Duma Key

A Novel

by Stephen King

Hardcover, 611 pages

English language

Published Jan. 28, 2008 by Scribner.

ISBN:: 978-1-4165-5251-2
OCLC Number:: 966533360

View on OpenLibrary

(54 reviews)

From the Flap:

NO MORE THAN A DARK PENCIL LINE ON A BLANK PAGE. A HORIZON LINE, MAYBE, BUT ALSO A SLOT FOR BLACKNESS TO POUR THROUGH . . .

A terrible construction site accident takes Edgar Freemantle's right arm and scrambles his memory and his mind, leaving him with little but rage as he begins the ordeal of rehabilitation. A marriage that produced two lovely daughters suddenly ends, and Edgar begins to wish he hadn't survived the injuries that could have killed him. He wants out. His psychologist, Dr. Kamen, suggests a "geographic cure," a new life distant from the Twin Cities and the building business Edgar grew from scratch. And Kamen suggests something else.

"Edgar does anything make you happy?" "I used to sketch." "Take it up again. You need hedges . . . hedges against the night."

Edgar leaves Minnesota for a rented …

From the Flap:

NO MORE THAN A DARK PENCIL LINE ON A BLANK PAGE. A HORIZON LINE, MAYBE, BUT ALSO A SLOT FOR BLACKNESS TO POUR THROUGH . . .

"Edgar does anything make you happy?"
    "I used to sketch."
"Take it up again. You need hedges . . .
    hedges against the night."

Edgar leaves Minnesota for a rented house on Duma Key, a stunningly beautiful, eerily undeveloped splinter of the Florida coast. The sun setting into the Gulf of Mexico and the tidal rattling of shells on the beach call out to him, and Edgar draws. A visit from Ilse, the daughter he dotes on, starts his movement out of solitude. He meets a kindred spirit in Wireman, a man reluctant to reveal his own wounds, and then Elizabeth Eastlake, a sick old woman whose roots are tangled deep in Duma Key. Now Edgar paints, sometimes feverishly, his exploding talent both a wonder and a weapon. Many of his paintings have a power that cannot be controlled. When Elizabeth's past unfolds and the ghosts of her childhood begin to appear, the damage of which they are capable is truly devastating.

The tenacity of love, the perils of creativity, the mysteries of memory and the nature of the supernatural--Stephen King gives us a novel as fascinating as it is gripping and terrifying.

38 editions

Mauro reviewed Duma Key by Stephen King

Action and adventure with cheesy horror elements.

3 stars

I've been reading Stephen King's novels since I was a kid in the early nineties. But I think I'm done for good now. Don't get me wrong, the Master of Terror is always entertaining, but I find his stories too based into a mundane American landscape (psychological and physical) that doesn't belong to me at all. And his insistence on making the reader cringe with weird use of young kids and such in his plots it's getting on my nerves, honestly. Like some low blows that are way too predictable to be effective.

Nonetheless, Duma Key was, again, entertaining like an obvious Hollywood movie, which resembling an old blanket is always there to comfort you but never to amaze.

Woordenaar reviewed Duma by Stephen King

Een van de betere late Stephen King romans

4 stars

Eigenlijk wilde ik zowel Cujo als Duma lezen na de verhalenbundel Duistere Zaken, het werd Duma.

Ondanks alle kritiek die ik soms heb op de boeken van King vind ik hem een grootse schrijver van verhalen over gewone mensen in ongewone situaties. Bij de bibliotheek denken ze daar anders over. Een exemplaar van Duma moest ik uit het archief halen, Cujo hebben ze helemaal niet in het bezit.

Duma is het boek dat King schreef na Lisey's Verhaal. Die laatste heb ik tot drie keer toe geprobeerd te lezen maar er valt niet doorheen te komen. Het is in mijn ogen King's poging om literatuur te schrijven, mooie zinnen maar het ontbreekt aan spanning.

Duma is gelukkig beter. Voldoende vaart, voldoende spanning, voldoende karakterontwikkeling. En ruim voldoende muziek.

Eigenlijk wilde ik zowel Cujo als Duma lezen na de verhalenbundel Duistere Zaken, het werd Duma.

Duma is gelukkig beter. Voldoende vaart, voldoende spanning, voldoende karakterontwikkeling. En ruim voldoende muziek.

cygnoir reviewed Duma Key by Stephen King

Review of 'Duma Key' on 'Storygraph'

3 stars

I liked it. Stephen King is just plain good at what he does. He has such a talent for fleshing out details about his characters, so despite this being a straightforwardly good vs. evil deal, there are tangents on the way that make it satisfying to read.

David reviewed Duma Key by Stephen King

Review of 'Duma Key' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

I wish I could give this 100 stars.

okenwillow reviewed Duma Key by Stephen King

Review of 'Duma Key' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

Duma Key est un pavé dense mais inégal. On arrive sur Duma Key avec Freemantle et on assiste à la découverte de son talent de peintre. Le talent de King nous plonge rapidement dans l’intrigue, complexe, et dans l’ambiance étrange du nouvel environnement d’Edgar. L’art tient une place prépondérante dans le roman. King en profite pour proposer une réflexion sur ce que peut être l’art et le processus créatif. J’ai trouvé beaucoup de longueurs dans le récit, même si on embarque rapidement, les choses mettent du temps à se mettre en place.
Je suis assez perplexe quand à ce roman, j’ai pris plaisir à le lire, mais l’intérêt s’est dilué au fil de pages, à l’approche du dénouement, beaucoup trop caricatural et surnaturel pour coller parfaitement à l’ambiance générale du livre. Trop rapide, trop tiré par les cheveux, trop cliché !
Un King honnête et plaisant mais pas transcendant.

Chewbury reviewed Duma Key by Stephen King

None

5 stars

Yes, it was a bit silly and yes, it was a little bit longer than it needed to be (particularly in the middle) but it was still awesome. At one point (two children on a staircase) it creeped me out in exactly the same way as room 217 of the Overlook hotel had creeped out a 14 year old me. Excellent.

Thomas Gaffney reviewed Duma Key by Stephen King

Review of 'Duma Key' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

Wow! What can I say, other than "retirement" has seemed to revitalize the Master of Horror. This was a scary, terrifying novel reminiscent of his '70s and '80s masterpieces.

To be honest, I had no idea what to expect going in. The only thing I read about [b:Duma Key|472343|Duma Key|Stephen King|http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/516WEx5I49L.SL75.jpg|3041864] going in, were the brief pages put in at the end of [b:Blaze|3590|The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (Oxford World's Classics)|Arthur Conan Doyle|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1164045516s/3590.jpg|1222101] and those did NOT convey any sense of how good this book was going to be. When I first cracked open [b:Duma Key|472343|Duma Key|Stephen King|http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/516WEx5I49L.SL75.jpg|3041864] and pretty much read the same pages as I read in [b:Blaze|3590|The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (Oxford World's Classics)|Arthur Conan Doyle|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1164045516s/3590.jpg|1222101], I was expecting a dull, boring story.

Thank god I was wrong!

To S.King fans, you HAVE to pick this up and read it. And to people …