Survivor

I picked this book up for a dollar and only bought it because I knew Stephen King's wife wrote it. I had been reading his novels from the beginning of his career. So I didn't hold out a lot of hope for her book. BOY!! Was I wrong!! This is one of the best books I have ever read, period. I found myself actually caring about the characters as if they were real. It has been quite sometime since I could feel that emotionally attached to a fictional being. I felt Kissy's pain, ups and downs, and I really wanted her marriage to work as much as she did. I highly recommend this book to anyone who.... well, anyone, period.

Fiction about the results of postmodern family fragmentation usually focuses on the failures, not the survivors, perhaps because the failures may come across as sympathetic-while the survivors probably don't. What survivors may win from their chaotic experiences is a brittle, uneven, unkind strength. Tabitha King's young protagonist, Kristin "Kissy" Mellors, brings that kind of strength out of the chaos of her youth. We learn that Kissy was raised by feckless, undependable/uncaring parents and enjoyed no stability until she landed at Sowerwine University. Her college is really her first home. At twenty-one or so, Kissy is a talented photographer with some issues. She doesn't like men, but she does like sleeping with them; unfortunately, she isn't very good at actually avoiding bad men, and she's not all that consistent with contraception, which has made for some trouble in her life and will make for some more. She seems to live with the constant low terror that a sensitive young person would feel, lacking all real backup and knowing that one false move may undo everything she's put together for herself, but not sure what kind of move is a false one. In the midst of senior-year stress and the aftermath of witnessing a tragic car accident, Kissy meets rising hockey star Junior Clootie. The need for intimacy and connection is what Kissy and Junior share. In a reversal of the usual sexual scenario, he's the one who admits his need. Sexual harmony (and hot sex scenes) follow. Unfortunately, a serious mistake by Junior forever undermines Kissy's shaky faith in him, after which follow a breakup, a reunion, a contraceptive failure, a marriage...and then things really go downhill. In excruciating psychologically accurate detail, the reader gets to see Kissy grind Junior slowly and painfully to little bits. Furthermore, while so doing, Kissy also grinds herself slowly and painfully to little bits. Junior is no more immature than most men of twenty or twenty-one and kinder, more patient, and more perceptive than the rank and file of humanity; he's an innocent in the wrong place at the wrong time, namely in the path of Kissy's destructive rage. The cycle is continued in the storm-torn, tossed-from-pillar-to-post childhood of their daughter Dynah. Tabitha King achieves the same feat that Tanith Lee managed with Rachaela, the protagonist of her Blood Opera series: creating an unsympathetic character who manages to command readers' interest and...well...sympathy. Kissy, who seems to benefit from Junior's generous support even after divorcing him, is mean and venial and chronically unable to cut any other human a millimeter of slack, and yet it is no stretch to pity her at the book's desolate ending. Every instant of this character's experience is rendered with believability that leaves a reader thinking: "Yes, people act like that. Yes, they suffer like that. Yes, they're usually unable to stop doing the things that make them suffer like that

I really loved this deep, powerful, and moving book about one of the strongest female characters that I've read about in a longtime. Kissy's journey is deeply provoking and emotional. There hasn't been a stronger and better novel in ages. I highly recommend this book. You won't be disappointed.

This is not a book for readers who want a quick plot and fast action. Rather, this is a book to savor and experience. It is a character study more than a tightly wrapped story. The author is clever by grabbing the reader in the beginning of the book with a horrible accident and its aftermath. In my case, once the book got my attention, even as it began to meander into the psyches of its characters, I was hooked. The characters are at once compelling and totally infuriating, especially Kissy, the female lead. There were times when I thought "You go girl!" and times when I wanted to reach into the book and slap her for her thick-headedness. But no matter how I felt about any of the characters, I was emotionally drawn into the story, which is always a satisfying experience when reading. It was easy to become totally lost in the book - I would often be reading into the wee hours of the morning. This book may not be for everyone, but for me it was one of the best books I have read in quite a while. I actually slowed my reading down towards the end, because I just wasn't quite ready to let go. Again, don't just read this book - experience it.