From Library Journal
The publisher plans to promote King's latest bit of horror with an advertising campaign-aimed at everything from TV to online services-that says, "Insomnia. It looms." A BOMC main selection.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
King's last few novels have been, by his standard, slim and economical. With this dark fantasy based on the conception of a multilevel ultimate reality, he returns to the massiveness of The Stand and It and The Tommyknockers. On one of the long, exhausting walks old Ralph Roberts starts taking as a brain tumor slowly kills his wife, he witnesses a friendly young neighbor, Ed Deepneau, behaving totally out of character--indeed, like someone possessed. About a year later and after his wife's death, Ralph begins waking early and then earlier and earlier. He also starts seeing things--intense colors streaming off people and animals. Meanwhile, Ed has turned into an antiabortion fanatic and wife-beater. Ralph intervenes to help Helen Deepneau escape from Ed, for which Ed threatens him. Or is it Ed? Ralph senses that someone or something else is in control of the troubled man. Ralph's right, of course. Ed has been involuntarily recruited on one side, and, it develops, Ralph and his also-widowed neighbor, Lois Chasse, on the other, of a supercosmic struggle the import of which King reveals with deliciously tantalizing gradualness. This is a yarn so packed with suspense, romance, literary reference, fascinating miscellaneous knowledge, and heart that only Stephen King could have written it. Marvelous--that is, full of marvels. Ray Olson
From Kirkus Reviews
A small town in Maine again serves as King's (Nightmares and Dreamscapes, 1993, etc.) setting in this deft, steady tale, in which two lovable geezers travel through hyper-reality to balance the books of human existence, or something to that effect. Since his wife's recent death, Ralph Roberts, age 70, has been beset by insomnia and hallucinations. These hallucinations appear as auras, terminating in fine lines of light resembling balloon strings. In these strings, Ralph believes he can see other people's states of mind and being (e.g., disease, anger, calm). Ah, but 68- year-old gal pal Lois Chasse shares these visions, which by now include three little bald entities in doctors' smocks. These three, naturally, are not really of this earth. They are brokers for what we mortals call death. The first two, whom Ralph and Lois name Clotho and Lachesis--from a Greek myth about three yarn-spinning sisters--are benevolent and serve ``The Purpose,'' or natural, timely demise. The third, a malevolent sprite named Atropos, represents ``The Random'' and takes great pleasure in prematurely cutting folks' balloon strings with his rusty scalpel. Atropos takes advantage of a pro-life rally currently polarizing the hamlet and enlists a local crazy to help him make a literal killing in the afterlife futures market. In the climax, our oldsters serve as earthly agents to thwart a potentially calamitous disruption in the order of the universe. King throws in a tender romance, sensitive and often funny portrayals of the ravages of age, and the somewhat loopy presence of Rite-Aid drugstores, Cup-A-Soup, and Port-O-Sans smack-dab in the middle of hyper-reality. This commingling of the supernatural and the commonplace is what makes this hefty read so enjoyable. Still, at 800 pages, it ain't no coffee-table book--it's a coffee table. (First printing of 1,500,000; Book-of-the-Month Club main selection; $1,000,000 ad/promo) -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
Review
Stephen King brings his usual chilly touch to Insomnia, the story of a small-town gripped by a creeping evil ... This is not a horror story in the classic mould; it is a supernatural adventure romp on the fringes of the imagination, popular fiction at its best. (The Times)
A supreme page-turner and a plot that will keep you awake at night. (GQ)
As accomplished as ever. (Interzone)
This is a yarn so packed with suspense,romance, literary reference, fascinating miscellaneous knowledge, and heart that only Stephen King could have written it. Marvelous--that is, full of marvels. (Booklist)
About the Author
Stephen King is the author of more than sixty books, all of them worldwide bestsellers. His recent work includes the short story collection You Like It Darker, Holly, Fairy Tale, Billy Summers, If It Bleeds, The Institute, Elevation, The Outsider, Sleeping Beauties (cowritten with his son Owen King), and the Bill Hodges trilogy: End of Watch, Finders Keepers, and Mr. Mercedes (an Edgar Award winner for Best Novel and a television series streaming on Peacock). His novel 11/22/63 was named a top ten book of 2011 by The New York Times Book Review and won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Mystery/Thriller. His epic works The Dark Tower, It, Pet Sematary, Doctor Sleep, and Firestarter are the basis for major motion pictures, with It now the highest-grossing horror film of all time. He is the recipient of the 2020 Audio Publishers Association Lifetime Achievement Award, the 2018 PEN America Literary Service Award, the 2014 National Medal of Arts, and the 2003 National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. He lives in Bangor, Maine, with his wife, novelist Tabitha King.
Derry, Maine, is the setting for some very weird goings-on, and two old-timers are the only ones to see them. King's thriller is ably read by Eli Wallach. On the whole, his characterizations are very good, and the hero, Ralph Roberts, is perfect. The packaging of three tapes to a small box is handy in a car. However, the strange musical interludes come up so suddenly in the narrative that they sound like the police in pursuit; the car might not be the best place to listen to this book. Nonetheless, given the length of the story and the excellent narration, Insomnia is very good in audio. S.F.W. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine
The sneaker of a little boy named Gage Creed, run down by a speeding tanker-truck on Route 15 in Ludlow.Highlighted by 342 Kindle readers
