Review | Book review: Stephen King revisits and narrates an old title
The master of horror gives a superior interpretation of a 20-year-old story about a depopulated town whose sheriff is doing the depopulating
by Stephen King (read by Stephen King)
Audible (audiobook)
Stephen King published Desperation in 1996 as one version of a single story: the other, bizarre version was told in The Regulators by his pseudonym, Richard Bachman. (There was also a Desperation audiobook read by actress Kathy Bates, who won an Oscar as Annie Wilkes in Misery.) King has now re-recorded the text himself and he has a great villain to read: Sheriff Collie Entragian, who isn’t corrupt so much as supernaturally powered. Entragian terrorises the town of Desperation, whose depopulation, we quickly realise, is down to the sheriff. Cue messages from God, possessed animals and a demon called Tak who lives in a deserted mine. King’s dialogue leaves something to be desired, but this is a superior authorial interpretation.
