Bag of Bones

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Title Bag of Bones

Author	Stephen King
Cover artist	Frank Oudeman
Country	USA
Language	English
Genre(s)	Horror
Publisher	Scribner
Released	1998
Pages	752
ISBN	ISBN 0-684-85350-7

Bag of Bones is a 1998 novel by Stephen King. Novelist Amy Tan has said of the book that it is full of "the witty and obsessive voice of King's powerful imagination." Bag of Bones is important in that it is one of the first of King's books to have been given in-depth literary analysis beyond that of the horror genre by critics.

Its themes include the trials of the writing process (Noonan is a horribly blocked writer), the power of memory (the ghosts of Noonan's past as well as the ghosts of Sara Laughs, the creepy lakeside house to which he moves) and the ghosts lurking close behind the everyday and the mundane. A crucial human element, however, is the struggle of a young widow and her daughter to stay away from the grip of Max Devore, the power-mad figurehead of the community.

Contents 1 Introduction 2 Synopsis 3 Trivia 4 Movie? 5 External links

[edit] Introduction

After the sudden death of his wife Jo, author Mike Noonan is plagued by writer's block, with his dreams haunted by the summer house he shared with her, he reluctantly decides to return to the isolated lakeside retreat.

There he finds his once beloved town in the grip of the powerful millionaire Max Devore, who twists this small community to his own purpose, taking his young granddaughter away from her widowed young mother. As Mike becomes drawn into their struggle he falls in love with both of them and is further drawn into the mystery of this ghostly town.

[edit] Synopsis

The narrator, Mike Noonan, is an author living in Derry, Maine who suffers from severe writer's block after the death of his wife, Johanna (aka Jo), from an undiagnosed brain aneurism. Particularly disquieting to Mike is that his wife had a home pregnancy test on her person, but never revealed the pregnancy to him. Mike languishes for years after his wife's death, and he finds himself unable to write without going into panic attacks. His writer's block unbeknownst to his agent and editor, he falls back on unpublished novels he had completed years before.

Four years after Jo's death, Mike begins to experience nightmares set at his summer home, in an unregistered township, TR-90. He decides to confront his fears and heads to the home, known to locals as Sara Laughs. In town, Mike meets Mattie Devore, a widow, and her young daughter, Kyra. Mattie's husband was the son of Max Devore, a rich and influential man in the town, who didn't approve of his son's marriage to Mattie. Max wants custody of his granddaughter and Mike decides to hire a lawyer as an act of kindness to Mattie. Mike gradually develops feelings for the younger Mattie, and is told that Jo frequently returned to the town. Max Devore commits suicide, which seemingly leaves Mattie and Kyra free from his influence. Meanwhile, Mike begins to write again while both Kyra and Mike experience hauntings in their homes. The author realizes that the ghost of Jo is assisting him by solving the mystery of Sara Tidwell, a blues singer whose spirit is is haunting Mike's home.

Max Devore still manages to terrorize Mike, Kyra, and Mattie from beyond the grave. He had arranged for allies to attack Mattie, Mike, and their friends. Mattie is shot and dies, leaving her relationship with Mike unconsummated. Mike takes Kyra back to Sara Laughs and gives Kyra cocoa laced with Benedryl to make her sleep. He begins to have thoughts of drowning Kyra in her sleep then killing himself. Mike goes so far as to draw the bath in which to drown Kyra, but there are still pieces to the mystery that Mike doesn't understand and wants to know. With Kyra sleeping, he goes to Jo's studio to search for some final answers. He discovers documents that Jo had hidden away before her death, and among the papers is a geneology showing Mike's blood relationship to one of the town families, several of whom have had firstborn children with "K" names who had been murdered or died under suspicious circumstances. The geneology shows that Mike and Jo's child (who was going to be named Kia) would have been a firstborn child with a "K" name had she been born.

Mike realizes this must be a curse from Sara for something that had been done to her. He returns to the house, checks on the still-sleeping Kyra, and drains the bath meant for her drowning. He can feel Sara's influence to take Kyra to the lake, but he fights it off. He leavse the house once more to search for Sara's gravesite, knowing that the only way to break the curse and keep Kyra safe would be to destroy Sara's bones. On his way to where Mike suspects Sara is buried, the ghost of Max Devore and several other town men appear to him and try to block him from getting to the grave. Mike learns that these men had visciously gang raped and killed Sara and drowned her son Kito in the lake after he found them with his mother. Mike makes it to the gravesite, but Sara's ghost doesn't want the curse ended prematurely. She tries to stop Mike, and attempts to assume corporeal form to do so. Jo appears in corporeal form herself and tells Mike he must hurry as Sara has enlisted the help of "The Outsider" to harm Mike and prevent him from reaching Sara's bones. Jo struggles to fight off The Outsider while Mike works to dig up and destroy Sara's bones with lye. Mike accomplishes his task, and the curse is broken, however, an assistant to Max Devore (Rogette) kidnaps Kyra with the intention of drowning her on Max Devore's behalf.

Mike tracks Kyra and Rogette to a neighboring property where he finds Kyra has bitten Rogette and attempted to escape onto a dock. Mike tries to get Rogette and keep her away from Kyra when Mattie's ghost appears and knocks Rogette into the Lake. Rogette attempts to pull Mike into the lake with her, but she is impaled by wreckage from the dock. Mattie's ghost says her goodbyes to Mike and Kyra, and she tells Kyra that she is now Mike's daughter. The novel ends with an epilogue in which readers are told that Mike has retired from writing, and he has been attempting to adopt Kyra. His status as a single, unrelated male has complicated things, and the adoption has taken longer than Mike anticipated. Still, the state has allowed Mike to visit with Kyra, and she has been allowed overnight stays with him. The outcome of the adoption is left unresolved at the end of the novel, but the reader is given hope that it will be a positive outcome.

[edit] Trivia

• Ralph Roberts, the main character from Insomnia, appears briefly in the novel.
• Joe Wyzer, from Insomnia, appears briefly in the novel.
• Outsiders are referred to in The Dark Tower.
• Mike Noonan reads books by Bill Denborough, from It.
• Sara Laughs is located on Dark Score Lake, from Gerald's Game.
• Thad Beaumont, from The Dark Half, is mentioned as having killed himself.
• Castle Rock, Maine sheriff Alan Pangborn is spoken of.
• Jared Devore, Max's ancestor, mentions Shawshank Prison.
• Sara Laughs is the twin to Cara Laughs, a location in Song of Susannah and The Dark Tower.
• Lisey's Story, King's 2006 novel, mentions a Mike Noonan novel, but not the outcome of his adoption of Kyra.
• The character Tim Carpenter in the movie Final Destination 2 can be seen reading Bag of Bones before he goes to sleep.
• The novel won the Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel in 1998.
• TR-90 is the location of Kashwak in King's novel Cell.

[edit] Movie?

At one point, the novel was optioned for a film, according to King's website. However, the IMDB link related to the film is no longer present.^[1]

[edit] External links

• Stephen King's official website