The Island

If not for the adventure and fun of it, I would have stopped a few days ago.  I am having a hard time reading through words that are spelled like slang.  There was a notice at the beginning of the book though.  Although reading it was an entirely different experience.  I have a taste of this with "Little Women" by Loisa May Alcott.  But that one was only for a few pages.  There are things like how more is spelled mo', once is wunst, poor is po', going is gwyne, took is tuck, them is um, nothing is nuffin', first is fust (also posted here).

Like this (also posted here):

Chickens know when it's gwyne to rain, en so do de birds, chile.

Here, I think I'd have to bear with it since Jim was the one who's speaking that way and he's Huck's company thru his adventures.  I wonder if he'd be dropped from the scene soon?  But I think dropping him would be a little boring for Huck... and the story, too.

Anyway, right now, Huck decided to go to the island where he accidentally found Jim and they became companions.  I think due to his youth, he still doesn't realize the consequences of his decisions.  He was so influenced by his friend Tom Sawyer who he left in town.  Most of the time, in his decisions, he still thinks what would Tom Sawyer do on situations he encountered.

Jim is a good company for Huck.  Jim reminds Huck.  Jim is a little superstitious, but I think that's good in situations like where they are now.

Huck Finn

I landed, and slopped through the timber and up the ridge and into the cavern.  There, Jim laid, sound asleep on the ground.  I roused him out and says:
" Get up and hump yourself, Jim! There ain't a minute to lose.  They're after us!"

In a Hurry

So that's what happened with Rose Madder.

I wanted to finish the book soon.  Not because I wanted to know the ending but, sorry to say, just so that I can get over and done with it and start a new book.  You might ask, "Is it that worse?"  And I shall tell you, "Yes, so far the worse of those I read by Stephen King."

The plot was good.  There were actually instances that I am so engaged to reading that I am confusing to reality.  The concept of a wife like Rose is truly something that is worth writing for.  The idea of redemption was unique.  I actually thought that it should be how everything should be, after being left with no choices.  How real can it get?  That is the question.  But still, I think there is something that was overdone here.  Like the detailed thoughts of Norman.  I think SK overdid it here.

The irony of it all is that is one thing I actually admire with Stephen King; the way he writes about the characters' imagination.  I'm just not sure why it seems that it doesn't apply here in this particular story.  I am close to thinking that I maybe longing for another kind of adventure or writer that I now view it in a different color.  I started exploring different writers and genres, I am even into classical novels.  I just don't know if this is one of the main reason why I think this way.  It's almost to say that I didn't enjoy the book because I was yearning so much to know the ending just so that I can start a new one.  I might have missed some adventures worth ruminating on because of this.  But I don't have any regrets.  The end wasn't what I expected, although I am giving it the thought that in this kind of situation - if I am in this situation -  this might be the one I can actually wish for.

THE END

ROSE MADDER

STEPHEN KING

I Repay

That's what she said.

And that's all what Rosie can remember, at least for now.  She was in a dream she can barely remember.  But a lot of things spring up telling her it may not be a dream at all.

Dreaming?

Too tired from two days of going out, I still managed to read a few pages of the book.  Rosie's on her conquest.  A different kind of quest.  I said on my previous post that this will take her out of the past and might change her future, I have yet to know.  But the thing is, she's either in a dream or she's dreaming of something real.  Again, I have yet to find out.  But it was hard.  Too hard.  This is a world far different from where she is now.  But wait, way too different from the world she lived in for fourteen years.

I think she will...   No, I pray[as if this is real] that she may get out of this not only alive, but be able to change everything in her life that she's been wanting to change.  Rosie's been through a lot and if I were in her shoes, it won't matter to me if this is a dream or living a dream.  I want to get this over and done with if it means that I will be able to live on my own, free and easy.  That I may be able to get a new haircut, read a novel (no matter what kind) and have a beautiful painting on the wall... that makes her hear crickets and see clovers.

I wouldn't really mind.... Hell, No!

Quests

This is the third time that I have read something on SK's books that deal with temples.    As far as I can remember, that is.  Last year, I read about three books by Stephen King and two of them had scenes on temples.

'Salem's Lot.

Duma Key.

Now, Rose Madder.  It's not that there is a pattern.  It's just that I am just awed by how SK uses this place as a start of the quests of the characters.  Sometimes, it even poses as a transformation place for these persons because it's as if they realize something as they pass through the temples of their stories.
You might think that there will be a similarity to these stories.  But no, there aren't.  Three very different stories.  One icon to deliver the message.

===============

I am now on the part where Rose is somewhere within something she doesn't know.  Like her, I am still trying to figure out whether it was just a dream, a reality or a part of the painting.  All of them seemed real, and if it were, then this has something to do with her quest to forget her past and change her future.

Inside

I stopped reading the book for a few days now.  I have been busy with a lot of things and the only time that I get to read it is during late afternoons when there is enough sunlight from the window near where I sit and do reading.  But having stopped reading doesn't mean that my mind was off the book.  I am actually thinking about it a lot oftentimes.  Like it sometimes just pops out of my mind.

Rose was able to get away.  Far.  About three hundred miles.  I kept on asking is it far enough?  How far is far enough?  Daniels is maybe three hundred miles away, but it only takes one snap and the memory will start everything again.  I sometimes feel afraid for Rose.  And even if I still have a lot to know what are those that she's been into during those fourteen years, I cannot help but imagine more things other than already told.

This happens.  To how many I don't know.  But sometimes it gives me the creeps just thinking about Rose; what more if I will know more, like give me a figure to give me an idea how much women are went through, are going through, and will go through what Rose has been through.

Is there anything we women can do to prevent this from happening?  How do we know that some guys are really prone to doing this?

Frankly, this is nothing new for Stephen King.  I have read "Dolores Claiborne" and I think it was really very creative.  As I read through the first few pages, I was thinking that this is another "Dolores."  I almost put it down thinking that I've read this kind of stuff already.  But then again, we know Stephen King... we don't know what is he still capable of thinking.  That's why I have always like reading his works.

But.

Having read a few classical stories like Dickens, Hugo, Fitzgerald, Eliot, I think I am missing the genre.  The fact that what I read before this was about the German/Hitler times, I think I'll grab another classical after King.