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Ways to be 'Thinner' (Stephen King)
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I've recently discovered the book 'Thinner' by Stephen King, writing as Richard Bachman. It may be one of my favorite Stephen King novels so far.
The story starts with a grotesquely overweight lawyer. But it's a Stephen King novel, so that's where the normalcy ends. In fact, in the middle of the book, one of the characters says something along the lines of 'Jesus, it's like you're talking about a Stephen King novel!' as a slight jab.
This lawyer, much in the way of every other Gypsy horror story ('Drag Me to Hell', 'Buffy') does something to make the group of Gypsies travelling through his small town angry. In this particular case, he hits one of them with his car.
Since he is friends with everyone in the town, and no one really likes Gypsies, the court case definitely leans in the main character, Billy Halleck's, favor. As he's leaving th courthouse, in a good mood because of his success, an old Gypsy man with a rotting nose touches his face and whispers 'Thinner.'
After that day, Billy begins to lose some weight. At first it's slow, slow enough that he may just be losing it on his own. But he really hasn't changed his diet or been exersizing, so he doesn't understand wht he's losing so much weight. The doctor can't even find anything wrong with him. And he keeps hearing that Gypsy with the rotting nose whisper 'Thinner'...
He starts to lose weight at a more drastic, alarming weight, so he decides to take it up with the Gypsies themselves. His wife starts to think he's crazy, and wants to have him committed. I'm not going to spoil the ending, but the last chapter, 'Gypsy Pie', is amazing in a way only Stephen King could pull off.
There was apparently a movie adaptation in 1996, but as I've yet to see it, I'll have to get back to you about that.
As I've said, I really like this book. Top ten Stephen King novels at least. His writing is amazing, as I've grown to expect, but the story is a grittier, more bare story than I'm used to with King. Perhaps that's why he was writing under his pseudonym?
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