How Much Do We Really Need What We Call Our "Needful Things"?

In my review I wrote for Stephen King’s Lisey’s Story I mentioned my disappointment at the execution of the novel, even though it’s a beautifully written book. After reading it I wasn’t convinced to stop reading his work by any means. Something I’ve noticed in the last couple of years is that I’ve come to really love King's work spanning from the late 80's to about the mid 90's. I’m not sure why this is. It could be that I was born in 1992 and maybe it’s a subconscious thing, although even I can’t put all of my eggs into that basket. Honestly, there’s just something to those stories that really speak to me even though I can’t quite put my finger on it. But I digress. When I picked up Needful Things, I was yet again impressed and relieved since this is a novel of King’s I had been wanting to read for many years.

Needful Things is a story that takes place in the fictional town of Castle Rock Maine, a town which is revisited in numerous books in King’s body of work. In fact, this book was considered to be The Last Castle Rock Novel, a prospect that intrigued me the moment I started reading. This story is about a strange but friendly man coming to town and opening a small store that sells a wide variety of items. All items are both seemingly generic and sought after. For some, certain items are rare, one of a kind, and something they would give anything to have. This sets in motion a series of events that acts as a commentary on consumerism and the ravenous insanity that it brings out of people. All of it builds up to what can only be described as an explosive ending that will never be forgotten, at least by me.

This book was both unnerving and strangely funny. Anyone who’s read most of King’s work will have noticed that all of them have a fairly wicked sense of humor, sometimes bordering on camp. This attribute makes his work all the more enjoyable as well as acting as the much needed relief between much of the horrific chaos he also often writes about. With Needful Things though, I was laughing through much of this book and for all of the right reasons. This book is just funny to me and it’s clear that this was the intention. It’s clearly pointing out the insanity we will reach just to buy something we think we’ll never be able to find again. Look at the insane lines during Black Friday sales, or the chaos that came with the releases of the Cabbage Patch Kids, as well as Tickle Me Elmo. There have been other things over the years that have caused an uproar of desperation to obtain these things, at times no matter what the cost, but these are the few that come to mind. With this book, King replicates the perfect amount of accuracy, along with an intimacy that shows you much of the deviance that can come from the need for more, whether it be things or simply more money.

While this book does have some of the common tropes he goes back to time and time again, it’s hard to really notice unless you know his work well. One of the things that’s also amazing to see in the work by King, even the pieces that aren’t his best, are how fleshed out each character is. You can hear each voice as you read the words. They don’t feel like anyone that another person could have created, but rather they feel like real people with lives, wants, dislikes, and dreams for ways to better their circumstances. This book has the feel of Lord of the Flies in the way King writes about how little it takes for a community of people to turn on each other. In this current day and age, this is an observation that is more than accurate. This book, while around thirty years old, still holds true, maybe even more so, to the world we’re living in now.

For these reasons, I highly recommend Needful Things. Does it go into some wild territory that King is known for? Yes, but he does so in a way that doesn’t alienate the reader. One thing I’ve always said about Stephen King is that sometimes you just have to surrender to the crazy, otherwise you won’t have fun. While there’s still some crazy in this book, it’s just enough to fit well with everything else that’s going on with this novel. I would say that everyone needs to read this novel at least once.