#CastleRock #Readathon ‘Nona’

About the story…

”Do you love? I hear her voice saying this-sometimes I still hear it. In my dreams.

Do you love?

Yes, I answer. Yes-and true love will never die.

Then I wake up screaming.”

A hitch-hiking young man takes up with a most unsavoury companion, in this tale from 1985 collection,‘Skeleton Crew’

It has been recently filmed as part of Kings’ ‘Dollar Baby’ scheme, which makes his stories available for those students, and theatre groups, to use his stories for the princely sum of $1.

The unnamed narrator tells the tale of how he, penniless and unsavoury to society at large, a long haired hippy college student, is hitch hiking his way to Augusta. Here, at a truck stop where he is targeted by locals, he gets involved in a fight, and , in the aftermath, picks up a girl for his troubles. Nona, beautiful, bewitching, and a downright bad influence, really sees him, taking him with her on a voyage of destruction, violence and insanity.

But this tale of the eternal outsider, the one who steps outside of and away from society’s expectations, is dark and twisted and yet, you feel for this guy. He has nothing, no family, he is heading towards something with nothing to lose. His crime, to not look like he should, to not think or present himself like the non thinking mouth breathers at the truck stop. And , as such, his rage appears justifiable. Who amongst us hasn’t just wanted the connection with another human being, to feel needed?

As he narrates his personal history, alongside his and Nona’s blood swathed trail across the roads leading to Castle Rock, you see that Nona is the apotheosis of all the women in his life that he hasn’t been able to conenct with, be loved by, or received love from. Modern thinking might perhaps label the narrator an incel, in fact, his subsequent bloodletting under Nona’s guidance, could be considered symptomatic of such a person. However, the labelling of everyone apart from the narrator by their job titles ‘the girl’, ‘the cook’, really reinforces the reader’s perceptions of this man as someone who has little to no sense of identity, malleable and easily bullied.

Love, desire and wanting have been responsible for him being ridiculed, bullied and beaten, a pattern begun in childhood which has continued into almost adulthood.

His previous connections to Castle Rock come courtesy of his bullies, and , like a magnet, it pulls him home. The lack of definition to his life outside the Rock contrasts with his clarity the closer he gets to what he regards as home.

After all, home is the place where, when you go , they have to take you in…

Scary, dark and chilling, this is one of the lingering favourites which I have from this collection.

Links to other King works-

Pg 340-Ace Merrill is identified as one of the narrator’s bullies, a character who has appeared in ‘The Sun Dog‘ and ‘The Body’

Pg 345-Harlow, Maine-this has been mentioned, or has appeared as a setting in ‘The Body‘, ‘N’, ‘Bag Of Bones’, ‘Revival’, ‘Lisey’s Story’ and ‘Under The Dome’

Pg 347-Lewiston-the location of ‘Carrie’

Pg 347-Vern Tessio is mentioned in relation to Ace Merill, Vern was one of the quartet of boys who looked for Ray Brower’s body in, of course, ‘The Body‘

About the author…

Stephen King is the author of more than fifty books, all of them worldwide bestsellers. His first crime thriller featuring Bill Hodges, ‘Mr Mercedes’, won the Edgar Award for best novel and was shortlisted for the CWA Gold Dagger Award. Both ‘Mr Mercedes’ and ‘End Of Watch’ received the Goodreads Choice Award for the Best Mystery and Thriller of 2014 and 2016 respectively.

King co-wrote the bestselling novel ‘Sleeping Beauties‘ with his son Owen King, and many of King’s books have been turned into celebrated films and television series including ‘The Shawshank Redemption‘, ‘Gerald’s Game’ and ‘It‘.

King was the recipient of America’s prestigious 2014 National Medal of Arts and the 2003 National Book Foundation Medal for distinguished contribution to American Letters. In 2007 he also won the Grand Master Award from the Mystery Writers of America. He lives with his wife Tabitha King in Maine

Links-https://www.stephenking.com/

Twitter @StephenKing

@HodderBooks