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Sometimes, an accident can be an unhappy woman's best friend.

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Synopsis

In "Dolores Claiborne," Stephen King has attempted another novel that does not depend on supernatural trappings, gross-out gore or science fiction conceits. As he did in his previous book, "Gerald's Game," Mr. King grapples with the consequences of cruelty, in this case the struggle of Dolores Claiborne St. George, a poor but proud housewife, against her physically and sexually abusive husband, Joe. The narrative consists of Dolores's bumpy, uninterrupted first-person confession, told after she is accused of causing the death of Vera Donovan, a cantankerous, wheelchair-bound widow. For most of her adult life, Dolores had been Vera's housekeeper and, later on, her nurse. Though separated by social class, the women had something in common: both had cruel, unloving husbands who died as a result of apparent accidents. But the death of Joe St. George was no accident -- he was murdered after he stopped beating Dolores and began to abuse their teen-age daughter. Not surprisingly, the core of the novel is Dolores's agonizingly suspenseful recollection of the events leading to her husband's death. Mr. King uses vernacular speech to fashion a strong heroine, but he confuses vulgarity with honesty and burdens Dolores's dialect with too many obscenities and banalities. In a gimmicky plot twist, Mr. King also unconvincingly implies the existence of a psychic sisterhood of abused women. And he needlessly prolongs his unbelievably upbeat conclusion to tie up minor plot threads. Nevertheless, Mr. King's compassionate observation of a mother who destroys her family to protect her children proves that he can do more than simply frighten readers. -- Bill Kent, New York Times