#973 in our old book database. Not rated.
#3 for Adele. ( )

This was a difficult one for me to get through and the only way I could manage it was to skim the Norman parts. While fascinating to see the world through such a twisted and vicious perspective, it was way too much and I just couldn’t put that into my head. Incredible for King to have created such a deviant psychopath when he himself holds such opposite views. From everything I’ve read either by him or about him, he admires, respects and genuinely likes women. He credits his mother and wife for making him the man he is today and so it must have been nauseating to create Norman in all his insane glory. So it was pretty tough going for me, but I got there in the end.

I haven’t read this since it came out in the 90s and so I’m not sure what my reaction was then or if I could stomach the Norman parts. I had a memory of Rose looking out of the picture to Norman in her apartment with him wondering where she went, but that’s not exactly right. There is a time when she (and Bill) are in the painting and he is outside of it, but he soon follows. That’s the overtly magical part of the book - that the painting contains a world governed by the mad laws of Rose Madder, vengeful goddess and mother.

The subtler magic is what happens with Rose herself, Rosie Real. Her life with Norman was unimaginable to me. I’ve never been in that situation and so don’t know how I’d react, but I really hope I wouldn’t put up with it for 14 seconds, never mind 14 years. The descriptions of his abuse were sickening, but her flight and landing at the Daughters & Sisters was really wonderful to read. Slowly, over months she healed physically and made great strides to heal mentally as well. I loved that she became an audiobook narrator. Such a fun thing to happen to her. And the painting as well as Bill’s sincere gentleness and caring did even more to help Rose come into herself and shed the constant fear and pain of her marriage.

As with all King books, there are beautiful friendships and bonds that you ache to have in real life. Characters like Gert and Pam who make everything a little brighter and a little weirder. And like he does, he destroys most of it and makes you watch. As Norman gets closer and closer to finding Rose, he does so by tripping over and abusing her new friends and support system. I couldn't even read what happened to Anna. I did read most of the fight with Gert though and wish she’d beaten him to a pulp, but at least she lived.

Norman’s end at the hands (?) of Rose Madder was great, but maybe not enough. I wanted more mental suffering especially. I wanted his view of himself, the world and the rightness of his thinking to come crashing down in a more destructive way - I wanted his psyche broken even more than his body. Men like that make me sick and I think about how lucky I am to have escaped them. My husband is wonderful and has never given me a moment of worry for my safety. Sure, the possibility is always there, but his psyche would never allow it to happen. Anyway, I can’t say that I’ll ever read this again, but the way Rose sheds the remnants of Rose Madder and lives her life with Bill was positive, if a little unsettling. ( )

This is the official first book of my Great Stephen King Re-read, Part Two.

A few years back, I read about the first twenty years of his novels and short story collections, from CARRIE straight through to INSOMNIA, skipping only the Dark Tower stuff, as I'll tackle that as a separate read all on its own. This time around, the plan is to tackle the next fifteen years and go from this novel straight through to UNDER THE DOME.

Having said that, I started into this novel with a lot of trepidation, because, while I remembered the basic storyline about it, it wasn't one of his novels that really stuck with me, or left a lasting impression, in that I remember it being one of his "middling" novels.

And it seems to be one of his more forgotten ones...never really mentioned much, never made into a movie. It feels like it just came and went and got overshadowed by his next, brilliant release.

Reading it for the second time, I find that kind of a sad fact, as this book is far better than I remember it being.

And it's strange that this novel never stuck with me, as there's two somewhat personal connections. The first is, Rose is stated to have been born in 1962, so she's the same age is me. The second, far more disconcerting connection—and one I would have been keenly aware of when I read it the first time around—is that her husband Norman...?

Yeah, he's more violent, and he's more a biter, but mentally? Every diseased little thought I read that went through Norman's mind? All the thoughts about homosexuals and non-whites, and Jews and everyone else that crossed his eye of judgement? But most especially, Norman's views on women?

Yeah, Norman could have been modeled straight off my own father.

So, for those reasons, at least initially, this novel truly grabbed me and frightened me and sickened me. Forty years after his death, I felt like I was hanging out with my father for a few hundred pages.

But the book would need to have far more than that to keep me going. And this novel delivers. It's easily one of King's nastiest, most horrible, and horrifyingly real, villains, and I wonder if it was more than readers were used to from King and that's why this one never attained the status of some of his others. But King also delivers on the compelling story and character of Rose. Yes, she tends to get fantastic lucky break after lucky break, making the book a little too much fantasy, a touch too much to fully suspend disbelief.

But still, the story that King constructs in harrowing. The only false note, for me at least was the extended first trip into the painting. I know it's required for the end, but it did tend to drag on a little too long.

But overall, I have to say, reading this novel almost thirty years later?

It's so much better than I ever gave it credit for. ( )

One of my favorite works from my favorite author. Preternatural events aside, this woman's journey -- a woman so utterly broken mentally, physically, and emotionally from years of systematic, and totally random domestic violence -- to leave her situation with nothing but a bus ticket and restart her life in a strange city where she knows no soul and change her life no matter what, is POWERFUL. You don't have to be a Stephen King fan to appreciate this book, and it is inspirational to those who have experienced abuse. There is no "horror" in this book, aside from the very sick and demented behavior of her husband, a respected police officer. It *IS*, however a thriller and you won't be able to put it down. ( )

My original review for the hardcover edition was three stars, but this time on audio I found Blair Brown's performance really added to the experience. Excellent performace

Audiobook via Audible ( )