by Robespierre L. Bolivar
An edited version of this book review was first published in the Arts and Culture Section of GMA News Online on September 13, 2020. Please click here to view the published version of this book review (a screenshot appears at the end of this article).
The first question the kind, elderly man at the counter asks as you enter the door of this quaint antiques and curiosity shop seems innocuous enough: What are you looking for?
We all have things we want. And there is nothing wrong with that. Is it a rare vinyl record of your favorite artist? A first edition novel perhaps, or a vintage comic book or baseball card? Maybe some fine porcelain figurines to complete your collection?
Then, he dangles the hook: He says he has that exact thing you want. Now, how much do you think this is worth?
You realize that this thing you want, being one-of-a-kind, or much-coveted, or exceedingly rare in such pristine condition, would command a steep price. You want it so badly, but it suddenly dawns on you: you can’t afford it.
Dejected, you almost walk out of the shop.
But the proprietor lowers the bait: You can buy this item with whatever cash you have now in your pocket. And since I am willing to sell this to you for a song, perhaps you can do a little favor for me. It won’t even require much of an effort from you.
You couldn’t believe your luck. Getting that prized item for cheap if you do him a small favor? Eighty cents for an item that is clearly worth at least 50 dollars is a steal. And didn’t the man say he wants just a little favor?
Finally, he lands the sucker punch: I need you to play a prank on one of your neighbors. Just a harmless, little prank. Now, do we have a deal?
Welcome to Needful Things, the store that has everything you’ve wanted for a long time. Whatever it may be.
When one customer challenges Mr. Gaunt about not having price tags on the items, he replies ominously: “I’d rather think of it as defining worth by need.”
Needful Things opened up in the New England town of Castle Rock, Maine. It’s a typical brick and mortar store from the outside, and its storefront window showcases just a few curiosities and antiques. At first glance, you may think its most distinguishing feature is the green awning and its name.
Inside, the store is lined with locked glass cases and shelves holding more antiques, curiosities, and knickknacks. Carnival glass of various colors, Lalique crystals, long-boxes of vintage comic books, a photo of Elvis Presley, a relic from the Holy Land.
What sets Needful Things apart is the curious effect its items have on its buyers. The things seem to connect in a visceral way, and amplify to a trance-like quality, a person’s innermost desires.
A toy predicts the outcomes of each horse race, allowing the owner to place winning bets. Sunglasses which purportedly belonged to Elvis Presley magically transports the buyer to an intimate rendezvous with the King. A rare baseball card has a seemingly personalized autograph to the buyer. An antique charm eases the pain of arthritis.
The items find their way to very willing recipients: the horse-racing toy to a serial gambler; the sunglasses to a die-hard Elvis fan; the baseball card to a middle-grade child who idolizes the ball-player; a woman suffering from the debilitating arthritic pain. A host of other unique and ‘valuable’ items slowly find themselves in the hands of townspeople. They purchase these items for a pittance, but, in the process, become indebted to the proprietor, the gentlemanly but enigmatic Mr. Leland Gaunt.
When one customer challenges Mr. Gaunt about not having price tags on the items, he replies ominously: “I’d rather think of it as defining worth by need.”
As part of the payment for any item, Mr. Gaunt requires the buyer to perform a little prank on one of the other residents. He goads Brian Rusk, to whom he sold the rare baseball card, to soil his neighbor Wilma Jerzyck’s laundry. He asks Brian to leave hints to make Wilma believe the culprit of the prank was Nettie Cobb, another neighbor with whom she has been at odds for some time. He then prods the buyer of another item, the town drunkard Hugh Priest, to poisonl Nettie’s beloved dog and leave a trail of clues that point to Wilma.
Buyers eager to get their hands on the shop’s unique merchandise, and who believe they are playing mostly harmless pranks on others, enable Mr. Gaunt to weave a complex web of rancor and revenge. Before long, old hatreds erupt into unbridled violence. Pranks lead to open hostility, and leave many people dead. The once-sleepy New England town is soon caught in the throes of chaos.
The main antagonist of the novel, Leland Gaunt, brings to mind Bram Stoker’s iconic creation, Dracula. He is described as impossibly tall, with penetrating eyes, a bushy unibrow, long fingers and uneven teeth.
Published in 1991, Needful Things was written by acclaimed horror master Stephen King. It was billed as “the last of the Castle Rock novels”. From The Dead Zone to Cujo, Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption to The Body, Castle Rock figures prominently in many of his works and has become important in the Stephen King canon. Though the short story It Grows on You (published after Needful Things) returned to the fictional town, Needful Things is Castle Rock’s last, proper appearance.
The release of the first two seasons of the Hulu series Castle Rock, set in that same fictional Maine town, sparked a new wave of interest in King’s work. While it may have been more traditional to commemorate the release of the series by reviewing The Dead Zone (the first novel to feature Castle Rock), revisiting Needful Things seemed more compelling.
In Needful Things, the entire town of Castle Rock becomes more than a stage. It becomes both victim and villain.
The novel introduces us to a host of characters, many of whom have made an appearance in other King novels and also play a part in the Hulu series. Castle Rock sheriff Alan Pangborn, mourning the tragic deaths of his wife and young son; Polly Chalmers, who suffers more from arthritis in her hands than with the nasty rumors swirling about her; Brian Rusk, a middle-grade boy hopelessly in love with his special education teacher; Nettie Cobb, painfully shy and hiding deep wounds left by spousal abuse; Danforth Keeton III, the self-important but paranoid Town Selectman (the “mayor” in many a small New England town); and ex-convict Ace Merrill, who becomes Mr. Gaunt’s accomplice.
The main antagonist of the novel, Leland Gaunt, brings to mind Bram Stoker’s iconic creation, Dracula. He is described as impossibly tall, with penetrating eyes, a bushy unibrow, long fingers and uneven teeth. His manners are quite gentlemanly, but his strong and sure grip leaves an unpleasant sensation. When his first customer walked into Needful Things, he even quoted the line which Count Dracula exclaimed upon welcoming the solicitor Jonathan Harker to his castle: “Enter freely, and leave some of the happiness you bring!”
But while Mr. Gaunt is clearly the villain of the piece, King uses him less as a stereotypical evildoer and more as a catalyst. He doesn’t overtly victimize people like ‘Salem’s Lot’s vampire, Mr. Barlow or The Stand’s Randall Flagg, nor does he directly cause injury or affliction in the manner of Firestarter’s Charlie McGee, the Mr. Mercedes trilogy’s psychopath Brady Hartsfield, or the eponymous Carrie.
In Needful Things, the residents of Castle Rock themselves are the antagonists. Sure, Mr. Gaunt prods them along self-destructive paths, but it is the townsfolk themselves who create the true horror. Mr. Gaunt merely taps into, and amplifies, the simmering animosities and the long-standing resentments of the residents against each other.
Needful Things is also a commentary on the nature of addiction. Like Gollum in The Lord of the Rings, the characters in the novel become overly possessive of the things they bought from the store.
King is best known for writing supernatural horror. It (who isn’t freaked out by clowns, right?), The Shining, Christine, Firestarter, ‘Salem’s Lot (this one kept me awake for many nights), Carrie and The Stand are some of his most famous works.
It comes as no surprise then, that people do not expect to hear that many King novels and novellas are not strictly from that sub-genre. The collection Different Seasons is an excellent example. The novellas in this book spawned the Academy Award-nominated film The Shawshank Redemption, (based on Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption) and the classic coming-of-age movie Stand By Me (based on the novella The Body).
And, of course, who could forget Annie Wilkes in Misery.
The genius of King’s writing in Needful Things is that he doesn’t lean too heavily on the supernatural threat posed by Mr. Gaunt. His sway over the narrative starts off as an undercurrent. For most of the story, his schemes are influenced more by his keen observations of the relationships of Castle Rock’s residents, aided by well-placed but subtle inquiries from those who fit the bill as likely town gossips.
It is only in the last third of the novel where the ominous rainclouds give way to a full-throated storm. By then, the animosities which have for so many years dwelled beneath the surface is loosed in a spree of violence which Sheriff Pangborn and Castle Rock law enforcement is ill-equipped to handle.
Needful Things is a character study of life in a small town. King guides us through seemingly workaday lives peppered only with the delights of the town rumor mill and what should have been a harmless, even amusing, level of friction among its residents.
But trapped in this suburban bubble, a little prodding uncorks the fears, anxieties, insecurities, and bitterness that people have nursed far longer than they should have. In well drawn-out episodes, we see people who would normally shy away from emotional displays give in to their personal demons in perversely cathartic moments.
Needful Things is also a commentary on the nature of addiction. Like Gollum in The Lord of the Rings, the characters in the novel become overly possessive of the things they bought from the store. They ascribe disproportionate value to these curiosities, value which is not intrinsic in the items themselves (we find out eventually that the items they bought are just pieces of junk supernaturally imbued to appear like items the buyer desperately wants). These items possess their owners and cultivates a paranoia of loss.
One is reminded of Possession Obsession, Hall and Oates’ 1985 classic:
“When you want to have the number one, first run, anyone
You’re crazy till you own them
You ought to know better than that
The more that you buy, the less you get back…”
Almost 30 years since it was first published (there are at least 3 editions, the latest one released in 2015), Needful Things remains unsettlingly relevant. The issues it tackled in 1991 remain much the same in 2020.
Instead of Mr. Gaunt’s curiosities and antiques, modern-day obsessions include designer anything, gadgets, and of course, social media. In fact, we bestow upon gadgets and social media powers which these was not intended to wield. They have become for many of us an improper venue for emotional release or anger management therapy (just look at how many of us use social media as some sort of confessional, or how seemingly staid people are hooked on violent video games), a derisory substitute for the actual relationships, or an addictive source of validation and self-importance.
By bestowing these things such power, we give them inordinate influence over our lives. In doing so, we inadvertently accomplish in our time what Mr. Gaunt set out to do in Castle Rock all those years ago: we create our own needful things.
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