BAG OF BONES

'''Bag of Bones''' is a 1998 novel by Stephen King. Novelist Amy Tan has said of the book that it is full of "the witty and obsessive voice of King's powerful imagination." ''Bag of Bones'' is important in that it is one of the first of King's books to have been given in-depth literary analysis beyond that of the horror genre by critics.
Its themes include the trials of the writing process (the main character Mike Noonan has writer's block), the power of memory (the ghosts of Noonan's past as well as the ghosts of Sara Laughs, the creepy lakeside house to which he moves) and the ghosts lurking close behind the everyday and the mundane. A crucial human element, however, is the struggle of a young widow and her daughter to stay away from the grip of Max Devore, the power-mad figurehead of the community.

Contents

Plot introduction

Plot summary

Intertextual references

Film, TV or theatrical adaptations

External links

Plot introduction

After the sudden death of his wife Jo, author Mike Noonan is plagued by writer's block, with his dreams haunted by the summer house he shared with her, he reluctantly decides to return to the isolated lakeside retreat.
There he finds his once beloved town in the grip of the powerful millionaire Max Devore, who twists this small community to his own purpose, attempting to take his young granddaughter away from her widowed young mother. As Mike becomes drawn into their struggle he falls in love with both of them and is further drawn into the mystery of this ghostly town.

Plot summary

The narrator, Mike Noonan, is an author living in Derry, Maine who suffers from severe writer's block after the death of his wife, Johanna (aka Jo), from an undiagnosed brain aneurism. Particularly disquieting to Mike is that his wife had a home pregnancy test on her person, but never revealed the pregnancy to him. Mike languishes for years after his wife's death, and he finds himself unable to write without going into panic attacks. Due to his writer's block, and unknown to his agent and editor, he falls back on unpublished novels he had completed years before.
Four years after Jo's death, Mike begins to experience nightmares set at his summer home, in an unregistered township, TR-90. He decides to confront his fears and heads to the home, known to locals as Sara Laughs. In town, Mike meets Mattie Devore, a widow, and her young daughter, Kyra. Mattie's husband was the son of Max Devore, a rich and influential man in the town, who didn't approve of his son's marriage to Mattie. Max wants custody of his granddaughter and Mike decides to hire a lawyer as an act of kindness to Mattie. Mike gradually develops feelings for the younger Mattie, and is told that Jo frequently returned to the town. Max Devore commits suicide, which seemingly leaves Mattie and Kyra free from his influence. Mike begins to write again while both Kyra and Mike experience hauntings in their homes. The author realizes that the ghost of Jo is assisting him by solving the mystery of Sara Tidwell, a blues singer whose spirit is haunting Mike's home.
Max Devore still manages to terrorize Mike, Kyra, and Mattie from beyond the grave. He had arranged for allies to attack Mattie, Mike, and their friends. Mattie is shot and dies, leaving her relationship with Mike unconsummated. Mike takes Kyra back to Sara Laughs and gives Kyra cocoa laced with Benadryl to make her sleep. He begins to have thoughts of drowning Kyra in her sleep then killing himself. Mike goes so far as to draw the bath in which to drown Kyra, but there are still pieces to the mystery that Mike doesn't understand and wants to know. As Kyra sleeps, he goes to Jo's studio to search for some final answers. He discovers documents that Jo had hidden away before her death, and among the papers is a genealogy showing Mike's blood relationship to one of the town families. Several had firstborn children with "K" names and had been murdered or died under suspicious circumstances. The genealogy shows that Mike and Jo's child (who was going to be named Kia) would have been the next firstborn child with a "K" name in the family line, had she been born.
Mike realizes this must be a curse from Sara for something that had been done to her. He returns to the house, checks on the still-sleeping Kyra, and drains the bath meant for her drowning. He can feel Sara's influence to take Kyra to the lake, but he fights it off. He leaves the house once more to search for Sara's grave site, knowing that the only way to break the curse and keep Kyra safe would be to destroy Sara's bones. On his way to where Mike suspects Sara is buried, the ghosts of Max Devore and several other town men appear to him and try to block him from getting to the grave. Mike learns through a vision that these men had viciously raped and killed Sara, and then drowned her son Kito in the lake after he found them with his mother. Furthermore, all the "K" children who had died were descendants of those men. Mike makes it to the grave site, but Sara's ghost doesn't want the curse ended prematurely. She tries to stop Mike, and attempts to assume corporeal form to do so. Jo appears in corporeal form herself and tells Mike he must hurry as Sara has enlisted the help of "The Outsider" to harm Mike and prevent him from reaching Sara's bones. Jo struggles to fight off The Outsider while Mike works to dig up and destroy Sara's bones with lye. Mike accomplishes his task, and the curse is broken, however, an assistant to Max Devore (Rogette) kidnaps Kyra with the intention of drowning her on Max Devore's behalf.
Mike tracks Kyra and Rogette to a neighboring property where he finds Kyra has bitten Rogette and attempted to escape onto a dock. Mike tries to get Rogette and keep her away from Kyra when Mattie's ghost appears and knocks Rogette into the Lake. Rogette attempts to pull Mike into the lake with her, but she is impaled by wreckage from the dock. Mattie's ghost says her goodbyes to Mike and Kyra, and she tells Kyra that she is now Mike's daughter. The novel ends with an epilogue in which readers are told that Mike has retired from writing, and he has been attempting to adopt Kyra. His status as a single, unrelated male has complicated things, and the adoption has taken longer than Mike anticipated. Still, the state has allowed Mike to visit Kyra, and she has been allowed overnight stays with him. The outcome of the adoption is left unresolved at the end of the novel, but the reader is given hope that it will be a positive outcome.

Intertextual references

★ Ralph Roberts, the main character from ''Insomnia'', appears briefly in the novel.

★ Joe Wyzer, from ''Insomnia'', appears briefly in the novel.

★ Ray Garraty, the main character from ''The Long Walk'', is mentioned in the novel.

★ Outsiders are referred to in ''The Dark Tower''.

★ Mike Noonan reads books by Bill Denborough, from ''It''.

★ Sara Laughs is located on Dark Score Lake, from ''Gerald's Game''.

★ Thad Beaumont, from ''The Dark Half'', is mentioned as having killed himself.

★ Castle Rock, Maine sheriff Alan Pangborn is spoken of.

★ Jared Devore, Max's ancestor, mentions Shawshank Prison.

★ Sara Laughs is the twin to Cara Laughs, a location in ''Song of Susannah'' and ''The Dark Tower''.

★ ''Lisey's Story'', King's 2006 novel, mentions a Mike Noonan novel, but not the outcome of his adoption of Kyra.

★ The character Tim Carpenter in the movie ''Final Destination 2'' can be seen reading ''Bag of Bones'' before he goes to sleep.

★ In Stephen King's ''Kingdom Hospital'', in the episode "Goodbye Kiss" a maintenance man can be seen reading ''Bag of Bones''.

★ The novel won the Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel in 1998.

★ TR-90 is the location of Kashwak in King's novel ''Cell''.

Film, TV or theatrical adaptations

At one point, the novel was optioned for a film, according to King's website. However, the IMDB link related to the film is no longer present.^[1]
On August 14, 2007, MASTERS OF HORROR will be returning for a third season, according to series creator Mick Garris, but not to Showtime, and this time Lionsgate will be the studio partnering on the series. Garris is already working on some film projects, including an adaptation of Stephen King’s BAG OF BONES, which he will produce and direct, and the King story FROM A BUICK 8, which Tobe Hooper will direct.

External links

★ Stephen King's official website