And the more he drinks, the more it interferes with his writing. He refers to his excessive drinking multiple times throughout the book to late nights, and late morning hangovers, downing Rolaids like candy. The champagne is also a sign of a deeper problem: in the perceived absence of success, and amid his constant need for reassurance from his peers, Paul has begun to drink heavily to compensate. These things are Paul’s attempt to convince himself that this new book is the “real book that will finally transform him into a “serious” author, despite his doubts to the contrary. So even though at the beginning of Misery Paul has just finished this new, “serious” work, Fast Cars, and though he may think he is celebrating, the truth is that the two bottles of champagne he downs, and his impulsive decision to drive west like someone in making a new start, are coping mechanisms. 286) and shook his confidence as a writer. 286), which, though it takes until nearly the end of the novel for him acknowledge it, “hurt him quite badly” (p. He resents the Misery novels because they have led the critics to label him a “‘popular author’ (which was, as he understood it, one step – a small one – above that of a ‘hack’)” (p. Though it was his Misery novels (a series of pulp historical adventure romances comparable to the Angélique novels by Anne and Serge Golon) that made Paul a bestseller, he is deeply ashamed of his work which he views as trashy. Misery begins with author Paul Sheldon celebrating having finished a new, “real” book. By signing up you agree to our terms of use Thank you for signing up! Keep an eye on your inbox. Of course what I was seeing could have just been the cold meds. But through all the dismemberment and my (somewhat morbidly delighted) disgust, I started to realize that there was something else going on between the lines in Misery with regards to Paul and his work.
I flinched, I cringed, I tried to read while simultaneously not looking at the page (which doesn’t work very well). Don’t get me wrong, Misery is terrifying. The thing that struck me most about Misery was that the book was as much about writing and the writing process as it was about the horror of Paul’s predicament. Armed with orange juice, tissues, and a veritable armory of cold meds, I devoured King’s 1987 novel about obsession, madness, and the horrors of writing.
It was during the Popular Culture Association conference in April, and I was stuck in bed in my hotel room (which was charmingly located above the entrance to the parking garage) down for the count with the conference crud. I read Stephen King’s Misery for the first time this year.
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