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The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon ~ Stephen King
-
May 15, 2008
- by SusiDee34
- posted in Cafe Libri: Reviewing Books & More
Rating:
Pros: quick read, descriptive
+3
Cons: none
The Bottom Line: The lunatic is_in_my head
You raise the_blade, you make the_change
You re-arrange me_till Im_sane
You lock the_door
And throw away_the key
Theres someone in_my head but its not_me.
~ PinkFloyd
The one thing Stephen King is seldom recognized for is his ability to be a story teller. Granted, he writes tomes and tomes of work; hefty volumes full of dark creatures and surreal situations. On the other hand, as in Green Mile, Stephen King also loves to weave a story. In his book On Writing, King laments the art of storytelling and believes it is falling to the wayside. However, nothing beats a really good story, albeit strange and unusual.
In The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, we meet up with what is unfortunately becoming the standard of family life; divorced parents and bickering siblings. In an attempt to bring her children back together, and form some sort of normal life, Mrs. McFarland packs off her son and daughter for a day hike in the woods of Maine. A simple hike in the woods will do little to cement this shattered family and it isn’t long before the arguing starts up again, this time between mother and son. Nine year old Patricia, or Trisha to almost everyone, tires of the constant battle and steps aside for two reasons; 1) to distance herself from the hassle, and, 2) to relieve her pressing bladder.
It doesn’t seem strange, under these circumstances, that her family never even notices she is gone. And, really, all she did was take a couple of steps off the path to take care of business. However, she gets turned around and can’t quite find her way back to her family. She continues on, going ever deeper in the woods, until she is finally and totally lost.
In her day pack she has few supplies - a Twinkie, a cold drink, her Walkman. Under normal circumstances these would be sufficient, but these aren’t normal circumstances. No indeed. What began as a simple stop to relieve herself turns into a week long odyssey bordering on hallucinations and personal insight.
Her one saving grace, if it is even true, is the thready reception she receives on her Walkman. Her personal hero, Boston Red Sox pitcher Tom Gordon is running a stunning game, all for her. While you are taken into the believability of the game at first, it continues for days and days and you begin to wonder if it even existed or was just more games her mind is playing as she stumbles about the woods on her own personal quest.
Couple that with the unknown beast she hears pacing her, following her every step, Trisha’s odyssey becomes your own.
It is the way that King pulls us into her perils that makes this good story telling. The fact that she is only nine years old stretches the limits of the imagination and you wonder how she will manage to survive and whether anyone will ever find her. Yes, they are hunting for her but they are hunting miles away from where she is wandering aimlessly about.
Another thing that makes this good story telling is the personal growth of Trisha as she confronts the familial demons that have wrecked her life. On top of trying to just survive in the woods, she is learning how to survive in a family that is torn apart. As we approach the end of the book we find Trisha barely alive. She is wracked with pneumonia, food poisoning, stress and delusions. And what is that ahead of her, in the clearing?
It isn’t long before there is no longer a barrier between reality and hallucination. Tom Gordon, if he even exists, has become a real person guiding her through the woods. He is no longer a sound on the radio but a man walking beside her.
There are a few breaks from Trisha’s wanderings as we cut back to the search parties looking for her. However, for the most part, we are guided through the story by Trisha and she what she sees and hear what she hears. We know her fears and her dreams. We wonder if she will ever find her way to safety and, when and if she does, what she will find there.
Overall impression
This is one of King’s smaller works but a very good read. You become involved with Trisha and what she is going through. It is, simply put, plain old good story telling, with some of King’s descriptive language to pull you into the story. The really bizarre thing, I was never a baseball fan and didn’t know Tom Gordon even really existed. Coulda knocked me over with a feather the first time I saw him pitch.
Thanks,
Susi
Publisher: Pocket; 272 pages, ISBN-10: 0671042858
Recommended:
Yes
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More The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon reviews
review by carolynn42.
June 18, 2010
When I read The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon I got the feeling of helplessness, you know like the feeling you get when you see some one in trouble, and you can't do anything at all to help them. That's the kind of feeling you get in movies, or in this case books, where you wish you could just reach into the screen or page and lend a helping hand. But this is a good kind of helplessness, because it's a fantasy that is suppose to create these emotions in you. … more
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Compliments (24)
Quick Tip by blnchsr.
July 09, 2010
Good story, kept me turning pages. Also got the 'pop-up" book.
Comment
Compliment
Short novel, very hard to put down. You want there to be truth to the story, and at the same time, you don't.
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Quick Tip by Borogovian.
June 23, 2010
One of his best books. This is about crisis driven problem solving by a young girl.
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Quick Tip by zhiiscool.
June 20, 2010
very interesting and scary.
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Compliment
This is only the second book I've read by Stephen King. The only other book that I've read is "Carrie," and I have to admit that it nor this particular novel was very scary to me. However, King tells a great tale with his writing style. His is a very addictive style that gives you just enough (but seemingly never enough until the end) information that keeps you plugging along trying to figure out what is going on each tale. In "The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon," King's central … more
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Compliments (12)
Pros: Plays on a very real idea and fear Cons: So real that many wouldn't be afraid of it. Why a Red Sox player? The Bottom Line: Now being lost in New York City - THAT would be scary! It doesn’t take a whole lot to see where Stephen King’s sports loyalties lie while reading The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, does it? You know, Tom Gordon the Red Sox closing pitcher? And of course, there’s an unwritten law in Red Sox … more
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Compliments (12)
King wrote an earlier book about a woman that was accidently chained to a bed in a log cabin (he's written so many that I forgot the name). In it the woman struggles to survive and escape from her bonds. While doing this she has time to examine her own life and realize a great deal about herself. Well in this book, instead of a woman we have a girl (Trisha) and instead of being chained to a bed, she is lost in the woods. While trying to survive and reach civilization, Trisha also examines her life … more
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Compliments (7)
review by rmurray847.
April 09, 2003
The young heroine of this story, a young girl lost in a very dank woods, is certainly admirable and strong and courageous, and we root for her.But the obstacles thrown in her path, while certainly dangerous, feel far too mundane to really get our blood racing. And King's fawning use of the Red Sox as a form of salvation and connection for the girl really doesn't work. Maybe if you're a fanatical Sox fan, but even then, I think the device is thin, at best.Once again, as King does from time to time, … more
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Compliments (12)
Pros: Detailed, not scary, good character study Cons: shorter book by King I found this at the airport bookstore when I was traveling to Europe. I love Stephen King but didn't want anything too scary to read while on a plane. This was the perfect choice. Not a typical King novel as it wasn't really scary or didn't deal with supernatural or creepy things. It's basically a story of a little girl who gets lost in the words and … more
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Susi Dawson (SusiDee34)
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About this book
With a convincing mix of youthful optimism and world-weary resignation, reader Anne Heche adds resonance to this unabridged recording. Heche is especially effective as the 9-year-old heroine, Trisha McFarland, who makes a fateful decision during an afternoon hike with her dysfunctional family. "The paths had forked in a 'Y.' She would simply walk across the gap and rejoin the main trail. Piece of cake. There was no chance of getting lost." As one might suspect, there is every chance she'll get lost--or worse--and taking the shortcut turns out to be a very bad choice indeed. At times Heche's reading may be too measured, but her narration is generally quite good and her steady portrayal of a young girl lost renders this tale all the more frightening. (Running time: 6.5 hours, 6 cassettes)--George Laney--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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ISBN-10:
0671042858
ISBN-13:
978-0671042851
Author:
Stephen King
Genre:
Literature & Fiction,
Mystery & Thrillers
Publisher:
Pocket
Date Published:
April 01, 1999
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