THE GIRL WHO LOVED TOM GORDON, by Stephen King New York, Scribner, 1999, 224 pages, $16.95

Nine-year-old Trisha McFarland has to pee. That’s where all her troubles begin out on Maine’s Appalachian Trail one Saturday with her mother and older brother. But as mother and brother obliviously argue up ahead, Trisha falls behind and leaves the trail in search of a private moment. Her bearings get twisted around, and before long she’s lost, scared, alone, and the sun is going down. And, oh yeah, she’s in love with Boston Red Sox closing pitcher Tom Gordon.

That’s the setup for Stephen King’s new novel, “The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon,” which sneaked onto bookstore shelves about a month ago. The most shocking aspect of this book is not the story itself — which does shout “Boo!” in the Kingster’s own special way. What’s shocking is that this book clocks in under a million pages. In other words, it’s a quick read, is easy to carry, and won’t convert readily into a small coffee table (like “Insomnia” and “Desperation”).

Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean it uses all of its space more efficiently. Trisha wanders in the woods for nine days. They are long days. They get repetitive. Let’s face it: There’s only so much you can do in the woods. Fall down a hill. Be scared of the dark. Cry. Eat berries and nuts and fiddleheads. Cry. Hallucinate about your favorite closing pitcher. Slap mosquitoes. Cry. Lose some weight. Cry some more. But then it’s back to your average day of being lost in the woods.

Of course, there is the God of the Lost. He’s a pretty grisly sort of creature, with burdocks stuck to his fur, black eyes, green teeth and claws. But to reveal more about this bearlike demon would be to give away the mystery of the story. And you might prefer the longer route. The much longer route.

Now here’s what’s not shocking about King’s story. As with all his best work, there’s a meaningful symbolic level to the story.

Trisha, like Carrie before her, is a girl who’s dealing with family problems. Her parents have divorced and she’s really lost — in the prickly woods of fractured family life. Through her suffering, she comes to realize her own strength and will. This is a child who will never be lost again, a child who is a hero by the end of the story.

King, an outed Red Sox fan who threw the first pitch at Fenway Park this year, structures the book in innings rather than chapters. Tom Gordon is a presence in the book, but in an epilogue, King writes a disclaimer about details regarding the Red Sox 1998 season and points out that the Tom Gordon who shows up on Trisha’s adventure is not the real Tom Gordon, but the Tom Gordon of King’s imagination.

Still, it is Trisha’s love for Gordon that keeps her pumped (she listens to the Red Sox-Yankees games on her Walkman) and that ultimately keeps her pitching in the game of survival. Like a good ghost, he shows up in the ninth to assist in a win.

Much of this book is funny, such as a scene in which Trisha runs into three robed men standing near a stream. When she asks forhelp, one of the men tells her he has come from God — the same one Tom Gordon points to when he gets a save — but that the day is very busy, and she’s low on the priority list.

“There’s been anearthquake in Japan,” he explains. “As a rule, he doesn’t intervene in human affairs, anyway, although I must admit he is a sports fan. Not necessarily a Red Sox fan, however.”

The book is also poignant in places because King really gets the nuances of childhood. You come to care about Trisha and to respect her for being so resourceful, authentic and smart. When shethrows her final pitch, she makes you believe her swift eye and firm arm could strike out Mark McGwire every time. In short, this is a circuitous but basically fun read — especially if you’re a hard-core American baseball fan. This book might even be right for younger readers. It’s not without King’s signature spate of curse words, scatology and gross details. But whatever. The point is that Trisha’s story is creepy, harsh and tender. Like Dorothy in Oz, she comes out stronger and wiser, and with a greater understanding that the universe is her home.