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Gerald's Game

Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
1 of 1 copy available

On a warm October day, Jessie Burlingame lies in the bedroom of her secluded lake home, listening to the far-off sounds of the country; the cry of a loon, the growl of a chain saw, the bark of a lonesome dog. Nearer, she hears the banging of the screen door, left unlatched in the autumn breeze; nearer still, the click of the key locking the second pair of handcuffs that chain her to the bed. Gerald Burlingame, her husband of 17 years, looms over her, grin on his face, gleam in his eye, lust in his heart. This is Gerald's favorite game - little kinky, perhaps, but all in good fun.

And then, quite suddenly, the fun is over. Gerald's heart fails him in the heat of passion, leaving Jessie hideously trapped and dreadfully alone. As darkness gathers in the room that is now Jessie's whole world, she must face not only the terror of never escaping, but the most excruciating truths about her life: the murky secrets that brought her here in the first place.

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    • AudioFile Magazine
      As the greater part of this story takes place during the two days Jessie is handcuffed to her bed--and by now everyone knows why--and as this 12-cassette program is 13 hours long, it seems to take place in real time. That time goes by quickly indeed thanks to King's provocative, spooky plotting and actress Lindsay Crouse's enthusiasm, her skillful reading, and her facility with the voices in Jessie's head as she sorts out her traumatic past and finds the courage to survive. The few sound effects used to signal the beginning and the end of a cassette and important shifts in action are appropriately eerie. S.K. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      August 31, 1992
      While this is one of the best-written stories King has ever published, it will offend many through sheer bad taste. Jessie and Gerald Burlingame have been married for 20 years. Kinky sex is Gerald's game; lately he has taken to handcuffing his wife to the bedposts. During one such session, via a series of bizarre circumstances, Jessie accidentally kills her husband, and for the next 28 hours she is trapped. King effectively uses this tragicomic conceit to take us deep into the mind of ``Goodwife Burlingame.''sic For the first third of the book he is at the top of his form, creating in Jessie one of his most intense character studies. Then, Jessie's ruminations lead her to remember a long-repressed episode of incest that is startling not because it becomes a central element of the plot, but because the details of the sexual relationship between father and daughter are salaciously--and lengthily--described. The gory stuff--how Jessie escapes her handcuffs, for example--is prime King, but this is subsumed in the book's general tastelessness. A lame wrap-up to what might have been a thrilling short story only further compromises the enjoyment readers might have found in this surprisingly exploitative work. 1.5 million first printing; $750,000 ad/promo; BOMC main selection.

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  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

Languages

  • English

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