NEEEDFUL THINGS was the first King book I ever read, and it kicked off an obsession with his work that lasted me from middle school until I was in my late twenties. I've read it cover-to-cover at least a dozen times. In hindsight, I think my affection for King during those years really hinged on the feeling of being seen. One of his major strengths as a storyteller is his ability to be affectionate toward American small-town culture while also being fabulously cruel and sarcastic at the same time. That's something that I think a lot of readers in small towns can relate to. You grow up loving your family and your neighbors, but you also get exasperated with their ignorance and self-sabotaging behavior. A lot of authors do this sort of thing with the cultures they were raised in, but not many do it as well as Uncle Steve does. This particular book lives and dies by his ability to evoke both sympathy and disgust toward the characters because most of them are sort of lovable oafs who fuck themselves over in hilarious and tragic ways.
Spoilers ahead in case you're worried about me ruining the plot twists of a thirty-year-old book.
NEEDFUL THINGS concerns a mysterious and fabulous curio shop that opens in a small town in Maine (of course). The shop's owner sells the simple townsfolk their heart's desires (a Sandy Koufax rookie card, a splinter from Noah's Ark, a picture of Elvis, etc) that have terrible mind-altering side effects including hallucinations, sexual ecstasy, and the opportunity to relive the past. Basically, he's selling dreams at a high price. At the shopkeeper's bidding, the townsfolk trade seemingly harmless pranks for these dreams, all of which are designed to push the townsfolk into blackmailing and murdering each other while destroying themselves. The shopkeeper is opposed by the local sheriff, who himself is crippled with grief and depression after the untimely deaths of his wife and son, and the whole thing ends with the demon defeated but most of the town dead or destroyed.
THE GOOD
Many of the minor characters and their plights are quite compelling. I found myself wanting to spend more time with them within the narrative. The little subplots spread throughout are really fun. I find this happening a lot for me in King's books. I find the secondary stuff a lot more interesting than the main protagonists. (In that sense, this book reminded me a bit of THE STAND in the sense that I really liked all the little vignettes of people dying tragically of the plague or of Flagg collecting criminals from the wasteland and I got sick of chapter after chapter of "Stu and Frannie are talking" or "Larry is an asshole but he's trying.") The child characters are also good, but that's no surprise. King has always been really good at writing kids. There are some genuinely unsettling parts that stick well. The overall message seems to be along the lines of "people are stupid but also generally good, and that goodness always wins out in the end" and it comes together well at the end. The Catholics vs. Baptists subplot that ends in a massive bloody riot is very fun. Buster is good. Ace Merril's return to Castle Rock is good. Leland Gaunt is a fantastic and memorable King villain. King makes memorable characters. He's always been very, very good at that. Like, ridiculously good. He's one of the best character crafters in popular fiction in my opinion.
THE LESS GOOD
This book is bloated and feels overlong. King is really gifted at writing long books that don't feel as long as they really are, but this book is undeniably longer than it needs to be. I don't necessarily dislike the main protagonists, but I'm not a fan of the amount of time we spend with them in this book. Their stories are fine, but it feels like a problem to me when Sheriff Pangborn gets more page time than anyone else and he's the least interesting character out of a slew of really good ones.
NEEDFUL THINGS is also billed as "The Last Castle Rock Story," and that presents some problems as well. Castle Rock is the fictional little Maine town that serves as the setting for many of the early-mid career King novels and stories. This was supposed to be the last one to take place in what must be one of the most snake-bit towns in all of fiction. What this means is that we get consistent and overt shout-outs to CUJO, THE DARK HALF, THE BODY, THE DEAD ZONE, and several others. I found it quite fun at first, but it started feeling insufferable before the ham-handed climax. I mean, Sheriff Pangborn literally scares Gaunt with shadow puppets of Cujo and the sparrows from the Dark Half, and it was a less than satisfactory way to end things. King's always done this shared-universe gimmick to a degree, but I think this was the first time he was quite as up front with it. I'm not a fan of that idea at all, and I think his insistence in creating a Stephen King multiverse is what ruined The Dark Tower for me.
KING TROPES PRESENT
Heavy baseball references
Small Town in Maine
Evil defeated by barely-explained inner magic or mystical outside force
"Ayup!" or "A-yuh!"
Wise grandmotherly figure
Prophetic dreams/visions
Kids in peril
Overweight people being foolish and/or evil
Cocaine and/or Booze
Salvation found in childhood imagination or childhood ephemera
Amusing and colorful colloquialisms ("gay as old dad's hatband," "Bet your fur," etc.)
BUT IS IT GOOD?"
It's good. Not great, but good. I have a lot of affection for it, and it's a fun read despite the length and some irritating bits. I doubt that it makes my personal Stephen King top ten, but it probably makes the top fifteen.
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