Cujo: 35th Anniversary

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Doc Creed

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Nov 18, 2015
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Cujo was published on September 8th, 1981. This Thursday marks its 35th anniversary. He was a good dog...but he did a bad, bad thing. ;)

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Misery was my initiation into King's horror novels but Cujo, once again, brought back all of my claustrophobia...not to be revisited until Gerald's Game. Thank you Linda for the Cujo hardcover this week. I will be reading very soon to celebrate!
 

Dana Jean

Dirty Pirate Hooker, The Return
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Apr 11, 2006
53,634
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The High Seas
Cujo was published on September 8th, 1981. This Thursday marks its 35th anniversary. He was a good dog...but he did a bad, bad thing. ;)

View attachment 17402 View attachment 17403
Misery was my initiation into King's horror novels but Cujo, once again, brought back all of my claustrophobia...not to be revisited until Gerald's Game. Thank you Linda for the Cujo hardcover this week. I will be reading very soon to celebrate!

Such a bleak story. The characters, their lives, the setting. Just hopeless feeling from the get-go. Good writing.
 

GNTLGNT

The idiot is IN
Jun 15, 2007
87,651
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Cambridge, Ohio
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king family fan

Prolific member
Jul 19, 2010
33,133
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south
Cujo was published on September 8th, 1981. This Thursday marks its 35th anniversary. He was a good dog...but he did a bad, bad thing. ;)

View attachment 17402 View attachment 17403
Misery was my initiation into King's horror novels but Cujo, once again, brought back all of my claustrophobia...not to be revisited until Gerald's Game. Thank you Linda for the Cujo hardcover this week. I will be reading very soon to celebrate!

You are welcome!
 

Steffen

Well-Known Member
Aug 9, 2015
2,233
12,800
Thanks for the reminder there Doc. Will have to revisit this book, as I haven't read it since back in the 80s. I was always struck by the passages King wrote from the dog's point of view. Really nice stuff.
 

skimom2

Just moseyin' through...
Oct 9, 2013
15,683
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USA
I haven't read this one in years, and don't think I can. It made me sob hysterically as a teenager, years from having my own kids. Now... nope. Don't think I can.

This is one that has affected me more insidiously that any other of Mr. King's books except maybe The Stand. I remember long passages of Cujo by heart (even after all these years), still say, "Nothing wrong here" all the time, and I'm still terrified of the thing in Tad's closet (I suspect it's the same as Mr. Flip, Father Callahan's closet monster). And I love poor Cujo. He really did try to be a good dog...until he couldn't. :too_sad:
 

RichardX

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Sep 26, 2006
1,737
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I'm re-reading this one again. It is the counterbalance to The Shining in some respects with Cujo being a "summer" book and The Shining being a "winter" book. The supernatural elements at the beginning and connections to Frank Dodd always struck me as a bit odd since the remainder of the book is set in the darkness of real life. A great book though and one of the more underrated in my opinion.
 

RichardX

Well-Known Member
Sep 26, 2006
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Finished re-reading this one. A very good book. Couple of small details that I had forgotten:
like how Donna's character acknowledges the improbable series of coincidences that led to the confrontation with Cujo. In most books, the characters are oblivious and the reader starts to say "what are the odds of all these things happening" and the plot seems far fetched. King knocks the air out of that criticism when this occurs to the characters themselves and they recognize how unlucky they have been. Like many real tragedies there are a number of seemingly improbable coincidences coming together that culminate in the final event. The connection with Frank Dodd felt a bit forced. Dodd's evil seemed a lot different from that of Cujo. Cujo was basically a victim of circumstances. Dodd was inherently evil. It seemed odd to merge the two and how/why Cujo was haunting Tad's closet even before he turned was puzzling. Cujo wasn't an evil entity at that point. Maybe some foreshadowing of fate? I liked how King played out the secondary stories with the cereal professor and trip of Charity and Brett Chambers.
 

Marty Coslaw

Low-BDNF Gork
May 19, 2018
177
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DC
Finished re-reading this one. A very good book. Couple of small details that I had forgotten:
like how Donna's character acknowledges the improbable series of coincidences that led to the confrontation with Cujo. In most books, the characters are oblivious and the reader starts to say "what are the odds of all these things happening" and the plot seems far fetched. King knocks the air out of that criticism when this occurs to the characters themselves and they recognize how unlucky they have been. Like many real tragedies there are a number of seemingly improbable coincidences coming together that culminate in the final event. The connection with Frank Dodd felt a bit forced. Dodd's evil seemed a lot different from that of Cujo. Cujo was basically a victim of circumstances. Dodd was inherently evil. It seemed odd to merge the two and how/why Cujo was haunting Tad's closet even before he turned was puzzling. Cujo wasn't an evil entity at that point. Maybe some foreshadowing of fate? I liked how King played out the secondary stories with the cereal professor and trip of Charity and Brett Chambers.
Completely agree! The Dodd plot was so out of place and really had no connection to the events except the Sheriff remembering Frank. King repeatedly reminds the reader that Cujo was a good dog, which wouldn't be necessary if the whole thing wasn't so damn pointlessly tragic. I saw no thread of supernatural resolution (restless spirit, angry entity etc) running through the story, just the baffling name-drop.