I was a little disappointed with this book though I was forewarned by a snippet from an anthology of essays on pulp fiction I read some years back which I cannot recall the name of at the moment. This book follows a format of synopsis of parts of the discussed work with plot points paired with biographical anecdotes from Stephen King|3389|Stephen King's life along with some uncritical commentary and the direct interpretation of symbols in the said work. Between the biography and analyzed bits of King's work you would think some great insights could be found but no. To me, and I am not the biggest fan of Stephen King's work by the way, this book simply does not provide any unique insights or cast a new light on Stephen King's oeuvre up to its writing (1984) and does little than the previously mentioned to explore King's work. To be frank, it seems the author is manually stimulating Stephen King and providing copious amounts of lube to boot at the turn of every page. I really cannot recommend this book. However, I do recommend Danse Macabre and On Writing A Memoir of the Craft. Although both are written by King himself, they do a much better job of digging deeper. ( )

Such a huge body of work by Stephen King and Douglas Winter tells all! I've read many King books, but seems as though I've missed quite a few and here I've found a resource. The insight into King's writing is profound, as is the timeline of his life. ( )

Quite interesting. ( )

First edition