Cujo

So this is the first book so far that has really freaked me out. I imagine it is the new perspective of being a parent that I have since I last read it.  I have never been a dog person, I tolerate them most of the time, but typically keep my distance and I can say that this book only reinforced my position.  This story combines a lot of the elements that really make me love Stephen King however.  Bringing in characters from other stories, telling a story in a way that makes you keep reading through the horror, building a variety of sub-plots or alternate situations that create an unbelievable amount of tension, etc.

Cujo is at its core a story about a dog who gets rabies and becomes a killing machine. However it is more than just that as there a multitude of complex relationships happening as well that further complicate the story.     At the center is a family, the Trenton's, with the dad who works as an adman and who uprooted his wife from NYC to Maine to start his own firm with a partner. They have a 4 year old son named Tad.  Also included are the family that own the dog, the Cambers who run an automotive shop on their desolate property. Side players are their drunken neighbor, the lover of Donna Trenton, a tennis bum named Steve Kemp, Vic Trenton's partner Roger, and Mrs. Cambers sister.

The Trenton's and Cambers paths cross when Vic's Jaguar starts acting up and she has to take it to the garage for repairs. There they meet Cujo for the first time, who is a wonderfully gentle and sweet St. Bernard that plays with Tad and watches out for him while the family waits for the repairs. Next a terrible chain of events and coincidences occur which lead to a horrific conclusion. First Cujo contracts rabies from a bat, next Mrs. Cambers wins some money in the lottery and plans to go away with her son Brett to visit her sister out of state. While she is gone her husband and the neighbor decide that they will also leave town and party in Boston. (Which means he cancels the mail) Vic Trenton and his partner have to go on a week long business trip to help save a huge account, so Donna and Tad will be alone. Donna breaks off the affair with Steve Kemp, who in a fit of rage will send a letter to the husband about the affair which he gets right before the trip, and Steve will also trash the house and in the process destroy some important information. It is a record high temperature July for Maine. The last and most crucial piece is Donna's Pinto is having problems and Vic does not get it fixed before he leaves so she has to take care of it herself.

All of these circumstances come together to create a situation where a woman and her child are trapped in a sweltering car for several days with a homicidal dog steps away from their car. I cannot and do not want to even imagine the hell that this must be, but it stayed with me after I put this book down. Well done Mr. King.