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Carrie by Stephen King: Book Review & Summary

Book: carrie by stephen king.

Carrie is a 1974 horror novel, the first by American author Stephen King. Set in Chamberlain, Maine, the plot revolves around Carrie White, a friendless, bullied high-school girl from an abusive religious household who discovers she has telekinetic powers. Wikipedia

• Originally published: April 5, 1974
• Author: Stephen King
• Genres: Horror, Horror fiction, Epistolary novel
• Adaptations: Carrie (1976), Carrie (2013), Carrie (2002), The Rage: Carrie 2 (1999), Carrie

About the Author  Stephen King

Excerpts from the original text.

People don’t necessarily get better, but they become smarter. When you become smarter, you will continue to do things like breaking the wings of flies. You just figured out a better reason for doing this kind of thing. —— Quoted from page 78

Book Summary:  Carrie by Stephen King

Book review: carrie by stephen king.

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By Stephen King

From its use of intense wording to emotionally relatable characters, ‘Carrie’ is a novel that remains one of the best young adult horror stories made. After publication, ‘Carrie’ had legal issues as its depiction of violence and intense suffering led to it getting banned in some places across the United States.

Article written by Joshua Ehiosun

C2 certified writer.

The story of ‘Carrie’ relates to the lives of many teenagers who struggle daily to fit in among their peers. After she discovered she would never fit in, Carrie gave up and ended up killing everyone she hated; this storyline shows a striking similarity to cases of teenagers who become murderous after discovering they would never fit in.

Though the nudity, violence, and religious extremism depicted in  ‘Carrie’  makes it a novel not worthy of a younger audience, the story is well-detailed.  ‘Carrie’  gives the reader a sense of relatability as it thrills and excites at different stages. Stephen King also used epistolary writing to ensure the story’s narration happened from a multi-faced point of view.

Another thing that makes  ‘Carrie’  an excellent novel is the fluidity of its story. At the beginning of the story, Stephen King intentionally prepares the reader’s mind for the story as he plants intricate details of what happens at the end of the novel; these details set the reader’s mind for the gruesome accident that occurred after Carrie got bathed in pigs’ blood.

In  ‘Carrie,’  every character has a specific role in the story . The lack of redundant characters made the novel exceptional. Stephen King employs minor characters as narrators; this creates a realistic world around Carrie’s story by giving the reader an all-rounded experience of who Carrie was. Though Stephen King’s depiction of the main antagonist was a bit edgy as it went slightly overboard, it still maintained the teenage representation of an egotistical bully.

An intriguing part of  ‘Carrie’  is that its main character became the antagonist in the lives of everyone. Stephen King opened Carrie’s mind to the readers as he showed how vengeful and hateful her thoughts were. After her last humiliation, Stephen King ensured that Carrie became a perfect villain by removing all sense of good from her. Turning Carrie into a murderous machine made the novel all the more interesting as it delivers a certain level of euphoria to the readers’ minds.

Though the dialogues from ‘Carrie’ were interesting, they got limited to short, profane statements. There was little room for intricate dialoguing in  ‘Carrie’  because of the main character’s isolation from her peers. Another thing evident in the dialogues of ‘Carrie’ was how the characters sometimes conversed as adults than teenagers. Because Stephen King could not simulate the mental state of Carrie , he found it difficult to craft dialogues that were teenage-like; this made  ‘Carrie’s’  dialogues stunted and sometimes a bit overboard.

Stephen King fixed the dialoguing of ‘Carrie’ by depending on the third-person narrative. He also focused more on adult conversations by using the future versions of the teenagers who experienced the event surrounding Carrie’s rampage.

Writing Style and Conclusion

Epistolary writing made  ‘Carrie’  fantastic as it divided the novel’s story into the past and present. Stephen King wrote ‘Carrie’ as the narration of a past event rather than one of the present, and this proved to be exceptionally intelligent as it made the novel stand out. In the story, Stephen King uses the first and third-person perspectives to narrate. The first-person point of view got used for minor characters who told their version of what they saw and experienced during the Carrie incident. The third-person point of view got used for the general story narration.

The ending of  ‘Carrie’  is tragically intriguing . The novel creates curiosity in the mind of readers as it ends with a note that shows that Carrie was never the only person to possess telekinetic powers.

Is ‘ Carrie ‘ a good book?

‘Carrie’ is a fantastic novel. The story is exceptional and its characters are relatable. Stephen King’s first published novel, ‘Carrie’ is excellent.

Can a 13-year-old read ‘ Carrie ?’

Because of its extreme violence, underage sex, and depiction of religion, ‘Carrie’ is not suitable for a 13-year-old. After writing the novel, Stephen King got skeptical because of how raw the story of Carrie was.

Is Carrie a bad person?

No, Carrie was a victim of bullying and ostracization. After feeling she could never escape a life of getting tormented no matter how hard she tried, she gave up; this cost her classmates their lives.

Is ‘ Carrie ‘ scary?

Because of how intense the story got, ‘Carrie’ is a bit scary. However, the majority of Carrie’s horror element goes to how she kills almost all her classmates.

Carrie Review: And Then the World Exploded

Book Title: Carrie

Book Description: 'Carrie' revolves around a bullied teen with telekinesis, who, after humiliation, unleashes terror on her town.

Book Author: Stephen King

Book Edition: First Edition

Book Format: Hardcover

Publisher - Organization: Doubleday

Date published: April 5, 1974

ISBN: 978-0-385-27503-3

Number Of Pages: 199

• Writing Style
• Lasting Effect on Reader

‘Carrie’  is a novel that tells the story of a bullied teenage girl, Carrie, with a mentally unstable mother who discovers she has telekinesis. After getting humiliated by her classmates, Carrie used her powers to unleash terror on her entire town.

• Interesting story
• Relatable story
• Interesting characters
• Excellent ending
• Extreme teenage violence
• Underage sex

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Book Reviews and Tours by Rachel Read it

#bookreview ‘carrie’ by stephen king.

Ok, yes I know I am about as ambitious as the next book blogger, but sadly with the staying power of one of those little sticky spidermen who flick flacks down a wall, but here we go again!

Remember them? You got them in party bags and threw them at walls then you got (or, well, I got) yelled at cos they left this weird stain behind? Yep, one of them in human form, that’s me!

NOT content with going through the Stephen King oeuvre based in Castle Rock, The Dresden Files, ALL of Agatha Christie’s books  plus new ones being released, I have kind of gotten a  little bit addicted to podcasts.  In particular, ‘The Loser’s Club’ podcast, which reviews all King’s books whilst taking a side eye at adaptations, good, bad or indifferent.

And when it comes to ‘ ‘Carrie’ , there are  way more than I realised!

So basically, the podcast is like listening to a bunch of friends discussing your favourite books, to the point where you are joining in the conversation and replying to talk points to an audience of a bewildered dog, and cats who never rated you much anyway.

The Consequence of Sound who make ‘The Loser’s Club,’ brought up so much that I decided to go back to the very beginning, and re-look at a book I haven’t read for quite a long time….

*Warning! Here there may be spoilers for those who have not read it…*

About the book…

To be invited to Prom Night by Tommy Ross is a dream come true for Carrie – the first step towards social acceptance by her high school colleagues.

But events will take a decidedly macabre turn on that horrifying and endless night as she is forced to exercise her terrible gift on the town that mocks and loathes her . . .

First published in 1974, the first problem with Carrie is finding an accurate synopsis of the story-each one of them makes it look like a revenge tale, focussing on the end of the book not the journey King took to get there.

As a reader who encountered this novel first in my teens, then as a young mother, and now in my early 40’s, this book reads differently at each stage of my life. As a teen you are pretty much of the ‘fuck yeah the townspeople deserved  everything they got!’

Interviews, biographies, graffiti and even scientific reports are used between Carrie’s own thoughts to both bring you into the sad and tragic tale of her existence, whilst affording a distance as people  outside of Carrie’s immediate sphere try and rationalise just what happened. In  an effort to stop this happening again, everything is pulled apart and dissected, but amongst the many voices, the true one is that of Carrietta White, daughter of Margaret, a high school pariah and unsophisticated , unworldly outcast.

Partly because of her own awkward siconnect with the world, partly because of her mother being known to the entire neighbourhood of her small Maine town for knocking on doors with religious pamphlets, Carrie is an easy target for exclusion and ridicule.

The book opens with what should have been a straight forward post gym ritual, the communal shower. Shouting and catcalls ringing off the tiles as water splashes and girls squeal, noises of a very differnt kind begin to merge from the steam and movement as Carrie is revealed to be experiencing her very first menstrual period.

This is such a game changing and overwhelming thing for any young woman to go through, let alone in public, and let alone for a girl with no support groups like Carrie.

She thinks that she is dying.

As girl after girl cottons on to what is happening,they turn into pack animals whose disgust is exhibited by throwing sanitary towels at her and chanting.

Intervention in the form of the gym teacher, Miss Desjardin, comes too late for Carrie whose humiliation is now set in stone for the rest of her school days.

Her way of dealing with her own disgust at Carrie’s apparent inability to help herself is projected outwards towards the girls-she demands, and gets, punishment for all the class on the understanding that non compliance with ehr detentions will forfeit their prom tickets.

And here is where the wronged girl becomes the focal point for everything that leads to a stunning denouement, a moment of reckoning with such power-forgive the pun-that even now, over 40 years later, ‘ Carrie ‘ is phrase which nearly e veryone  knows, and relates, in the main, to the Prom Night scene . It has become short hand for a powerful revenge, a well met revenge on people who made this young girl’s life pure hell.

However, on revisiting it, I found that there was so much more depth in the book, much more cleverness and eloquency in the female narratives than Stephen King often gets ridiculed for.

It is supposed that he cannot write sex scenes and he is not much better at writing women’s roles.

However, I would like to hold ‘ Carrie’ up as an example of him not only inhabiting the mind and emotions of a regular girl-Susan Snell- he manages to capture with pinpoint accuracy the mentality of teen girl bullies in Chris Hargensen, the mother figures of Margaret White contrasted with Sue’s mum, and then Rita Desjardin-not a mother but responsible for the phsyical wellbeing of all of these girls.

The ‘blossoming’ of a young girl into a woman, as signified by the beginning of the menstrual cycle and development of secondary sexual characteristics signifies her ability to breed, and in this, the aspects of the female characters extend from disgust, manipulation and goading towards the others in their life.

Sue uses sex and the promise of sex to manouevre her boyfriend Tommy Ross, into taking Carrie to the prom. No good deed goes unpunished and whilst Sue again feels this is penance for their behaviour in the locker room, it is more about her relieving her feelings of guilt,at least to start with, thanbeing altruistic.

Chris uses sex as a manipulation with her partner, Billy Nolan, when she cannot get her father to overturn Rita’s dententions. In forfeiting her prom ticket, she plots her revenge on Carrie and for that she needs a strong man, literally, to bring the house down.

And so the stage is set-the Prom Night is going to be rigged with Carrie and Tommy winning the King and Queen titles. And when they get on the stage, there will be the prank to pay for all pranks courtesy of Billy and his goons. And all of the audience will bear witness to the greatest humiliation you could imagine.

Entitlement, privilege and expectation are all so heavily expressed in this book that it appears the work of a much older writer.

He inhabits the female perspective so well, he understands how Carrie sees this as one last chance to have a moment, a small one which will be the fulcrum to her existence, the night her life can really begin.

Sue sees it as redemption until too late, she realises that what she has done is set her classmates up as lambs to the slaughter.

Chris slams the pen shut behind them and provides the killing stroke.

Margaret sees it as her last chance to admit defeat and permanently tackle the blight of her life which is her daughter, a daughter who is unlike other girls.

For weird things happen whenever Carrie gets emotional, ever since she was a small child. And the advent of her period has brought out something which has lain dormant, boxed away by prayers and penance.

And on  Prom Night, it gets loose….

Whether it is deserved is another point of discussion. Her anger is an uncontrollable wave, boosted by years of being ignored and abused by those who should have shown her unconditional love. Those who should have protected her. Those who could have improved her life chances. Those with power made it impossible for there to be any other outcome.

As you read, the sense of futility and finality rises up from the pages, and the ultimate conclusion is that this was inescapable.

It makes you want to weep for the missed and lost opportunities, for Carrie (who you have a sinking feeling will have been dissected without impunity)and the lesson which wasn’t learnt.

If this had happened today, you can almost guarantee the girls would have filmed Carrie’s humiliation, and made her a worldwide cautionary tale for the outcast teenager.I would like to think that these so called enlightened times would have better safe guarding that would have identified, and removed, a girl like Carrie from a household like hers. It’s a small, fool’s hope.

This is a novel of terror, a novel of heart, a novel which resonates through its pages and leaves a lingering impression ,but no clue as to where the career of this writer would go to. It is short-for King-, he uses epistolary frameworks which foreshadow the Prom Night Massacre, whilst simultaneously providing the explanatory narrative that gets our priniciple cast to the school gym on that fateful night.

Carrie is meant to be the anti-hero. She is an outcast twice over -punished for her a nd  her mother’s behaviours-and should know her place in the evolutionary chain. But she uses her inate power and instead of becoming a woman, she takes this dark gift and becomes a weapon. And she means to be the last one standing.

However, those who bore witness and survived, keep reminding you, the reader, that they were only kids. But so was Carrie.

*apologies for the multitude of thoughts, boy that really went to some places, huh!*

About the author…

King co-wrote the bestselling novel ‘ Sleeping Beauties ‘ with his son Owen King, and many of King’s books have been turned into celebrated films and television series including ‘ The Shawshank Redemption ‘, ‘ Gerald’s Game’  and ‘ It ‘.

King was the recipient of America’s prestigious 2014 National Medal of Arts and the 2003 National Book Foundation Medal for distinguished contribution to American Letters. In 2007 he also won the Grand Master Award from the Mystery Writers of America. He lives with his wife  Tabitha King  in Maine

Links- https://www.stephenking.com/

Twitter @StephenKing @HodderBooks @LosersClubPod 

Links-You can listen to the superb Constant Reader Podcast where Richard dissects both book and film with his special guests following this  link.

There is also one of my other favourites, The Loser’s Club who chair regular discussions on all of King’s output, starting with quintessential classic, Carrie, via the link below-

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2 thoughts on “ #BookReview ‘Carrie’ by Stephen King ”

Wow, that was quite a review.

I read this way back when, and grew up with the Spacek/Travolta movie.

I like early King. I may go re-read this as you have.

Same, I had no idea about the Carrie musical or the ill fated tv pilot which was meant to be Sue and Carrie on the run like a Littlest Hobo/Incredible Hulk type of affair. It’s such a powerful book, more than I remembered it being, and it’s definitely inspired me to read more….half way through the audiobook of ‘Salem’s Lot’, one I have read about 20 times but with sudio you have to really listen if that makes sense? It’s like a totally new experience and so much more in it than I recall. When people say ‘aren’t there enough books being published, why re-read?’ Well life and experience changes you so much that you identify with different parts of the narrative over time, like Carrie’s mother was an out and out villain for me as a teen, but as a mum, I can see her as a tragic character with her own load to bear.

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Common sense media reviewers.

Tale of telekinetic teen still packs a punch.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this book.

Carrie raises questions about high school bullying

Everyone should be treated with kindness and compa

The characters in Carrie all tend to be flawed or

Carrie include scenes of strong violence, especial

Sue Snell has a sexual relationship with her boyfr

The language can be rough. "F--k," &quot

Two teens visit a bar. The Chamberlain "town

Parents need to know that Stephen King's Carrie is a classic novel of the supernatural, about a troubled teen with telekinetic powers who takes revenge on those who've bullied her. Carrie White is humiliated when she gets her first period in a high school shower, and the other girls throw tampons at…

Educational Value

Carrie raises questions about high school bullying and why some people are turned into scapegoats.

Positive Messages

Everyone should be treated with kindness and compassion.

Positive Role Models

The characters in Carrie all tend to be flawed or troubled in some way. Although Carrie is sympathetic in the way she handles abuse from her crazed mother and the world at large, she responds to her ultimate humiliation with a murderous rage. Sue Snell tries to assuage the guilt she feels about having teased Carrie by having her boyfriend escort Carrie to the prom, but the results are disastrous.

Violence & Scariness

Carrie include scenes of strong violence, especially at its climax. Carrie's mother abuses her and locks her in a dark closet. A student is killed by a falling bucket. Carrie uses her psychic powers and causes deaths by fire, electrocution, car crash, and heart attack.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Sue Snell has a sexual relationship with her boyfriend that's mostly gentle and respectful. Christine Hargensen and her boyfriend have sex in a scene that turns sadistic and a little twisted. Carrie's mother sees sex as an abomination and calls her daughter's breasts "dirty pillows."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

The language can be rough. "F--k," "s--t," "c--t," "c--ksucker" each used a few times, as are "damn," "hell," "a--hole," and "bitch."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Two teens visit a bar. The Chamberlain "town drunk" witnesses the devastation at the book's climax.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Stephen King 's Carrie is a classic novel of the supernatural, about a troubled teen with telekinetic powers who takes revenge on those who've bullied her. Carrie White is humiliated when she gets her first period in a high school shower, and the other girls throw tampons at her. Carrie's mother is a religious fanatic who spouts scripture while locking Carrie away in a closet. The language in the book can be rough. "F--k," "s--t," "c--t," and "c--ksucker" are used a few times each, as are "damn," "hell," and "bitch." The climax of the novel is especially violent, with scenes of high school kids being burned to death and electrocuted. Two sex scenes are notable: a gentle one between a longtime couple and a more violent one that turns sadistic. Chamberlain's "town drunk" witnesses the devastation at the novel's climax. Readers may want to check out the original 1976 film adaptation or the 2013 remake .

Where to Read

Community reviews.

• Parents say (5)
• Kids say (24)

Based on 5 parent reviews

Just Like the movie

A lot of surprises even if you already know the premise., what's the story.

Everyone in the small Maine town of Chamberlain thinks Carrie White is odd, perhaps even worthy of their contempt. Her mother is a scary and abusive religious fanatic, and the teen has no friends. But Carrie is able to move objects with her mind, and after she's humiliated during gym class, her psychic powers ratchet up a notch or two. When she's invited to the prom by the most popular boy in school, she thinks it might be another joke on her. She and the residents of Chamberlain, however, have no idea what's in store for them on that fateful night.

Is It Any Good?

A modern classic of the supernatural, this slim, straight-ahead thriller has served as a template for countless inferior imitations. It's still the real deal, though: sharply observed, solidly constructed, and suspenseful despite the narrative's sense of inevitability.

Author Stephen King employs (fictional) newspaper reports, court transcripts, and personal memoirs to lend a sense of realism to the outlandish proceedings, and that strategy, in addition to the author's ability to create credible, sympathetic characters, works splendidly.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about what it feels like to be a social outsider. Why are kids sometimes mean to others who are different from them? What is the meaning of the term "scapegoat"?

Why do you think Carrie is considered a horror classic? What other supernatural stories have you read and liked?

What can be done to prevent bullying ? How should schools intervene when someone complains that he or she is being bullied?

Book Details

• Author : Stephen King
• Genre : Horror
• Topics : Magic and Fantasy , High School
• Book type : Fiction
• Publisher : Anchor Books
• Publication date : July 26, 1974
• Publisher's recommended age(s) : 14 - 18
• Number of pages : 304
• Available on : Paperback, Nook, iBooks, Kindle
• Last updated : July 12, 2017

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PRIVATE EQUITY

by Carrie Sun ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 13, 2024

Middling, but still a useful cautionary tale about the dangers of unfettered capitalism and unquenchable greed.

A memoir about the alluring world of high finance.

“No one…Yes, that’s right, no one has ever voluntarily left Carbon.” So says the pseudonymous billionaire behind a pseudonymous Manhattan hedge fund that showed every promise of making him the world’s first trillionaire. Sun recounts how she took a job as a personal assistant to “Boone Prescott,” which required her to be available around the clock and to “make the world work for Boone” in whatever way he saw necessary. To call Prescott a control freak is to undervalue the term, but Sun found herself falling into a sort of corporate fantasy world in which he was one of the good capitalists, an illusion that she eventually shed even after working hard enough to land her on a therapist’s couch. The author is candid in acknowledging that she was a willing participant for far too long, giving up what she really wanted to be—a writer—in order to take part in a lucrative but draining world in which the boss slowly transformed into Gordon Gekko (“Carrie, remember, money can solve nearly everything”). There’s a Devil Wears Prada dimension to the narrative, which becomes increasingly grimmer as it goes, and a few self-indulgent moments, while doubtless cathartic for the author, make for tiresome reading. On the whole, however, Sun’s memoir provides both a measured account of how soul-devouring the corporate world is and of how employees as well as bosses are complicit: “I became in­terned in a reality in which succeeding at Carbon took me further away from the self I had longed to set free….The trauma plot and the capitalism plot are increasingly the same plot. Each one rewards you for staying inside the other.”

Pub Date: Feb. 13, 2024

ISBN: 9780593654996

Page Count: 352

Publisher: Penguin Press

Review Posted Online: Dec. 6, 2023

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2024

BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | BUSINESS | BUSINESS | PERSONAL FINANCE | INVESTING | GENERAL BUSINESS | GENERAL BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR

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A blissfully vicarious, heartfelt glimpse into the life of a Manhattan burlesque dancer.

A former New York City dancer reflects on her zesty heyday in the 1970s.

Discovered on a Manhattan street in 2020 and introduced on Stanton’s Humans of New York Instagram page, Johnson, then 76, shares her dynamic history as a “fiercely independent” Black burlesque dancer who used the stage name Tanqueray and became a celebrated fixture in midtown adult theaters. “I was the only black girl making white girl money,” she boasts, telling a vibrant story about sex and struggle in a bygone era. Frank and unapologetic, Johnson vividly captures aspects of her former life as a stage seductress shimmying to blues tracks during 18-minute sets or sewing lingerie for plus-sized dancers. Though her work was far from the Broadway shows she dreamed about, it eventually became all about the nightly hustle to simply survive. Her anecdotes are humorous, heartfelt, and supremely captivating, recounted with the passion of a true survivor and the acerbic wit of a weathered, street-wise New Yorker. She shares stories of growing up in an abusive household in Albany in the 1940s, a teenage pregnancy, and prison time for robbery as nonchalantly as she recalls selling rhinestone G-strings to prostitutes to make them sparkle in the headlights of passing cars. Complemented by an array of revealing personal photographs, the narrative alternates between heartfelt nostalgia about the seedier side of Manhattan’s go-go scene and funny quips about her unconventional stage performances. Encounters with a variety of hardworking dancers, drag queens, and pimps, plus an account of the complexities of a first love with a drug-addled hustler, fill out the memoir with personality and candor. With a narrative assist from Stanton, the result is a consistently titillating and often moving story of human struggle as well as an insider glimpse into the days when Times Square was considered the Big Apple’s gloriously unpolished underbelly. The book also includes Yee’s lush watercolor illustrations.

Pub Date: July 12, 2022

ISBN: 978-1-250-27827-2

Page Count: 192

Publisher: St. Martin's

Review Posted Online: July 27, 2022

BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | ENTERTAINMENT, SPORTS & CELEBRITY | GENERAL BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR

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by Brandon Stanton

by Brandon Stanton photographed by Brandon Stanton

by Brandon Stanton ; photographed by Brandon Stanton

LOVE, PAMELA

by Pamela Anderson ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 31, 2023

A juicy story with some truly crazy moments, yet Anderson's good heart shines through.

The iconic model tells the story of her eventful life.

According to the acknowledgments, this memoir started as "a fifty-page poem and then grew into hundreds of pages of…more poetry." Readers will be glad that Anderson eventually turned to writing prose, since the well-told anecdotes and memorable character sketches are what make it a page-turner. The poetry (more accurately described as italicized notes-to-self with line breaks) remains strewn liberally through the pages, often summarizing the takeaway or the emotional impact of the events described: "I was / and still am / an exceptionally / easy target. / And, / I'm proud of that ." This way of expressing herself is part of who she is, formed partly by her passion for Anaïs Nin and other writers; she is a serious maven of literature and the arts. The narrative gets off to a good start with Anderson’s nostalgic memories of her childhood in coastal Vancouver, raised by very young, very wild, and not very competent parents. Here and throughout the book, the author displays a remarkable lack of anger. She has faced abuse and mistreatment of many kinds over the decades, but she touches on the most appalling passages lightly—though not so lightly you don't feel the torment of the media attention on the events leading up to her divorce from Tommy Lee. Her trip to the pages of Playboy , which involved an escape from a violent fiance and sneaking across the border, is one of many jaw-dropping stories. In one interesting passage, Julian Assange's mother counsels Anderson to desexualize her image in order to be taken more seriously as an activist. She decided that “it was too late to turn back now”—that sexy is an inalienable part of who she is. Throughout her account of this kooky, messed-up, enviable, and often thrilling life, her humility (her sons "are true miracles, considering the gene pool") never fails her.

Pub Date: Jan. 31, 2023

ISBN: 9780063226562

Page Count: 256

Publisher: Dey Street/HarperCollins

Review Posted Online: Dec. 5, 2022

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2023

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clock This article was published more than  1 year ago

For Serena fans, ‘Carrie Soto Is Back’ imagines a happy postscript

In the latest book from Taylor Jenkins Reid, a retired tennis player returns to the court to defend her record

What timing! Just as Serena Williams announces her retirement from tennis, a new novel arrives that imagines a different scenario. While the star of “ Carrie Soto Is Back ” isn’t quite Serena Williams — who could be? — she is a tennis legend facing the end of her career. The book imagines the comeback Serena’s fans might have hoped for.

On one level, the title refers to an out-of-shape former competitor who craves a comeback. On another, it’s inspired by the Elton John song “The Bitch Is Back,” one of Carrie’s anthems. Her story encapsulates how female athletes have been historically disrespected by some sportswriters and fans. In Carrie’s case, her haters revel in calling her the B-word.

Carrie is the daughter of a celebrated Argentine tennis champion. She began moving up the tennis ladder in the 1970s, at age 13. By 17, she was the No. 10 player in the world. At 29, she won her 20th Grand Slam event, setting the world record for the most singles Slam titles. Carrie revels in victory: “I was now the most decorated tennis player by nearly every measure. Most Grand Slam singles ever. Most weeks at number one for any player in the history of the tour. Most singles titles, most aces over the course of a career. Most years ending number one. Highest-paid female athlete of all time.”

Taylor Jenkins Reid’s ‘Malibu Rising’ is a fiery mix of celebrity culture and family drama

But Carrie’s left knee is shot. She takes time off to heal, and when she returns to the game in 1988, she can’t win. In 1989, at 31, she retires. Five years later, she decides on a comeback because Nicki Chan has tied her Grand Slam record. Carrie wants her record back, so she enters the Australian Open, the French Open, Wimbledon and the U.S. Open. The final pulse-pounding match, serendipitously, takes place at the 1995 U.S. Open.

Carrie undertakes months of brutal training sessions, not just to get her game back, but to make it even better. Coached by her father and buoyed by workouts with Bowe Huntley, a male player who’s lost his mojo, Carrie prepares herself for war.

“Carrie Soto” (available Aug. 30) is like other sports novels in which underdogs punch, volley, bat and birdie their way to victory or additional defeat, but it goes beyond this to explore sexism and racism in the tennis world in the 1990s. Yes, things have changed since then. No, that doesn’t make Carrie’s story feel dated or read like a polemic. The vitriol spewed by the novel’s antagonists, who want us to believe that women’s ambition and hunger for greatness are unfeminine, still sounds like today.

Serena Williams became a champion again — for working moms

Fans and sportswriters are rooting for Bowe to fight his way back to the winner’s circle, but Carrie isn’t treated as kindly. Bowe’s racket-throwing tantrums are overlooked, while Carrie remains disliked for what many see as her cold and calculating demeanor. Commentators say she’s more like a machine than a woman. Her main rival, Nicki, is subject to the same type of criticism. Nicki — dubbed “The Beast” — is in the news as much for her wins as she is for her “brash and loud” style and the “incredible violence” — read unfeminine — of her serves and groundstrokes. The parallels to the commentary about Serena Williams and other female players (in all sports) ring, sadly, true.

Even if you’re not a tennis fan, this novel will grab you. You’ll tear through blow-by-blow descriptions of championship matches on some of the most famous tennis courts in the world. Equally entrancing is the audio version. Close your eyes and your head will move right and left, and left and right, as you envision the racket-breaking matches between Carrie and her rivals.

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This is not the first time Reid has written about women and the perils of fame. Her past novels have focused on Hollywood legends, supermodels and elite surfers. “ Daisy Jones & The Six ,” which Reid says was inspired by Fleetwood Mac’s Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham, is being adapted as a TV series by Reese Witherspoon’s production company and Amazon Studios. But “Carrie Soto’s” deep dive into women’s tennis may be the most ambitious. It’s the perfect novel to close out your summer, and whether Carrie defeats Nicki Chan is almost secondary.

Carol Memmott is a writer in Austin.

Carrie Soto is Back

By Taylor Jenkins Reid

Ballantine. 369 pp. $28.

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Interview highlights

Stephen king's new story took him 45 years to write.

Mary Louise Kelly

Courtney Dorning

Stephen King says finishing one of his stories decades after he started it felt like "calling into a canyon of time." Francois Mori/AP hide caption

Stephen King says finishing one of his stories decades after he started it felt like "calling into a canyon of time."

Stephen King is out with a new collection of short stories.

As you might expect from the reigning King of Horror, some are terrifying. Some are creepy. Others are laugh-out-loud funny. And one of them took him 45 years to write.

The book is a collection of 12 stories, called You Like it Darker .

Stephen King's legacy of horror

Over the course of his decades-long career as a writer, King has learned there's no taking a story too far.

"I found out – to sort of my delight and sort of my horror – that you can't really gross out the American public," King told NPR.

He spoke with All Things Considered host Mary Louise Kelly about the book, destiny and getting older.

This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

Mary Louise Kelly: I want to start by asking you about the story, The Answer Man . You began it when you were 30. You finished it when you were 75. What the heck happened?

Stephen King: Well, I lost it. What happens with me is I will write stories and they don't always get done. And the ones that don't get done go in a drawer and I forget all about them. And about five years ago, these people started to collect all the stuff that was finished and all this stuff that was unfinished and put it in an archive. They were going through everything – desk drawers, wastebaskets underneath the desk, every place. I'm not exactly a very organized person. My nephew John Leonard found this particular story, which was written in the U.N. Plaza Hotel back in the '70s, I think. And he said, "You know, this is pretty good. You really ought to finish this." And I read it and I said, "You know, I think I know how to finish it now." So I did.

Kelly: Well give people a taste. The first six or so pages that you had written back in the hotel, it becomes a 50-page story. What was it that you decided was worth returning to?

King: Well, I like the concept: This young man is driving along, and he's trying to figure out whether or not he should join his parents' white shoe law firm in Boston, or whether he should strike out on his own. And he finds this man on the road who calls himself the Answer Man. And he says, "I will answer three of your questions for $25, and you have 5 minutes to ask these questions." So I thought to myself, I'm going to write this story in three acts. One while the questioner is young, and one when he's middle aged, and one when he's old. The question that I ask myself is: "Do you want to know what happens in the future or not?"

Kelly: This story, like many of your stories, is about destiny – whether some things are meant to happen no matter what we do, no matter what choices we make. Do you believe that's true?

King: The answer is I don't know. When I write stories, I write to find out what I really think. And I don't think there's any real answer to that question.

Books You Love

'carrie' turns 50 here are the best stephen king novels — chosen by you.

Kelly: You do describe in the afterword of the book that going back in your seventies to complete a story you had begun as a young man gave you, and I'll quote your words, "The oddest sense of calling into a canyon of time." Can you explain what that means?

King: Well, you listen for the echo to come back. When I was a young man, I had a young man's ideas about The Answer Man . But now, as a man who has reached, let us say, a certain age, I'm forced to write from experience and just an idea of what it might be like to be an old man. So yeah, it felt to me like yelling and then waiting for the echo to come back all these years later.

Kelly: Are there subjects you shy away from, where you think about it and think, "You know what, that might be one step too creepy, too weird?"

King: I had one novel called Pet Cemetery that I wrote and put in a drawer because I thought, "Nobody will want to read this. This is just too awful." I wanted to write it to see what would happen, but I didn't think I would publish it. And I got into a contractual bind, and I needed to do a book with my old company. And so I did. And I found out – sort of to my delight and sort of to my horror – that you can't really gross out the American public. You can't go too far.

Kelly: It was a huge bestseller, as I recall.

King: Yeah, it's a bestseller and it was a movie. And yeah, the same thing is true with It , about the killer clown who preys on children

Kelly: Who still haunts my nightmares, I have to tell you. You've written how many books at this point?

King: I don't know.

King: Really? In our recent coverage of you, we've said everything from 50 to 70.

King: I think it's probably around 70, but I don't keep any count. I remember thinking as a kid that it would be a really fine lifetime to be able to write 100 novels.

Kelly: Oh my gosh. Well you sound like you're still having a lot of fun, so I hope you have quite a few more novels for us to come.

King: That'd be good.

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The Brilliant Comic Who Shined Brightest Out of the Spotlight

A new biography of the performer, writer and director Elaine May has the intensity to match its subject.

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By Dwight Garner

MISS MAY DOES NOT EXIST: The Life and Work of Elaine May, Hollywood’s Hidden Genius , by Carrie Courogen

Nichols and May, the comedy team, were together from 1957 until 1961. They were so charming and sophisticated and acerbic, selling out Broadway theatres with their crossfire talk, that the critic Edmund Wilson saw them perform four times. He confided to his diary about Elaine May that he was “sorry not to be young enough to fall in love with her and ruin my life.”

She and Mike Nichols, who only briefly were lovers, split amicably. We know what happened to Nichols. By 1967 he had directed the movies “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf” and “The Graduate,” as well as hit plays on Broadway. May’s arc was not so well-defined. In 1967, Life magazine profiled her under the headline, “Whatever Happened to Elaine May?”

Whatever did? The story is told in Carrie Courogen’s casual, sympathetic and compulsively readable new biography, “Miss May Does Not Exist.” The title comes from short biographies Nichols and May wrote for the back of one of their comedy albums. Nichols’s bio began: “Mike Nichols is not a member of the Actors Studio, which has produced such stars as Marlon Brando, Julie Harris, Ben Gazzara, Eva Marie Saint, Carroll Baker, and others too numerous to mention.” May’s read simply: “Miss May does not exist.”

It’s an awkward title that, as the book goes on, begins to seem apt. Throughout her life, May, 92, has had a knack for disappearing, for being there but not there. She has had a knack, too, for being — for lack of a better word — difficult. It’s one of this biography’s salient contentions that while American culture makes room for its tortured and demanding male talents, it freezes similar women out. “Big movie directors are the modern mad kings,” Pauline Kael wrote in 1973. There has been little room for mad queens.

What happened to Elaine May in the 1960s is that she became attached to a lot of projects, including her own plays, that flopped. She tripped into a messy scandal. She fell in love with her psychiatrist, a man named David Rubinfine, a well-known shrink to the stars. Rubinfine was married. His wife of 20 years killed herself. He had three young daughters who May suddenly needed to raise, in addition to her own daughter from a previous marriage.

May directed two hit movies in the early 1970s, “A New Leaf,” in which she starred with Walter Matthau, and “The Heartbreak Kid,” with Charles Grodin. She became known as a perfectionist — brilliant but also dithering, at least to those who wearied of her. She required take after take of scenes. She liked to say “action” but loathed to say “cut.” She wore her crews down. Matthau, no easy personality himself, commented that May “makes Hitler look like a little librarian.”

She was by then a major director, only the third woman to be a member the Directors Guild of America. She spent years making an over-budget flop, “Mikey and Nicky,” a dark buddy film with Peter Falk and John Cassavetes that was released in 1976. When the studio tried to take the film over, two reels mysteriously went missing. It was a wild caper, and May was a prime suspect. It would be 11 years before she directed again, and the result was “Ishtar” (1987).

In between, she became known as perhaps the best script doctor in Hollywood. She worked with Warren Beatty on “Heaven Can Wait” and “Reds.” She and Beatty, obsessives, chimed with each other. He’d fly her into luxury hotels for weeks at a time. She’d bar housekeeping from her rooms because they were so chaotic, with drafts and room-service dishes and cigar ash everywhere.

People paid attention to her smoking. On the set of “Mikey and Nicky,” one observer recalled that you could read her mood by what was between her fingers: “She chain-smoked cigarettes when things were running smoothly . You’d know things were getting dicey once she pulled out her skinny Schimmelpenninck cigars.” And when disaster was imminent, “she would puff away on oversize cigars that were fit for Orson Welles but looked downright comedic hanging from Elaine’s mouth.”

May did script work on “Tootsie,” “What About Bob?” and many of Nichols’s films. She mostly refused to take credit for this work, preferring to remain behind the scenes. The novelist Jim Harrison, who worked with her on the movie “Wolf,” commented: “It’s like some Taoist thing with her. Very mysterious. Come in, do the work, take the money, leave no tracks.” People cut her very large checks.

The story of the filming of “Ishtar” in the Moroccan desert has been told many times before. I won’t reprise the gory details here. The movie was intended to be a kind of homage to the old “Road to …” movies with Bob Hope and Bing Crosby. Courogen notes that the film is better than it’s been given credit for, and she coolly dissects the way May’s studio thwarted, antagonized and all but sabotaged her.

May was born in Philadelphia in 1932 and had a nomadic childhood. Her father, who died at 47, was in the Yiddish theater. May didn’t graduate from high school but was an autodidact. After an early failed marriage, she made her way to the University of Chicago, where she never formally enrolled but took classes.

Her intensity, her beauty and her wit made her a formidable character. Onstage, Courogen writes, she was “too threatening to heckle.” She met Nichols, her soul mate, at one of his shows. They did a great deal of improv until Nichols left for New York and she eventually followed. Until the end of his life Nichols would call on her to help with his movies. They frequently got back together to perform their classic routines for good causes.

This is Courogen’s first book, and she relates it as if over Negronis. She casually drops a lot of f-bombs. At times, she rambles. She writes about how she stalked May while wearing a cheap blonde wig. (May did not grant her an interview.) Smart but offbeat, she’s the Elaine May of biographers.

Courogen is not (yet) the most adept critic, nor is she a supersleuth biographer, the kind with a Sherlock Holmes magnifying glass. But she understands why May matters. She tracks May’s influence in popular culture, especially on female writer-directors such as Greta Gerwig and Lena Dunham.

This book is “a love story,” Courogen writes early on, and indeed it is. The author is an ardent fan who’s read everything and talked to whomever she could. Her intensity shines. Sometimes you’d rather ride along with a fan than with a professor.

I wish someone had stepped in to save her when, in the second half of the book, the clichés begin to really weigh down her sentences. They threaten to sink an otherwise buoyant ship.

There are a few quasi-howlers. We are asked to sympathize with May during Covid because “it wasn’t easy that first winter, alone and at risk in her apartment overlooking a desolate Central Park.” Yes, those crisp Central Park views (May lives in the San Remo) have long been known to bring on ennui.

Elaine May, difficult? Give us more like her, Courogen says. “She’s black deli coffee served to those who drink only champagne.”

MISS MAY DOES NOT EXIST : The Life and Work of Elaine May, Hollywood’s Hidden Genius | By Carrie Courogen | St. Martin’s | 386 pp. | $30

Dwight Garner has been a book critic for The Times since 2008, and before that was an editor at the Book Review for a decade. More about Dwight Garner

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When Reese Witherspoon is making selections for her book club , she wants books by women, with women at the center of the action who save themselves.

The Nobel Prize-winning author Alice Munro, who died on May 14 , specialized in exacting short stories that were novelistic in scope , spanning decades with intimacy and precision.

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