‘Sometimes being a bitch is all a woman’s got to hold on to...’
As regular readers will know, I’m currently working my way through all the Stephen King books I missed first time around. Dolores Claiborne is one of the rare King books that I knew absolutely nothing about going into it. I haven’t seen the 1995 film adaptation and I hadn’t even read a plot synopsis. Needless to say, it’s great…
Written entirely in the form of a monologue delivered by the titular character as part of a police interview into a murder investigation, Dolores Claiborne demonstrates King’s ability to write for female characters (something he has occasionally struggled with) and also his ability to spin a yarn. While it took me a while to get used to the storytelling device, by the time the eponymous protagonist (anti-hero?) began describing the murder of her husband (not a spoiler – this is revealed at the top) I was hopelessly hooked.
Not just a treatise on gender and class, Dolores Claiborne also explores isolation and loneliness. Little Tall Island recalls The Banshees of Inisherin in its seclusion and this allows the whisper of small-town rumours to become a roar that eventually devours all. King would return to Little Tall Island for his excellent TV mini-series Storm of the Century a few years later.
Unusually, King mostly eschews the supernatural here and the result is a novel that is quietly affecting in some moments and just downright sad in others. The incest storyline is handled with sensitivity and tact, never sensationalism, and King also approaches the theme of ageing with warmth and clarity.
Dolores Claiborne, whilst fairly close to 1922 in terms of plot, is one of King’s most original works. For anyone wishing to read something that is less out-and-out horror than his usual fare, this novel is a good starting point.