fantasy book reviews science fiction book reviewsfantasy book reviews science fiction book reviewsHaunted Heart by Lisa Rogak

It must be difficult to write a biography of someone who is still living, who has not donated his papers to a library where one can get access to them, who is still active in his career, and who has a healthy sense of privacy. Even when the subject agrees to an interview, a biographer has to be aware that the subject is telling what he wants to tell and leaving out that which he does not care to discuss. If the interviewee is sufficiently charming, or is completely forthright on a particular subject that casts him in a poor light, the interviewer can easily lose sight of questions not asked. And when the subject has himself written a book or two about his past, you have to wonder just what you can come up with that’s new and interesting.

Lisa Rogak’s Haunted Heart, a biography of Stephen King, is interesting and entertaining, but does not provide any information that is in the least new. It is surprising that this book landed on the Edgar ballot in the Best Critical/Biographical category because, while it is competent enough, it is not in the least revelatory. There are no revelations about King’s drug and alcohol use, because he already told those stories himself in On Writing (see review above). There is nothing new about King’s writing habits, because King has described those in many an interview. And there is no critical analysis of King’s writing, because Rogak limits herself to telling the story of King’s life, and apparently has no ambition to offer commentary on King’s many novels beyond the fact that they were published and, quite often, filmed.

Moreover, Rogak offers no insights into King’s marriage, parenting, friendships, business relationships, philanthropy or politics. Some subjects seem to beg for explication. For instance, it becomes apparent at some point in the book that King’s daughter, Naomi, is a lesbian. In conservative Maine, was that a problem for her? How did Stephen and Tabitha react to their daughter’s sexuality when they first learned of it? How do the Kings feel about the gay marriage movement that is so much in the news these days? And these questions lead to larger questions: what are King’s politics? We know he is a philanthropist, especially in and about Maine; but does he donate to one or the other political party? He sounds in some places in the book as if he’s a conservative, and in others as if he is a liberal; does he fit into either category?

As the years covered in the book get closer and closer to the present, the discussion of King, his family and his career gets less and less detailed, until we are brought into the present and find we have learned almost nothing about King’s last 20 years except that he wrote a lot, threatened to retire or at least stop publishing, was very rich, gave away a lot of money, and was nearly killed in an automobile accident. Did anyone interested in King not know these things already?

In 243 pages of text (the remaining pages are devoted to a timeline and an index), Rogak competently summarizes everything in the public domain about Stephen King’s life. While that might be sufficient to satisfy the curiosity of someone who is just today discovering King’s writing, it is frustrating to anyone who has been following King’s career since Carrie first came off the presses in 1974. I suspect that the definitive King biography will not be written until decades after his death — which I hope, for the sake of my reading life, is many, many years away indeed.

Haunted Heart — (2009) A biography of Stephen King by Lisa Rogak. Publisher: One of the most prolific and popular authors in the world today, Stephen King has become part of pop culture history. His best-selling novels such as Carrie, It, Christine, and many others have captured the imaginations of millions of readers. But who is the man behind those tales of horror, grief, and the supernatural? Where do these ideas come from? And what drives him to keep writing at a breakneck pace after a thirty year career? In this unauthorized biography, Lisa Rogak reveals the troubled background and lifelong fears that inspire one of the twentieth century’s most influential authors. Despite his dark and disturbing work, Stephen King has become revered by critics and his countless fans as an all-American voice more akin to Mark Twain than H. P. Lovecraft. Haunted Heart chronicles his story, revealing the character of a man who has created some of the most memorable — and frightening — stories found in literature today.

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  • Terry Weyna

    TERRY WEYNA, on our staff since December 2010, would rather be reading than doing almost anything else. She reads all day long as an insurance coverage attorney, and in all her spare time as a reviewer, critic and writer. Terry lives in Northern California with her husband, professor emeritus and writer Fred White, two rambunctious cats, and an enormous library.

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