective love for her child pushing her into things she wouldn't ordinarily be able to do.

Definitely recommended for fans of any kind of fiction - whether a horror reader or not. show less

"An accident is sometimes an unhappy woman's best friend." - Vera "Kiss-My-Back-Cheeks" Donovan

This is a really cool read! Basically, except for the three pages, it is the confession of Dolores Claiborne (no chapter breaks at all!), and I tell ya', she has the strongest, most original voice I've "heard" in a long while! Straight forward, sometimes crass, but honest as the day is long. The story of her war with Vera over Vera's bowl movements, though a bit nasty, made me laugh aloud as she told it! Dolores' voice is the strength of this book, and she is one strong lady! As she says at the end, "In the end, it's the bitches of the world who abide... and as for the dust bunnies: frig ya!" I love ya' Dolores!

5***** and a ❤

The entire novel is told by Dolores Claiborne in her sworn statement to the investigating police. Her employer of 40 years has died in a tragic accident … or did Dolores kill her? Dolores doesn’t pull any punches, she tells us on page two that she did not kill Vera Donovan (though Vera deserved killing, more than once … she was a high-riding bitch). No, Dolores did nothing to hasten old Mrs Donovan’s ending … but she did kill her husband, Joe St George, twenty-nine years ago.

King is a master plotter and he moves the story along at a fair clip. Slowing down at just the right places to let the reader catch his breath. Scaring you the next minute with the horrors of human meanness. Making you laugh at the show more ridiculous things people do. And letting you into Dolores’s mind – a nearly 66-year-old woman who has had a hard life and who isn’t about to suffer fools gladly. She’s tired and ready to get everything off her chest.

Dolores has spent her life on Little Tall Island. She’s worked hard, keeping house for rich Mrs Donovan, and caring for her in her senility. She’s raised three children without much help from Joe, a no-good alcoholic husband who beat her one time too many. But you need to get the whole story straight from Dolores.

I first read this in 1997. What really impressed me was that King manages to write in a thick Maine accent you can “hear” on the page. (And the audio book, narrated by Frances Sternhagen, is nothing short of wonderful!) Dolores will stay with you for a long time. King has managed to write a character who is not very likable, but whom I just fell in love with. Bravo! show less

un SK atipic, nefiind nici horror, nici cu elemente supranaturale.
Nu e horror, dar este despre oroare - grozăvenia de a fi sărac și lipsit de șanse, iar dacă asta pare rău, există ceva și mai rău: să fii sărac, lipsit de șanse și femeie. La îndemâna agresiunii de diverse feluri a celui care-ar fi trebuit să-ți fie apărător, dar găsește în alcool cheia spre abisurile sufletului omenesc. Oroarea de a trebui să-ți găsești în suflet propriile tenebre pentru a-l opri - și apoi a plăti prețul.
Excelent, mai ales că este un monolog de la un capăt la celălalt (îmi place acest stil narativ) și totuși te conduce prin două povești diferite, prin mai multe minți și prin ani de zile de relații, păstrând și show more niște revelații neașteptate pentru sfârșit (pe lângă cea evidentă). show less

Fun Stephen King classic. It's one of those that always gets mentioned with Stephen Kings more mid tier works, Cujo, Needful Things, Carrie, and The Tommyknockers. I think this is just a half step higher than those works in the department that usually makes or breaks a Stephen King novel. The flow into the ending.

The narrative is disjointed and told out of chronological order, but the way it happens makes perfect sense. There are three main characters, Dolores, Vera, and Joe, and through Dolores literally telling a story, we learn the backgrounds of Vera and Joe, learn their faults, learn their fates, and become very, very well acquainted with Dolores herself along the way. I think that if King tried to tell this story as a timeline, it show more would have felt jumpy and anticlimactic, yet, by breaking it up and jumping around, it somehow doesn't feel jumpy or clunky in the slightest.

And the ending comes about just as Stephen King normally does it, but better. Usually, there is a big moment, about 3/4 of the way through the novel, that could be considered the climax, and then the resolution tends to drag. This even happens in my personal favorite The Stand. What separates Kings 'good' from his 'great' is whether that drag is satisfying. It is here. And, he surprises with multiple climaxes, one right near the end.

Storytelling has always been King's bread and butter, and here, for the first time (that I've seen, I am by no means extremely well read in Kings works), the story is told as literally one character telling it to two or three others. I liked the mode the second I started it, it flows and it goes and it doesn't let up, even for a second, and that was what let me crush it in three days. show less