Hello everyone and welcome to the Stephen King cast One Man's Musings on the Works of Stephen King.

Each week I will review one entry in the bibliography of Stephen King in the chronological order of publication,

and this week I'm looking at the novel that Stephen King believes is his best.

A very personal examination on marriage, an introspective existential tale of love, of loss, of inspiration, and sacrifice,

the emotionally charged Lise's story.

As you know, Stephen King is often criticized by yours truly of having his protagonist's function

within the story as writers.

Write what you know is a hallmark of storytellers, and Stephen King certainly knows writing,

so it's no surprise that when living up to this belief, he populates his novels with

writer protagonists.

In the case of Thad Beaumont in the Dark Half, Mort Rainey and Secret Window, Secret Garden,

Paul Sheldon and Misery, these characters have to be writers.

There are other cases where the protagonists don't have to be writers, and changing their profession wouldn't alter the fundamental concepts of the story.

Such cases include Ben Mears from Salem's Lot, Bill Denver from It, Bobby Anderson, and Jim Gardner from the Tommy Knockers.

However, with Leacy's story, Lecy's husband, Scott, has to be a writer.

If the profession change, then King would certainly continue to explore the grief, as he does with Lecy's story.

But because of the very real-world event that occurred in 1999,

Scott needs to mirror Stephen King's profession in order for it to play to his strengths,

which is that it feels like Stephen King's most personal novel to date.

And as you may know,

in 1999, Stephen King was the recipient of a truly terrible accident which a van slammed

into him as he was taking a walk. Stephen King's injuries were so extensive, he did die for a moment,

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