When I read this book I didn't consider myself a writer, not seriously. But even so I was curious to find out if King could sustain my interest throughout an entire book in which the main character, or rather the only present character, is handcuffed to the bed. He succeeded, and how. I have often been disappointed in King's work in the way he contrives his endings. They are too pat and he nearly always trots out the obligatory "monster" at the end to explain the fear and tension and what's really at stake for the hero.

The thing is, he doesn't need to do that. He does do that in this book too, but it almost subtle enough that you can forgive it, and pretend like he's suggesting the monster really is a figment of the protagonist's imagination. That would actually have satisfied me just as much. More.

He's gotten better in this regard. But I have pretty much always forgiven him this one idiosyncrasy because the ride to that point is delicious. A single protagonist, in a single setting, no other (live) characters, and it's riveting. Groundbreaking? Maybe not, but worth a read, and fun. (I don't scare easily.)