Cujo - Stephen King

I read a Stephen King after a long, long time. The last time was Carrie, a pure horror book, which was extremely tightly written, and therefore was quite a treat.

Cujo, is not so much a horror book as it is a thriller cum drama. In the sense, it doesn’t have your usual spirits, and ghosts, and apparitions out to capture human souls. It is about a rabid St. Bernard dog, Cujo.

There is quite a lot going in the book. It’s not your usual Stephen King book where really the ghost or the villain is the central theme of the story. In this book, Cujo, while an important element of the narration, is tied in to the other aspects of the character’s lives which are as vital in the continuity of the story.

The protagonists, Vic and Donna Trenton and their kid Tad, have their worries. Vic’s career is at a break point. Donna’s having an affair with a Steve Kemp, and when she tries to end it with him, he becomes spiteful and sends out a nasty note to Vic announcing that he had been fucking her while handsome hubby toiled at work. As if that were not enough to shatter Vic, his major client, Sharp Cereal Company has been planning on pulling the plug on AdWorx, Vic’s advertising company, and Vic and his partner have to travel to New York to try and salvage the situation. And with such life changing events happening all around, there are the daily chores that continue to hound, like a faulty valve in their family car, which Donna takes to Joe Chamber’s garage to get fixed.

Joe Chamber, the filthy, son of soil, mechanic, has his own life, with a subdued and dominated wife, Charity, and a son, Brett, who is increasingly taking a liking to his father’s mannerisms and way of life. Charity, in an attempt to get his son to see and adopt a more civilized living habits, takes him to her sister’s home in New York. That leaves Joe Chamber alone with Cujo, who by this time has got rabid from a bat-bite.

Cujo is dis-oriented, but continues to showcase his cunning, a reference that he might be possessed by the ghost of Frank Dodd, a serial killer from another of SK books ‘The Dead Zone’ who has a reference throughout this book. Cujo starts by killing Chamber’s neighbor. And just when Joe discovers his body, Cujo is on to him. And when Donna and Tad reach Joe Chamber’s garage, there is no one on the premise to warn them beware: Dog on premises. Sputtering, spitting and using up the last of the car’s life, Donna drives into the garage, leaving the car in no shape to make it back without repairs. As she is about to get off the car to hunt for Joe, the dog enters the scene, driving the mother and son back in the car, windows up, and fear gripping their hearts. The car becomes their prison. And Cujo stands guard. Vic is not in town to be of help. And the garage is at the end of the world for anyone to come around to help. And Castlerock, Maine has the hottest summer that year, which makes the car a furnace to live in.

It’s a fight for survival for Donna and Tad. And that is what the book is really about. The lives of all the characters converge to this battle.

Captivity and isolation are themes Stephen King employs extremely well. Remember Misery or Gerald’s game? And while Cujo, because it is about a lot more than just captivity and isolation, is not as chilling as some of the other books, has it’s tense moments. But then if you are reading a horror book to get terrorized, this is not the book for you, even though, overall it is fairly enjoyable primarily for the completeness of the characters.

Dog lovers might not dig this book, because Cujo is shown to be a real monster. The transformation of Cujo from a good natured, kid loving, docile dog to a blood thirsty devil is brought out excellently. The struggle in his mind, as he tries to be a good dog, makes you pray vehemently that Cujo doesn’t get rabid. But then, if he didn’t, Cujo would have hardly made a story.