Rating: 
Summary: Cujo
Review: Cujo is an excellent novel written by stephen King and I would recommended every one to read it sometime in their life, because you never know what horror might be written on the next page. Some say it's most heart-squeezing novel that Stephen King has ever written. The novel Cujo is a very intresting peice of literature; it makes the reader imagine what else could possibly happen in life, not just the nice pretty things. Its gut wrenching detail is about how a two-hundred pound, rabid Saint Bernard dog tears each of his victims apart one by one. The other characters in the novel are Vic Trenton, who has moved his family to a town called Castle Rock, Maine, who is trying to keep his ad agency from losing a large account and going under. That's not his only problem he has to face; he finds out his wife Donna has been cheating on him with another man for several months. As they worry about the problems they are facing now with each other, it's nothing compared to what they are about to face, and that problem's name is Cujo. When you are done reading this novel you will never look at a Saint Bernard the same way again.
Rating: 
Summary: Dogs DO Bite!!
Review: Once again, thrill-horror-shock master Stephen King has managed to write yet another masterful horror piece.
In this novel about a good, oafish, loveable dog named Cujo who has gone and gotten himself bitten by a rabid bat, we are introduced to a woman and her young son's journey through hell. How would you like to be trapped in a Pinto in the blazing heat with a 150 pound rabid dog after you?
As always, Mr. King manages to convey the full scope of the fear, horror and revulsion these two trapped individuals feel in their ordeal with the bloody Cujo (who is bloodied since he has already snacked on two other people and now see Tad-pole and Donna as dessert). This is definitely a fine example of Stephen King at his absolute best.
For a book that you can't put down, yet you are afraid to turn to the next page, pick up Cujo - you will never look at dogs in quite the same way again!
Rating:
Summary: Stephen King rabid dog story about the perils of inaction
Review: I always think of Stephen King's "Cujo" as his version of "Hamlet," simply because Donna Trenton's inability to act reminds me of the Prince of Denmark's refusal to do what needed to be done in time for it to matter. Given that starting point it makes sense that this is the first Stephen King novel that avoids the supernatural, save for a small inconsequential moment. This time we do not have telekinetic power, vampires, a haunted hotel, the end of the world, psychic ability, or pyrokensis. In "Cujo" we have a two-hundred-pound Saint Bernard who pursues a rabbit into a bolt-hole and is bit by a rapid bat and ends up terrorizing a trapped mother and son in a broken down car. For "Cujo" to be about the perils of inaction, the danger has to be more realistic for the lesson to be worthwhile.I was really surprised to go back and see how much King crammed into this novel. We are introduced to the cast of human characters, which are basically divided into the Trenton and Chambers families. Vic Trenton is a New York adman with a partner and small agency trying to hold on to his last account who moves to Castle Rock, Maine seeking peace away from the big city. His marriage is on the rocks, which explains why Donna is having an affair, but they both love their four-year-old son, Tad. Joe Chambers does auto repair out of his garage and does not treat his wife Charity right. Cujo is the best friend of their ten-year-old son Brett. While circumstances align to put Donna and Tad in peril, we learn a whole lot about Vic Trenton's ad campaign for the Sharp Cereal Professor, which blows up in his face. Actually this is my favorite part of the novel and I really like the way Vic finds a way to "bury" the old fellow. The problem is that this is more interesting to me than what is happening back at the Chambers farm with Cujo, which just keeps dragging on and on. Not that the situation is unrealistic, in terms of what happens in the car where Donna and Tad are trapped by Cujo, but that the situation is established fairly early in the book and you know it is not going to be resolved until the end. When you go and see a movie you can lose all sense of time and not know that you have reached the end, but with a book you always have a rough idea of how many pages are left. It would be impractical to have a book where there were 50-100 blank pages at the end, or (surprise) another story, but that would have helped this novel. "Cujo" is also in the running for being the biggest downer of all of King's novels and the fact that a character we remember fondly from another novel gets killed does not help us think back on the novel favorably. Looking back on King's career "Cujo" seems to be a start of a darker period in his stories where, as King would say, the Dionysian darkness is not dispelled by the Apollonian light. It seems that what bit poor old Cujo when he stuck his nose into that bolt-hole got a piece of King as well.
Rating:
Summary: Genius Talent, Wrecklessly Neglected
Review: It is a nightmare! For 150 pages of Cujo, Donna and Tad Trenton are stuck in a broken-down Pinto at isolated Joe Cambers's farmhouse, eight miles south of Castle Rock, Maine -- while a rabid 200-pound Saint Bernard named Cujo stalks their every move! Cujo is a fast-paced horror story that I came close to returning to the library about 130 pages in. In the first attack scene, King seemed to delight just a little too much in showing this dog with Gary Pervier's shoulder in its mouth, dragging it around the home. This novel is powerful, but its power comes from the building aniticipation that Donna may act heroically -- or might be saved -- in the face of terrible danger. It's the hope that good might happen that made this readable. But when Donna does act -- though heroic -- it ain't really good. It is gruesome. With Cujo, King takes you to hell with an energy that indicates a return -- a glimpse, at least -- to heaven. But that ending does not come. The ending he finished with in Cujo seems cold, rushed, contrived, and low on hope. A major strength of the novel is King's sensitive depiction of Donna's failing marriage to hard-working ad-man Vic Trenton. Vic finds out in the first 130 pages that his wife has cheated on him and that his company is likely to fail. This is aspect of the novel that gave me a sense of reality -- and cause to hope. If I'm gonna read through 150 pages of a dog ravaging people gruesomely, at least give me the hope that the Trenton family can rise above. However, the climax of this novel comes as a result of Vic's returning to Castle Rock to find his wife and son missing, police in his ravaged home, and his decision -- at that point -- to take a nap. A nap! King gets away with this novel because he can always say, well, "Hell, it's just a damn horror novel." You know, like what do you expect -- Tolstoy? But it's just that King has the same intense gift that Tolstoy, Twain, Dickens, Poe -- a handful of the best writers in history -- did have. And that one-in-ten-billion talent seems recklessly abused here. Maybe some readers will never be completely satisfied. And maybe others will praise him for his obvious talent and achievement. Cujo is only one novel, and it IS a tight read. One sign of truly great writers is that even when at their lowest their still heads-and-shoulders above the rest. Perhaps, I should just ask for more butter on my popcorn and be happy with what the guy wrote. Stacey
Rating: 
Summary: Love the Intertwined Stories, Hated The Ending
Review: Stephen King's CUJO had so much going for it in its first three-quarters, with the ingenious intertwining of its three major story components, that the ending was a complete letdown for me. Here I followed, with such eagerness, the Trentons, the Cambers, and---of course---the most unlucky St. Bernard in the world, Cujo, for over two hundred pages of complex setup, exposition and conflict (across all three components, by the way) only to have it marred and be almost completely undone by an ending that is as mean-spirited as it is simplistic. Perhaps the ending was inevitable, but in reading some of these reviews which make mention of Stephen King going through a rough period in his life and doing copious amounts of cocaine while writing this book, it's no wonder that the ending was the way it was. I've recently read that this ending was modified for the film version. I still have not yet seen the movie---I know, I know, I'll get to it someday! It received largely negative reviews upon its release in 1983, but if the ending was changed the way I've heard it was, then maybe I'll like it after all! As it stands, I still enjoyed the first three-quarters of the book, which I read about 10 years ago. My favorite parts actually had nothing whatsoever to do with the titular character; they were the clever cereal saga and the high infidelity drama! Perhaps I should revisit CUJO again soon, if only because most of it is so good. As for the time being, however, I'd have to deem it MODERATELY RECOMMENDED; AGES 17 & UP
Rating:
Summary: A Centerpiece in Stephen King's career
Review: Cujo is one of the most memorable and well written novels Stephen King has written to this day. There are fond memories from everybody who has read the book or seen the movie of the Infamous Pinto scene, which stands as one of the most riveting scenes in any novel and the reader just sucks it up like a black hole. Many people read the novel after seeing the movie just to get to the Pinto scene, mostly missing all the carefully laid plot twists and intricate ironies that mask the characters in a macabre shadow. Minor points aside, Cujo stands as Stephen King's most fastpaced and well written novel to date, and therefore should be read by all, and remember, DOGS DO BITE!
Here's a summary of the Story and its Writing: Story: Enter the Trentons, Donna, the lonely housewife who has just broken off an affair under rather nasty circumstances, Vic, the interminably busy ad maker whos Biggest client is envoloped in a fatal scandal, and Tad, The curious son who's just begun to see monsters in his closet. Then we see the Cambers, Joe, The auto mechanic with an attitude, his wife Charity, Who dreams of a better lifestyle, and their son Brett, the precosious youth who owns a rather large St. Bernard named Cujo. This is where the story really starts to pick up. Cujo in fact is one of the most tame dogs you could have the fortune of having, but after chasing a rabbit into an unforseen hole and being bitten by a cache of bats, Cujo starts to feel different. Cujo was in fact infected with rabies and the disease slowly starts to eat away his mind. The oldest person in town, Evvie Chalmers, predicts that the summer of '82 will be the hottest in 30 years. Vic Trenton's ad campaign for a cereal backfired after the cereal caused its consumers to vomit blood, and he has to quickly rush to New York to reassess his issues. Donnna Trenton puts a stop to her affair with Steve Kemp(Her Neighbor), but he has other ideas. He soon after mails Vic an anonymous letter making him aware of the affair. Depressed and belittled, Vic gratefully travels to New York to get away for awhile. Tad Trenton starts to see a monster in his closet more frequently, and that monster is itching to get out. Back with the Cambers, Charity Camber wins the lottery to her great surprise and plans to take her son Brett with her to Hartford, Connecticut to visit her sister and show her son a "Better Lifestlyle". But before Brett leaves he notices that Cujo looked very sick, but he neglected to tell his father. Joe Camber, unhappy but agreeable to his wife and son's trip begins to plan a trip to Boston for himself and his best friend, the alcholic Gary Pervier, who is his next door neighbor, the only one for a few miles. After Vic Trenton's absense, Donna's brand new Pinto begins to act up, the needle valve apparently skewered, so she decides to take the car to the cheapest auto mechanic in town, Joe Camber(BAD IDEA). But beforehand, Cujo has been degraded to a mindless 250 pound mongrel hellbent on the thought of murder, and starts his killing spree by biting off Gary Pervier's throat and instantly killing him. The next day Joe Camber arrives at his friends house to find his dead friend and his worst nightmare, Cujo. He soon is made into lunch. By now, the Camber residense is totally deserted except for Cujo, and when Donna and Tad Trenton pull into the Camber's driveway in their fabled Pinto, Cujo's the first one they meet. It attacks and turns the Pinto into his own personal toy, and the people inside are it's puppets. The Pinto is unresponding and will not start up to Donna and Tad's dismay, and they are stuck for days under the watchful gaze of the insane and slowly dieing Cujo and under the sweltering sun of summer. Ultimately, the ultimate sacriface must be made for the survival of Donna, who saintly risks her life for her son but soon realizes he's already dead. Thus ends an Epic tale of irony and plot twists. Writing: You can only describe the writing in this novel in one word: Breathtaking. You literally are held breathless and under the spell of King's writing, which forces you to read the novel in the course of 48 hours. His fastpaced prose and deftly laid plot twists and ironies astonish me in their careful planning and how they came out in the final product, and it is one of his most complex novels to date, a perfect choice for college reading teacher's studys. King is definitely in a Zone(The Dead Zone?Just Kidding) and tells the story in his I Want To Tell You A Story mode, unrelenting and never boring. He flexes his writing talents to the brink and shows us just how talented he really is. This is the best writing in any novel I've read of his SO FAR, encompassing The Shining or Needful Things, but I still hold an unsurpassable place set by The Green Mile. Great in every way possible, Cujo is remarkably polished and will be around for many years to come if justice is served. Memorable Quote:"The world is full of monsters, and they were all allowed to bite the innocent and the unwary" Very True
Rating:
Summary: The scariest thing? The book's not horror.
Review: I can't think of any words to describe to you, the reader, how this book made me feel, but here goes anyway, because I like to be helpful. To lump King into the limiting paradigm of "horror writer" is like blasphemy, and if you're going to read Cujo, you might as well toss it if you're going to think of it that way. King is not a horror writer, any more than Fitzgerald is a cheap, 10-cent paperback romance writer. What King writes about is life--in all its bloody and dank, beautiful and mysterious glory. When I read Cujo I was terrified, and my hands even shook as I put the book down, finally finished at the end of the long night. But what terrified me the most is not the actual carnage, but the fact that this story is so real that the location might as well be Anytown, USA, and You, the Anonymous Reader Reading This Review, as the lead character. King said himself that, like in Ripley's Believe it or Not, reality and the bizzare (read:horror) coexist at all times, and that the juxtaposition of the two is where terror originates. REAL horror is here in the real world, not in Nasfaratu, not in Freddy Kreuger or Jason, but in your own home, or worse--in your own mind. The story on its own is almost boring: a lovable 200-pound St. Bernard catches rabies. So why was I shaking, and why did I burst into tears after reading the ending? Better yet, why was I so moved that I took the time to write this review to convince you to read it for yourself? Trust me. Read the book. I don't care if you've never met me. From one terrified reader with her head detached after reading Cujo to another reader contemplating buying it (that's why you're here, isn't it?), take my advice and get it. You won't regret it.
Rating:
Summary: Exciting, but tedious at times
Review: I've enjoyed reading some of King's work, but this is by no means one of his best. Although the premise of the story was good and kept me wondering what was going to happen next, I felt that some sections were overly detailed and at times tedious; I don't feel like reading long descriptions of scenery when I'm sitting on the edge of my seat wondering what's going to happen next in the story. Overall, not bad. I recommend Cujo to people new to King's work because it's not overly gruesome like some of his others but still retains his unique flair.
Rating:
Summary: Good Book
Review: Good Book. You don't even realise it's a long book, it moves fast.
Rating:
Summary: One of my favorites from King....
Review: This is one of my favorite novels from King. The plot is pure genius...a gentle, loving family dog that gets rabies from some bats...then unwillingly turns into a savage monster. I myself am a dog-lover, throughout the book -- I had alot of compassion for Cujo...he was a victim of a terrible disease -- not a cold blooded killer. It's weird to have compassion for the humans and the dog --- this is not a novel with a clear-cut good guy vs. bad guy. I guess it is just part of King's genius. This book is fairly fast-paced....the only part of the novel that bored me a little was the whole "Vic/Roger -- Rasberry Zingers/Advertising job troubles" subplot. The last 100 pages are some of the most intense pages I have ever read. I want a St. Bernard :(
|
