A man who could do that doesn’t deserve to live,” says Morris, before fleeing the scene, notebooks and cash and (somewhat briefly, sadly for them) accomplices in tow. “You created one of the greatest characters in American literature, then shit on him. Jimmy is “an American icon of despair in a land of plenty”, according to Time he’s the star of Rothstein’s era-defining “Runner” trilogy, and coiner of the slogan that adorns the T-shirts of students across the US: “Shit don’t mean shit.” But, really, he’s heard rumours of the dozens of notebooks Rothstein has filled with his writing in the decades since he retired from public life entirely, and is desperate to find a new ending for Rothstein’s creation, Jimmy Gold. And if, at first, you think Finders Keepers is meat-and-potatoes King, just wait: The dessert is really satisfying.Morris has come to Rothstein’s remote New Hampshire house with a pair of thugs, ostensibly to rob the elderly author. Stephen King sometimes writes complicated books about simple things (cars, baseball) here he writes a simple book about complicated ideas. Most of the characters in this novel have their vision clouded one way or another, a mistake that can be costly. Most important, perhaps, is the question of how we read other people.

What matters more-knowing every detail, or understanding the big picture? Can you ever hold a writer responsible for his work, or does a reader's interpretation change things? King picks up the pace almost instantaneously, and vroooooooom, there goes the action! Vroom, too, goes the consideration of what is means to be a close reader. Then you remember that almost everyone needs training wheels before they take off on just two. At first, following three storylines-Bellamy's, Pete's, and the trio's-feels a little elementary, the reading equivalent of training wheels, even though the writing is as sound as ever. When villainy threatens the Saubers family, they fortunately hit the radar of an eccentric trio (also from the first book): Ex-cop Bill Hodges, tech expert Jerome Robinson, and researcher Holly Gibney. Rothstein's oeuvre even has Updike-esque titles: The Runner, The Runner Sees Action, and The Runner Slows Down.

Due to an unexpected find, Saubers has become quite an expert on the late, reclusive Rothstein, whose creation and legacy must have been delicious fun for King to develop he's a mid-20th-century literary lion in the vein of J.D.

Finders keepers novel