King shines in `Needful Things’ > New book shows author’s humorous side

NEEDFUL THINGS, by Stephen King, Viking, 646 pages, $24.95.

What do you need? I don’t mean what do you want. I mean what do you really, really need. What is so important that you cannot continue to exist without it?

Stephen King’s new novel, “Needful Things,” asks this question often, in a variety of ways from a variety of folks, and the result is our asking ourselves: What do we need?

“Needful Things” is the name of a new shop that opens up in Castle Rock, site of many of King’s other books. The shop contains all kinds of interesting merchandise — something for everyone. Something each purchaser is convinced he or she needs. The objects bear no price tags. The proprietor, Leland Gaunt, sets the price — which is only partly money. Leland Gaunt likes to dicker. He asks: “Why is it that so many people think all the answers are in their wallets? … For the things people really need … the wallet is no answer. … And souls! If I had a nickel … for every time I ever heard someone say `I’d sell my soul for thus-and-such,’ I could buy the Empire State Building!”

What results, of course, is that Gaunt is indeed interested in collecting souls. He is a compelling, irresistible presence. His visitors often feel mesmerized when they leave. Those who touch his hands are repelled by the experience. When several speak of him together, there is the odd realization that everyone thinks Gaunt has eyes of a different color. He is a very strange man.

Castle Rock responds to Gaunt with great enthusiasm, except for Sheriff Alan Pangborn. Pangborn (last seen in “The Dark Half”) senses something not quite right. Whenever he chances to visit Gaunt’s shop, it is closed, as though a silent presence were saying to him: “Keep out!”

Soon Castle Rock begins to change, its residents manifesting uncharacteristic behavior. There are naughty little pranks, and nasty pranks, and sometimes outright violence. It is a community out of control, rocketing heedlessly toward its own doom.

Doom, of course, it is, because after this book, Castle Rock is no more; as the subtitle of “Needful Things” announces, this is “The Last Castle Rock Story.” Despite that sad fact, despite the framework of the book which promises yet another epic tale of the battle between good and evil, this is not an unhappy book, nor is it particularly terrifying (although there are ghoulish scenes). It is a funny book. It is one of those books that causes you to laugh out loud while reading, even if you’re reading in the library underneath one of those “Quiet, please” notices.

King’s wonderful sense of humor has never been more in evidence than in “Needful Things.” Those familiar with the highways and byways of Castle Rock will have even more fun (yes, there are some “in” jokes) — since just about every character that has ever taken center stage pops back for a curtain call.

All of this, plus the breakneck pace, makes for a book that is fun to read. Despite the terrible, wicked, awful things that happen, the reader wants this novel to stretch on and on and on. Amid the obvious plot and accompanying action, we are treated to penetrating insights on small-town culture, questions of God, belief, and the Devil, the relationships between women and men.

And at the end we get a grand, glorious and rousing finish.

This is probably among King’s best books — best because he has harnessed the excesses and incorporated the fabric of real life into the skeleton of the uncanny. We enjoy the yarn, and we learn in the process. For fun though “Needful Things” is, it also has its point: What is the result of our late 20th century money culture? The answer comes midway through the book, when Deputy Norris Ridegwick ruminates: ” … every choice had consequences. Because in America, you could have anything you wanted, just as long as you could pay for it. If you couldn’t pay, or refused to pay, you would remain needful forever.”

Janet C. Beaulieu is a free-lance writer who resides in Bangor.