Elevation

It’s next to impossible to write about Elevation without giving away the plot. And I don’t want to do that because at least half the pleasure of this slender novel is the sheer unexpectedness of what happens. About as far as I’d go would be to say that it’s about a man and his initially testy relationship with his neighbours, a lesbian couple running a restaurant in a bigoted Maine town.

Of course, being Stephen King there’s a fantastical element to all this – one I will not give away – and one he weaves into his story with all his customary skill. He’s always been able to make the most ridiculous events – a homicidal steam press? – seem more than believable and his skill doesn’t desert him here for so much as a second.

But what impresses me even more is how he’s able to take all these disparate elements and build them to a climax that’s as heartbreaking as it is somehow weirdly, totally logical.

I loved this book. Stephen King at his best.