Xanadu’s Reviews > Rose Madder > Status Update

This is the kind of shortcut language that makes me think of Bachman: "This was how her mind-sane, reasonable, and quite unprepared to admit or even recognize anything which smacked of the supernatural or paranormal-simultaneously explained, rationalized, and justified her sudden spike reaction to the picture of the woman on the hill."

This is like if Richard Bachman wrote a Beverly Marsh novel.

Yes indeed! I can dust, I can wash dishes, I can make beds, I can vacuum the floor, I can cook meals for two, I can sleep with my husband once a week. And I can take a punch. That’s another skill I have. Do you suppose any of the local gyms have openings for sparring partners?” Then she did burst into tears.

And you don’t need to thank me, or Peter Slowik, either. It was Providence that brought you here-Providence with a capital P, just like in a Charles Dickens novel. I really believe that. I’ve seen too many women crawl in here broken and walk out whole not to believe it. Peter is one of two dozen people in the city who refer women to me, but the force that brought you to him, Rose… that was Providence.

King apparently thought "welfare lesbians" was funnier than it is. Otherwise, a very consumable story. Husband is still pretty flat.

“I suppose,” Rosie said, knowing she wouldn’t. Her quarters were gone, and if a bus driver gave her a hard time about breaking a dollar bill, she would burst into tears. (The thought that the man she was talking to would have happily given her change for a buck never crossed her tired, confused mind.)

What makes this irresistible is the balance between repulsive violence and the immediate assurance that she finally decides it's over. It would be unpalatable and/or uninteresting otherwise.

Shades of Lord of the Flies: "But you have to do it right now. Before… Before what? That one was easy. Before she fell asleep again."

Undeniably powerful opening. Not sure how it'll go long term, but for now, this description of the man looking "at her out of his...face" is a cool way of saying he's a monster in human form:

His shadow swells and bobs on the wall and then he’s standing in the archway, looking at her out of his flushed and handsome face. The eyes in that face are as expressionless as shards of glass twinkling beside a country road.