TinyAd280 t1_jcm7p78 wrote on March 17, 2023 at 9:07 PM

"Cujo" by Stephen King. I did throw it across the room and to this day have never finished it. I was totally furious that he killed a character . . . let's just say there was no reason for this person to die. The story was basically over at that point.

In his defense, King said that he doesn't even remember writing that book, because he was so drugged up during that time.

HugoNebula t1_jcok1ms wrote on March 18, 2023 at 10:41 AM

King doesn't remember writing the book these days (that may be his age as much as anything), but he recalled it well enough in interviews at the time, just after Cujo was published. Regarding that scene specifically, he relates writing it and shocking himself (King, as you may know, doesn't write detailed outlines for he books, just writes it as he goes) and just sitting there, thinking it over. Eventually, he decided to carry on and see where that plot point took him.

I think it makes the book—the entire thing seems to be a critique of the destruction of the nuclear family and a treatise on karma.