The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon by Stephen King

Book suggested by Carol W., meeting hosted by Missy

Carol chose this book because she loves baseball and expects the Phillies to be in the World Series (right on!) and feels that King is a master storyteller. His first book was Carrie. He wrote under a pseudonym, Richard Bachman. He writes during the daytime because it is too scary to write at night as the subject matter generally involves things that scare him. The King family lives in New England and one of their sons is also a writer. Many of King's novels and short stories have been made into movies. He likes to terrify his readers, horrify his readers, and, if all else fails, gross them out. Weird!

We discussed, in an open forum, subjects that ranged from Tricia's survival knowledge, the mosquitos, the fake phone call (throwing us a curveball), and her estranged parents. We found the "sub audible" perspective interesting. Pat D. searched for symbolism in the weak story line and wondered whether the story was meant to be a metaphor for life (overcoming obstacles). Lori and Barb wondered if Tricia lived or died at the end of the book. We chose to believe that she lived happily ever after.

It was interesting that even though a baseball player was in the title of the book, there was little discussion of Tom Gordon or baseball. Most thought the story was weak in content, but well written and we would like to read another Stephen King novel if it's not too scary.

Stephen King's website: http://www.stephenking.com/index.html