Just Heard, Just Read, Just Seen

Okay Bag of Bones is hardly the latest book on the shelf from Stephen King – but it is one of my favourites. And it is one of my favourite love stories, ever. I read it was when it was first released and this past week have re-read it as an E-Book.

Unlike most of King’s books, scariness takes a back seat to love in this book. Not romance – though there is some of that – and not sex  - though there is a little of that too. Love in the broader sense – love of a spouse, a child, a friend – that deep love that is not dependent on romance or sex and yet makes both of those things even better if you do manage to get the balance right.

Mike Noonan is a successful writer whose wife, Jo, has died of a stroke. When collecting her things at the morgue, Mike discovers she was pregnant with their first child. After battling four years of writer’s block following her death, Mike moves to their lake house for the summer, where he meets Mattie Devore and her daughter Kia. Mattie is the widowed daughter in law of a self made billionaire who started life as the  local bully. Still a bully, Devore has set his sights on taking his granddaughter away from her mother and Mike finds himself embroiled in the ensuing custody wrangle.  At the same time, he discovers he is not alone at the lake house. Jo’s ghost is also there – along with someone else’s ghost – and that someone else isn’t so impressed with Mike or  his relationship with Mattie.

There is a supernatural element to Bag of Bones – hey this is King gang – but it is not the main focus of the story. Human relationships and grief are the main theme of this compelling story of a man dealing with first loss and then the arrival of new love in his life.  I suspect (and have always longed to ask him  - yes that is one of my dream interviews..Mr King if you’re out there listening…..)there are a lot of the authors own thoughts and observations in Bag of Bones – more than normally found in a novel, I mean.  Writing fiction is always dotted with a novelists thoughts, beliefs and ideologies but there is a sense in Bag of Bones that perhaps there is a bit more of Stephen King in Mike Noonan than you would normally expect to find.

King is often criticised for being less than politically correct, in particular when his characters are speaking. Dropping the ‘N’ bomb on a regular basis may not be PC, it may be jarring and it may be uncomfortable – but in the mouths of racist, narrow minded characters who are displaying their ignorance and lack of humanity, it’s also honest and correct. You are supposed to be shocked, you are supposed to be disgusted – these characters are shocking and disgusting.

If you are looking for the clown from IT,or the maniacal caretaker from The Shining, this is not the book to pick up.  If you are looking to find some old friends  - mostly from Derry – and a touching story that suggests love can go beyond this realm, give Bag of Bones a whirl.