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Rereading Stephen King, chapter Needful Things | Books | The Guardian

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. What a fantastic book by the great man. Needful things is a great book. A shop owner who gives everybody what they want for a price. Soon the whole town is in chaos and at each others throats. Great concept and well worth the read.

The film is great too. How people covet the things they so desire and will do almost anything to get it. Even if it is out of reach people will covet. Cain and Able What a fantastic book by the great man. Cain and Able springs to mind. This selfish attitude that humanity has come to. Striving to get to the top and step on many to get there. The Black Friday day when hundreds or thousands of people queue outside a department store waiting for it to open.

Some even camp outside for days! Just so they can get their hands on the latest TV for a knock down price. People trampling over each other and fighting over merchandise. This book epitomizes the greed, envy, ambition and downright stupidity that us, as human beings, have come too. What a crazy Profitable; I say that with my tongue in my cheek for only the top profits; paradigm we live in.

Some authors write about king slayers. Others write about serial killers. He writes about fuckers capable of leveling entire towns. Whether those responsible are aliens or devils, it doesn't matter. The ride is usually a fun one. Needful Things is no different. It is, however, the epitome of a bloated Stephen King novel. There are entire characters herein that serve zero purpose. Nelson and Frank Jewett's stories could have been left out.

Ace Merrill is another pointless Some authors write about king slayers. Ace Merrill is another pointless character. I simply do not see what he added to the proceedings. I never understood why Buster couldn't do everything by himself. Even when those two split up, they're still only across the street from one another. Even the movie version cut Ace and nobody cared. I theorize that Ace was a loose end for King, the bad guy that got away, so he felt the urge to give the hood a proper send off. Insert Ace in Needful Things. Now I know what you're thinking. Yeah, I think certain characters are useless and some scenes are pointless, but I dig this book quite a bit.

King always impresses me with how he manages to create entire fictional towns populated with such true-to-life personalities and make it seem so fucking effortless. At this point in his career , King had killed two small towns and crippled another three: I remain in awe of that fact. In less than fifteen years, one author populated and then ravaged five small towns. And we loved every minute of it. I think several things make readers ignore the bloat in Needful Things. Cora and Myra's Elvis Presley fascination is awfully hilarious, as well as some of the shenanigans other characters get into.

The beshitted picture of one townie's mother had me in tears, I was laughing so hard. Buster was blissfully insane, and Nettie and Wilma's fight scene is one of the most gruesome in all of horror literature. This novel is jampacked with awesome occurrences, and that makes the bloat feel worth it. Even the uber goofy ending can be ignored because the rest of the book is Gaunt refers to the items in his shop as "gray things", which supports my theory that all of King's works can be tied back to the Dark Tower series by way of The Tommyknockers or IT.

I believe all of King's supernatural villains, all of his monsters, belong to the race of Old Ones known as the Prim. But more on that in my A Decade with King: Pop Merrill Ace Merrill Evvie Chalmers I love how this woman is in five different King books, but is never on-camera, as it were George Bannerman Thad Beaumont view spoiler [ This poor fucker made it through The Dark Half only to have one of the longest off-camera downward spirals King has written.

It's mentioned here that Thad's wife leaves him and takes the kids with her, and then, ten years later in Bag of Bones , King mentions how Thad ended up killing himself. It's not the best book King has ever written, but it's far, far, far from his worst. Needful Things is a favorite for many King fans, and I understand why. I simply think he could have used fewer characters to the same end.

Well worth a read, whether you're a King fan or not. Whole sections of this book make no sense unless you've read The Dark Half.

Town slaying, like a boss. View all 15 comments. Oct 10, Bradley rated it it was amazing Shelves: With this tome of Stephen King small town horror, I'm constantly amazed that I had missed picking this up and geeking out over it when it first came out. I'm certain that I would have. It has all the things I'd been learning to geek out about with his general horror universe, including Cthulhu references, homages to his previous works including events and characters, all of them strung up as if on a map of homicide victims on a perp board, and of course, Castle Rock, itself.

Castle Rock Entertainm With this tome of Stephen King small town horror, I'm constantly amazed that I had missed picking this up and geeking out over it when it first came out. Castle Rock Entertainment, indeed. This is the grand blowout of the town, with evil creeping in and changing all of its residents from a patina of middle-class respectability and Rockwellian charm into roving bands of gleeful murderers with very dark hearts.

And can we really blame it entirely upon Antique Madness? That equally weird craze of the early 90's, turned EVIL? Or was it just Mr. Gaunt, aka Flagg, maybe? Nah, it's just the greed and pride of humanity, stoked in just the right way, and that's what Stephen King is really known for. This novel is a shining example of all this, taking all the best simmering-pot boil-over of 'Salem's Lot, the twisted madness of Tommyknockers, and throwing in an epic battle of two older ladies eviscerating each other in broad daylight on the street.

Truly a charming novel. Mar 13, Paul rated it really liked it Shelves: Like always stephen King knows how to surprises us???

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King writes small town claustrophobic so well, the idea of a shop that sells any item that a customer need for just the smallest of price is a great Pack with the Devil tale. View all 4 comments. Little shop of horrors. Little shop of terror. Little shop of horrors Okay, so not exact. He doesn't look like a monster. No, monsters never do. He looks like a man of course. Nice enough looking guy, the owner. Sells the most interesting items in that new shop on Main.

Things you hadn't thought about before, or even knew you needed. Now that I think about it, a very kind man, that Leland Gaunt is. Cares about the community of Castle Rock and the people here. Strange how he cares, seeing he's only just arrived. Yeah, the horror is not in the shop.

Needful Things

It's on the outside. Them people in town. Stir the pot Leland Gaunt. Just a little stir required. Cause it don't take much in the town of Castle Rock to get things a going. I passed the shop today, but I won't be buying. Hmm, would you look at that thing sittin' in the window. Well, maybe I'll just pop in real quick. But I won't be buyin'. View all 30 comments. Leland Gaunt is the proprietor and he has an extensive stock, something will definitely catch your eye, I guarantee it.

Is it the perfect store? Well it possesses the thing you desire most and its available for whatever you think it's worth, with a small proviso, 'Everyone loves something for nothing. Well it possesses the thing you desire most and its available for whatever you think it's worth, with a small proviso, you have to do something in return, a small prank or an undercover delivery.

Nothing to worry about, honestly? We then meet what appears to be the whole town as various characters visit Needful Things and become enthralled by what's on offer. Everyone it seems has a trick to play for Leland Gaunt and the repercussions get ever closer to a violent outcome of catastrophic proportions. So once again it's not a review as such but more a gushing of what I loved about Needful Things, so if you've not read it then proceed with caution, there will definitely be spoilers.

First off young Brian Rusk and his baseball card, the start point of a particularly harrowing battle between two ladies equal in determination and destined to meet amidst knife and cleaver. Nettie Cobb, Polly's housekeeper, and her enemy Wilma Jerzyck, a strong minded but not really likable woman. A tragic ending befalls all three participants of this game and three brilliant second tier characters. Possessed mind, body and soul, by the trickster in his lair. Just a touch of his wares or a step into his hide is all it takes and you want it, can't get enough of it and you'll do anything to keep and protect it.

He is a gifted amateur magician and is able to produce a number of different and complex shadow puppets and sleight-of-hand tricks. After overcoming his own bind to Gaunt at the game end, courtesy of Polly his tricks prove to be the deciding factor in the fight against evil. And Polly is just lovely, the pain, the pills, her terrible loss and the fight to overcome her purchase from Needful Things.

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Your first opinion well and truly formed. And we meet plenty of characters in this story, the majority of them memorable not all of them likeable but none without consequence. If I had anything near a criticism it would be an over indulgence in characters, when we hit the religious group action and the street fight, I wasn't bothered so much with the lead up.

It was a five-foot-long snake hidden inside a can of nuts. So where does Needful Things sit in my list of King Favourites, well if you trawl the net you won't find this book in anyone's top ten it's more likely to be in the bottom half in fact. I really enjoyed it, both the story and the characters sparked my interest immediately, it may have gone round the mountain to get to the top but I like good characterization and this has it in abundance. I think this definitely sits in my top ten, not quite up there with The Stand and IT but not a million miles away.

Also posted at http: View all 10 comments. Jul 30, Nicholas Armstrong rated it did not like it. I was going to say that the reason I didn't like this book was the huge cast of characters, but that isn't true. Sure, the huge cast bothered me, but I've read books like that before, the problem was far more to do with the writing. The writing was belabored, tired, and trite. I say this with the utmost respect for King, but it was. For example, the huge cast of characters followed a largely identical format.

With a book rocking or so pages of small font, that's a lot of reading, and, as with I was going to say that the reason I didn't like this book was the huge cast of characters, but that isn't true. With a book rocking or so pages of small font, that's a lot of reading, and, as with Atlas Shrugged , it had better be worth it. Scenes were repeated, almost identically, with different characters. A dozen characters marched into Needful Things, had a nearly identical conversation with Leland Gaunt, and then marched out. Different characters vandalized cars and I had to watch them both.

Even though they were there for the same reason, doing the same thing, and it was largely the exact same scene. It was that the book was extremely repetitive with no payoff. Additionally, the end was far, far too gimicky. I know endings are hard, I really do, but using a cliche one is not okay. Use a variation, spice it up, do something new.

It added nothing, and it didn't improve the story or development. Sorry to say, but this is the worst King book I've read, and I really hope it is the worst of them all. View all 11 comments. Before approaching his work back in high school, I was vaguely aware of books like Cujo , Pet Sematary , Christine and It mostly due to their movie incarnations , and based on these, I assumed that King was all about the thrills and chills of the unexplained or just plain weird.

It turns out the real horrors of his books are quite easy to explain, but no less frightening for this. Human nature is really all there is to it; there may be a homicidal clown on the loose in a small town, but you can bet it will be the people of that town that demonstrate the most monstrosity. A little boy is raised from the dead by a supernatural force, but is it the force that is frightening, or what it does to people who should leave the dead well enough alone? A teenage girl exhibits frightening telekinetic powers, but would these abilities have turned to destruction without the impetus of cruelty and isolation?

Needful Things is very much a story about people and the horrors they inflict on each other, with little or no help from sinister forces. Leland Gaunt, a charming man with a sixth sense for a deal and some strange physical attributes , blows into the tiny town of Castle Rock to peddle his wares.

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Well, make a sensation it does, and only King could create such an odd mixture of small-town life and big-time evil working in perfect conjunction with each other. Castle Rock is a highly believable community, full of characters that successfully tread the line dividing people from morality tale archetypes. Leland Gaunt offers amazing merchandise for a steal. Brian Rusk, a fairly typical eleven-year-old boy, collects baseball cards, and when Mr. Gaunt offers him a valuable Sandy Kofax card, signed to a boy named Brian no less, for ninety-eight cents, how can Brian say no?

Gaunt meets more of the Castle Rock folks, and sells them more of his astounding merchandise, some strange and sinister events begin to unfold, much to the consternation of Sheriff Alan Pangborn. He carries some typically heroic emotional baggage dead wife and son , but his character is essentially untarnished by his suffering, and even a little unnatural.

He is a bit odd, but in the way that only charming and highly conscientious men can be. He is also the consummate gentleman, as his love affair with the mysterious Polly constantly illustrates. While a character like Alan is usually irritating in a book so fundamentally free of optimism as Needful Things, there is also something very basic and natural about the White Knight Alan facing the sinister Gaunt for the souls of Castle Rock. While the set-up of playing people against each other and their baser instincts is not new to horror, King does take an interesting sort of domino approach to the overall plot, setting up seemingly unrelated characters to force simmering, small town grudges to the murderous boiling point.

And he is rarely kind to his characters; even the most innocuous and kindly characters are subject to some pretty gruesome stuff. There is one element of the story I find a little confusing. About two-thirds of the way through the story, Ace Merrill, an aging hood who works for Gaunt, runs across a bit of bizarre graffiti. If anyone can clarify any of this for me, feel free to comment with your theory. The two incredibly disparate writers simply share a rare talent for creating highly believable communities that are integral to their storytelling methods.

If these were just a few unrelated characters living in proximity to one another, the whole thing would never have held up with any success, but the community feels very real, so it is both sad and terrifying when the whole thing essentially implodes and neighbors show their true colors to one another. Ok, this could go on forever, so I'll wrap it up. This was a top notch read, really. Aug 09, M. Mason rated it it was amazing. In some ways it is a much more intriguing story in that it deals with a much more base issue: But there is always a second price, to perform a small prank on somebody else.

Needless to say, the pranks become increasingly malevolent and re-ignites old animosities between individuals. Soon the whole town has descended into chaos and murderous violence and it is down to Sheriff Pangborn to put it right. Because of the subject matter, the story required a bit more in-depth characterisation than we might be used to from Stephen King. This he does very well and the interactions, positive and negative flow well with the plot.

A reread for me. Absolutely amazing and epic tale that perfectly captures and creates the quintessential essence of small town America. The large cast of characters are all so unique, perfectly fleshed out and entertaining. Leland Gaunt is badass and so cleverly, evil and cunning that he's one of King's best characters in my opinion. This is a hell of a read and King outdid himself with this one. The plot may seem simple but it's far from it.

The way King was able to concoct such a harrowing and A reread for me. The way King was able to concoct such a harrowing and complex tale of diabolical wickedness is astounding. It's a long tome but it's well worth the time and it goes by quickly because it's so engrossing. In my top 3 King books of all time. Needful Things is my favorite Stephen King novel. Hell, it's probably my favorite novel, period. I felt that way going into this reread, and those feelings did not change upon reading it for the King nails everything here: I know this novel has its detractors, and that's cool.

Different strokes for different folks, brother. This novel is long but not e Needful Things is my favorite Stephen King novel. This novel is long but not extraneous, he emphasized and stars one of King's largest casts. I dig that, and some readers don't. Personally, I love every character here: This novel is King at his most Dickensian: And like the best of Dickens's work, this book is fucking hilarious at times. In this satire, he hits the nail on the head every. I would wager SK had a ton of fun writing this novel because it's a blast to read.

That's not to say this book is lighthearted or breezy; it's anything but. While it has it's hilarious moments, those are contrasted sharply with some of the darkest, most despairing scenes King has ever penned. Why is this book not mentioned in the same breath as Pet Sematary or Cujo when this author's bleakest works are discussed?

Some of the text is almost too downtrodden to bare I'm thinking, for instance, of Cora Rusk's distraction — her longing to go back to her Elvis fantasy — and inability to understand what has just happened to her son. As well, it is as relevant today as it was in — if not more so. In a sense, this novel feels just as chilling and timely in the Trump era as or It Can't Happen Here. Needless to say, this is King's masterwork — at least, for me it is. Literature is so damn subjective and every Constant Reader is different. But for me, Needful Things is the tome that shows the impossible heights King is capable of climbing to.

He's come close since — and he had come close before this novel released — but this is in a class all its own. My highest recommendation, and then some. Favorite Quote "The goods which had so attracted the residents of Castle Rock — the black pearls, the holy relics, the carnival glass, the pipes, the old comic books, the baseball cards, the antique kaleidoscopes — were all gone.

Gaunt had gotten down to his real business, and at the end of things, the business was always the same. The ultimate item had changed with the years, just like everything else, but such changes were surface things, frosting of different flavors on the same dark and bitter cake. At the end, Mr. Gaunt always sold them weapons. I did not take notes while reading this. I know, I know; bad Cody! I just wanted to enjoy the ride. The car Ace Merrill picks up for Mr. Gaunt is a Tucker Talisman — a type of car that does not exist, and I am almost tempted to say its name is a reference to The Talisman.

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One of whom is a corrupt boat salesman and gambler named Danforth Keeton J. There's no limit to how far these people will go for what they need, even after they've seen the effect that Gaunt and his shop has on their friends and families. At the scene, he leaves a note warning Wilma that it is her last warning. Even the movie version cut Ace and nobody cared. Jackson as Eddie Warburton.

As well, when Ace sits in the Talisman for the first time he thinks about how fine a new car smells. I am sure there are many more connections to be found here there are references to Derry and some scenes are set in Cumberland Hospital, which is close to Jerusalem's Lot , but I didn't feel like chasing them.

View all 7 comments. See this review and more like it on www. I read a few of his books as a young teenager, but those years are so far behind me now that I barely remember most of them! When an autho See this review and more like it on www. Both the show, and Needful Things, take place in the fictional Maine town that King has centered a number of his stories in, and both share a few characters that made both watching the show and reading this book at the same time a great deal of fun.

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Anyone who has read even one Stephen King novel knows that where he really shines — aside from the horror — is in his characters. King is a master at building a vividly realized world that is perfectly emblematic of small town life and the people living within it. He brings his characters to life more and more with ever passing page.

Even the smaller characters are detailed in their motivations and backstories. Truly everyone in this novel has their place and purpose, as Leland Gaunt, the proprietor of Needful Things uses their own desires to turn friends and neighbors against each other. This book is chock full of references to earlier horrors that have visited the town, and the way those events have effected the characters.

A more well-versed fan of his novels is sure to get a lot of enjoyment out of the way this novel pays respect to those earlier stories. I have to pay respect to the way this book is plotted as well. After Pangborn has gone she tries prying the necklace open to see what is inside and gets an electric shock which throws the necklace across the room. Polly is immediately crippled by her arthritis and cannot reach to pick up the necklace.

Gaunt appears in her bedroom and replaces the necklace on Polly's neck. Polly is so grateful, she pays him immediately and is clearly mesmerized by Gaunt who then seduces her. After which he states that Pangborn is corrupt and has been embezzling money from the town with Keeton for years. He convinces her to go to Pangborn's yacht to look for the money. She does and sees lots of money strewn over Pangborn's desk. She phones Pangborn from the yacht, accuses him of the crime, and in disgust calls off the engagement. Keeton becomes afraid that everyone including his wife Myrtle Keeton Gillian Barber is out to get him, and Gaunt convinces him that he is his only ally.

Gaunt also has Keeton attack deputy Norris Ridgewick at the police station. Pangborn manages to subdue Keeton by handcuffing Keeton to his car. Shortly after this, Keeton manages to escape Ridgewick by kicking him in the groin. He then drives home where he accuses his wife of having an affair with Norris and kills her with a hammer. The phone rings and it is Gaunt. He tells Keeton to come to see him, as he has something for him that will make him feel better. Hugh Priest goes into the bar with a shotgun and straight up to the owner, who also pulls out a shotgun from behind the bar and they shoot each other.

Gaunt's pranks spread throughout the town and its citizens. Mistaken suspicion, paranoia and anger spread with it. Gaunt starts selling his customers guns, encouraging them to kill whoever wronged them, playing on their greed and fear. Gaunt has Keeton place explosives in the town's Catholic church, where Sheriff Pangborn is inside talking to Father Meehan relaying his new suspicions that Gaunt is the Devil incarnate, but Meehan refuses to believe him. The church explodes, but Pangborn and Meehan manage to escape with their lives. Father Meehan believes that Reverend Willy Rose is behind the attack on the Church and leaves to fight him.

A riot sparks throughout the town, with Gaunt watching from the sidelines. Sheriff Pangborn tries desperately to restore order. He pulls a gun on Father Meehan who is trying to behead Reverend Rose and Gaunt encourages him to shoot them. Pangborn fires into the air, much to Gaunt's disappointment. Getting everyone's attention, Pangborn convinces the townsfolk of Castle Rock to come to their senses, exposing Gaunt's true nature and his web of lies and manipulation. Everyone stops fighting and admits their pranks, but Keeton, despondant after everything, walks up to Pangborn and Ridgewick, pointing a gun at them with a bomb strapped to himself, threatening to blow everyone up.

He is talked down by Pangborn and turns him against Gaunt. Keeton walks up to Gaunt, who taunts him about his inadequacies and is heard to repeatedly refer to him as 'Buster'. Infuriated by this, Keeton tackles Gaunt through the store window, setting off the bomb and destroying Needful Things. Defeated but completely unharmed, Gaunt emerges from the burning wreckage of his store saying that this wasn't his best work. Gaunt walks up to Pangborn and Polly, telling them they make a cute couple, and he will encounter their grandson in —then departs, presumably to continue his vicious evil work elsewhere, leaving in the same black car in which he arrived.

Roger Ebert gave it 1. It's not funny and it's not scary and it's all sort of depressing. King's horrific fantasies, it can lay claim to being the most unpleasant. Amanda Plummer for best supporting actress. This airing included an hour of excised footage not included in the theatrical release. No home releases of the 3-hour version have been released to date. The TBS version has a large number of differences to the home release version, including scene extensions, abridgements, different scene arrangements, and more of the town's citizens and their lives.

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Needful Things is a horror novel by American author Stephen King. It is the first novel King wrote after his rehabilitation from drug and alcohol addiction. Needful Things is a American horror film based on Stephen King's novel of the same name. The film was directed by Fraser C. Heston and stars Max.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Needful Things Theatrical release poster. Retrieved 31 March Needful Things ". In The Frame Film Reviews. Retrieved 30 March The New York Times. Retrieved 17 April Science fiction and fantasy reference index, Bibliography Short fiction Unpublished and uncollected Awards and nominations. Heroes for Hope American Vampire Adaptations of works by Stephen King. Carrie The Rage: