Books: Gerald's Game By Stephen King (1992)

“Gerald and Jessie Burlingame have gone to their summer home on a warm weekday in October for a romantic interlude. After being handcuffed to her bedposts, Jessie tires of her husband's games, but when Gerald refuses to stop she lashes out at him with deadly consequences – he has a coronary. Still handcuffed, she is trapped and alone. Painful memories from her childhood bedevil her. Her only company is a hungry stray dog (the former Prince) and the sundry voices that populate her mind. As night comes, she is unsure whether it is her imagination or if she has another companion: someone watching her from the corner of her dark bedroom.”

 

When this book came out in 1992, I was rather turned off by the premise. I knew this was more a psychological terror novel than one of his supernatural ones, but the whole idea of a full-length novel about a women handcuffed to a bed did not seem like something I wanted to read then. Even today, some thirty years later, I’m still doubtful about some of his books. If only because there are a handful of King titles I’ve not read, this being one of them, as well as Delores Claiborne (a sort of “sister” novel to this one) and Misery, mostly because the premises did not seem to interest me (though, now that I think about, maybe because the "villains" of those books are more human than the supernatural kind, and real life is sort of horrible, especially now in 2025). It is also part of the reason I’m still going through his Bachman titles.

 

I do like Gerald's Game, but it’s a weird one, seemly more of an experimental one on King’s part to see if he could set a tale within the confines of one room. I also felt weirded out by his obsession with Jessie’s Dad and event of the (actual) eclipse of July 1963. King’s parents, in particular the mothers, are always a bit off. They all seem to have difficulties relating to their children. Most are mean and unpleasant. And for the longest time, I thought Jessie was imaging the “space cowboy” who hid in the corner of her room. I was sort of disappointed it turned out to be a real man. Scary? Maybe. But no so scary if the whole book was just focused on the serial killer.

 

It’s a another brutal book (again, perhaps started as Bachman title?), a bit overlong (alright, just too long), but beyond the idea of being handcuffed to a bed and almost no way to escape is a great metaphor for those who hate being confined, I found it a difficult read at times and wished for a different version.