The Book of Rueben

The fifth novel about Nodd's Ridge, Maine, chronicles the life of the popular Reuben Styles, who survives an abused childhood and seems to find the American dream, only to have it crumble away from him. 50,000 first printing. $50,000 ad/promo. Tour.

In addition to its own deftly crafted tale, King's latest provides a rich backdrop for two of her earlier protagonists-Reuben's second wife, the eponymous Pearl, and his son Sam (One on One). Set once again in the blue-collar milieu of Nodd's Ridge, Maine, the story covers 25 years in the life of Reuben Styles, a change-of-life baby consigned in his youth to living in a horse barn by his heartless farmer father. The book's focus-an unpleasant one-is Reuben's marriage to Laura Haggerty, the virginal, doll-like object of a high school crush. An unrelievedly unsympathetic character, Laura hefts food and scalding coffee at her husband, strikes the children and becomes born again-the better to fool around with the Reverend Smart, whom Reuben calls "that vain peacock of a con man." Interwoven with the Styles saga is that of the widow Christopher and her son David, summer people whose movement in and out of Reuben's life leaves unresolved plot threads that include an unsolved murder. (It is the widow's addiction to "boozing and cruising" that pulls Reuben into the use of alcohol; otherwise, the Christophers are extraneous and confusing players.) With graphic sexual encounters and daubs of humor, King etches a convincing portrait of a gentle male psyche while evoking the timbre of 1960s rural America.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

King (One on One, 1992, etc.) makes yet another trip to the Maine setting of four previous novels to wring a last drop of small-town life from a Nodd's Ridge long ago milked dry. This time, the focus is on Reuben Styles, whom King fans will recognize as Sam's father in One on One and Pearl's husband in Pearl. Here, as the hulking, hard-working son of an abusive farm owner, he's teetering on the brink of adulthood at the start of the Vietnam War. But he becomes a man before his time when his father, who's secretly dying of cancer, commits suicide, and he has to quit basketball at Greenspark Academy and take on more hours at the local garage to support his mother. Although work interferes with drinking beers with his friends at the quarry and chasing after his beautiful classmate Laura, it also enables him to buy the garage when he graduates from high school and to reap the benefits of the attentions of a voluptuous, alcoholic widow who spends summers on the lake with her two precocious children and her oft-neglected Cadillac. The affair ends when her eldest catches the two of them in flagrante delicto. Then her youngest gets shot, and everyone knows that it was no accident, despite the official ruling. Reuben now has hope for a normal life. He and Laura get together, marry, and manage to have three kids despite Laura's distaste for sex. Then Reuben turns to alcohol, telling himself he can handle her rejection since he's so in love. But when Laura turns to God and the arms of the fire-and-brimstone spouting preacher, leaves him in the name of Christ, empties his bank accounts, and steals his children, Reuben must face facts and fight back. Pulp fiction parading as an in-depth look at rural life. Exhaustingly hip with endless music quotes, an interracial relationship, bisexuality, and sex scandals. -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

In this prequel to Pearl (LJ 11/15/88) and One on One (LJ 2/15/93), Reuben Styles, a peripheral player in King's earlier novels, becomes an adult, takes over a local filling station, marries the girl he's loved since they were both teenagers, and fathers three children. Although mired in a marriage that even the improbably patient and long-suffering Reuben recognizes as a disaster, he's totally unprepared for Laura's vindictive behavior when she asks for a divorce. The novel's major weakness is that Laura is never presented as a particularly sympathetic character, so it's hard to understand why Reuben is attracted to her or why he keeps trying to accommodate her. Nonetheless, King is a good storyteller, and fans of her series about the working-class town of Nodd's Ridge will enjoy this one, too. For public libraries.
--Nancy Pearl, Washington Ctr. for the Book, Seattle
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Return to Nodd's Ridge, Maine, to learn the story of Reuben Styles, the father of Sam, who appeared in King's One on One. After the death of his abusive father, teenage Reuben has to support himself and his mother. He works as a garage mechanic and plans for a future with Laura, the girl he loves and eventually marries--but not before an interlude with an amorous widow. Laura produces three children she never particularly wanted in the first place before it all goes bad, leaving Reuben to ponder how his wife managed to change from the sweet girl he loved into a Bible-toting adulteress who steals his children. After a drawn-out divorce proceeding, Reuben manages to regain custody of the kids and start a new life with another woman, Pearl (see King's Pearl, 1989). This is a surprisingly moving, captivating story of an ordinary man with normal human faults reclaiming his knowledge of himself and his place in life. Highly recommended. Melanie Duncan