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Cujo
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...the monster never dies...
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Cujo
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The short novel Cujo is mired in bleakness. Within the first hundred pages, we come in contact with a man named Vic Trenton, whose ad agency, Ad Worx, is in danger of failing because of an unfortuante accident involving one of their clients; his wife, Donna, who has taken an afternoon lover and wants to break it off; their son, Tad, whose fears about a monster in his closet may or may not be groundless; Charity and Joe Camber, whose marriage is one of fear and upset; their son Brett, who has been prone to attacks of sleepwalking; and his dog Cujo, a two-hundred pound Saint Bernard who has just contracted rabies.
A depressing outset, but at first, things seem to be getting better. Charity Camber wins the lottery -- enough money to afford a new chainfall for her husband, and a trip to her sisters' to show Brett "how some decent people live." Donna breaks it off with her lover, Steve Kemp, and begins to feel releif and happiness again. Then, almost at random, everything conspires against everyone. Kemp writes a nasty note to Vic, telling him about the affair. Donna and he have a confrontation, days before Vic is needed on an away trip to save his business. Brett and Charity discover that the way her sister lives isn't necisarily the best way. And then there's Cujo, the most random and lethal element thrown into the equation.
While Charity and Brett are away, Cujo slaughters Joe Camber and his neighbor Gary Pervier. The house is left empty, miles away from other houses. While Vic is in New York, then Boston, Donna drives her failing Pinto to Camber's to change a valve. The car, of course, stalls in Camber's yard, leaving Donna and Tad trapped against the force that is Cujo -- a good dog driven insane by a degenerative nerve disorder. In the meantime, Kemp shows up at the Trenton's and trashes the place. When Vic comes to realize something is wrong at home, the vandalization throws a cog into the finding of Donna and Tad; the reader gets the impression that, if not for Kemp, the two trapped in the car would have been found faster.
The final hundred or so pages focus on Donna's grim struggle to keep herself and Tad alive in the sweltering heat of the car. Cujo attacks, Cujo lays low. In these last, feverish passages, Cujo becomes dangerously exhilerating - an increasingly tense stalemate where the outcome is never clear. Is Donna's will strong enough to defeat the mad monster and to save her dying, dehydrated son ... or will the dog have its day?
The novel's catchphrase, spoken by an advertising creation of Vic and his partner, Roger Breakstone, is "Nope, nothing wrong here." This is Stephen King at his ironic best. Everything goes wrong in Cujo. The maddening thing about all this is that almost everything that went wrong could have been avoided. It's almost all coincidental. Donna having an affair. The runny, red dye that got into the cereal. The fact that both Vic and the Cambers were away when Cujo becomes rabid. The car stalling at the worst moment. Everything.
This is not to say Cujo isn't a good novel; it is. The dog attacks are frightening and the characters are engaging. The monster-out-of-the-closet motif is the closest thing this book comes to being supernatural, but which also serve to be confusing and slightly distracting. Still, the novel grips you and doesn't let go. By the end, however, you might wish it had let up ... just a little.
Personal Observations
WARNING!!! HEAVY SPOILERS BELOW!!!
Cujo bothers me in two ways. One, the novel hinges on events that are almost completely coincidental. Circumstances had to go exactly right for everything to go wrong. This frustrates me because, unlike most King works, it doesn't have any basis in real life. The characters, the minor torments, even the dog attack -- that is all real enough. But the way events construct themselves -- it could happen, but is still unrealistic. Sitcoms do this a lot: people get slight misinformation, and everything goes wrong. Also, what's up with the thing in the closet? Is that Frank Dodd? Is there supposed to be a supernatural context? The novel, which is supposed to be grounded in reality, goes off on this minor supernatural rangent a few times in the book -- and it's jerky and obvious. Those scenes don't have any real connections with the novel itself. I feel that if the idea of the monster in the closet (and, along with that, the image of Cujo being the monster set loose) would have been fine. Asserting that things paranormal are going on simply doesn't work.
This is not to say that this is a bad book. It is, for the most part, a realistic, American novel, both scary and sad. The tryptych of deaths at the end: George Bannerman, Tad Trenton, and Cujo himself, are among the most haunting, effective scenes King has written. Man battles Nature, and they both lose.
End spoilers
Cujo, the film, is better than you'd think. Dee Wallace (E.T.'s mom) is extraordianry -- does equally well playing nice suburban housewife and vigilante dog killer. The film has some very intense sequences -- the dog attacks (especially the one where she's trying to get the window closed!) are freakish and scary.
No Misery (then again, what is?) but also no Graveyard Sh*t (thank God.) More along the lines of a Needful Things adaptions -- quite good with pretentions of being great.
I'd say see it!