It’s not until she’s lying in the bed of their summer vacation home handcuffed to the bedposts that Jessie Burlingame realizes just how sick she is of her husband’s shit. Over 17 years of marriage she’s witnessed him rise to the top at his corporate law firm, but she’s also witnessed his expanding waistline, receding hairline, and growing disinterest in having sex with her. Jessie is completely bored with his handcuff kink, but has been willing to go along and get things over with until today. Unfortunately, during their argument Gerald has a fatal coronary and falls dead on the floor, leaving Jessie completely helpless. It’s the offseason at the lake and none of their neighbors are around. She’s too far from the keys or the phone for either to be of use to her, and she cant break the cuffs or the bedposts.
Stuck on the bed with her husband’s rotting corpse lying nearby on the floor, Jessie’s mind starts to wander. She also starts talking to herself, in multiple voices, including her former college roommate, a therapist she stopped seeing, and a sort of heightened persona Jessie names “Goodie Burlingame.” In between desperate attempts to think of a means of escape, these inner voices provoke Jessie to recall past traumas she has long kept buried. Jessie resists these thoughts, not knowing how they could be helpful to her in her current predicament.
Sometimes, King’s novels feel more like responses to challenging writing class prompts than actual stories. King is clearly drawn to this high-concept premise for the daunting task it presents. Can he really spin an entertaining yarn out of a woman stuck in bed? The voyages into Jessie’s childhood provide a necessary change of scene and inject some momentum into the narrative, but they are also terribly disturbing in their own way.
King seems to really draw out Jessie’s decision-making process, having her dawdle and delay on her escape attempts despite the obvious peril she is in. The dithering saps the novel of any real suspense, leaving the reader stranded right along with Jessie.