Needful Things
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Needful Things
This article is about the Stephen King novel. For the movie based on this story, see Needful Things (film).
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| Needful Things | |
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 First edition cover |
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| Author(s) | Stephen King |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Horror novel |
| Publisher | Viking |
| Publication date | October 1991 |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover) |
| Pages | 690 |
| ISBN | 978-0-670-83953-7 |
| Preceded by | The Dark Half |
| Followed by | Gerald's Game |
Needful Things is a 1991 horror novel by American author Stephen King. According to the cover, it is "The Last Castle Rock Story." However, the town later served as the setting for the short story "It Grows on You," published in King's 1993 collection Nightmares & Dreamscapes which, according to King, served as a sort of epilogue to Needful Things. It was made into a film of the same name in 1993 which was directed by Fraser C. Heston.
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Contents
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Plot
A new shop named "Needful Things" opens in the town of Castle Rock, Maine, sparking the curiosity of its citizens. The proprietor, Leland Gaunt, is a charming elderly gentleman who always seems to have an item in stock that is perfectly suited to any customer who comes through his door. The prices are surprisingly low, considering the merchandise - such as a rare Sandy Koufax baseball card, a carnival glass lampshade, and a fragment of wood believed to be from Noah's Ark - but he expects each customer to also play a little prank on someone else in Castle Rock. Gaunt knows about the long-standing private grudges, arguments, and feuds between the various townspeople, and the pranks are his means of forcing them to escalate until the whole town is eventually caught up in madness and violence.
Sheriff Alan Pangborn becomes wary of Gaunt as soon as the shop opens. However, his lover, Polly Chalmers, dismisses his suspicions and buys an ancient charm that relieves the arthritis pain in her hands. Tensions rapidly grow after Nettie Cobb, Polly's housekeeper, and her enemy Wilma Jerzyck kill each other in a confrontation sparked by pranks played on them by others. Many other rivalries begin to fester, spurred by the personal motives of the people involved (drugs, secret pedophilia, bad business dealings, religious disagreements, etc.).
Gaunt eventually hires petty criminal John "Ace" Merrill as his assistant, providing him with high-quality cocaine and hinting at buried treasure that could relieve the debt he owes to a pair of drug dealers. Ace's first assignment is to retrieve crates of pistols, ammunition, and blasting caps from a garage in Boston; Gaunt soon begins to sell the pistols to his customers so they can protect their property. He has traveled the world for centuries, selling useless junk that appears to be whatever the customers desire most. They become so paranoid about keeping their items safe that they eagerly buy up the weapons that he inevitably offers and trade away their souls. Ace begins to suspect the supernatural background of his new employer, but Gaunt keeps him in line through intimidation and promises of revenge against Alan and the town.
With the violence in Castle Rock rapidly escalating, Ace and the town's head selectman Danforth "Buster" Keeton (who has embezzled thousands of dollars from public funds) plant dynamite all over town, using the caps Ace brought back. Alan sets out to kill Ace, wrongly believing him to be responsible for a car accident that killed his wife and son, and Polly realizes the evil of the charm she bought and destroys it. As the dynamite bombs explode and Keeton is killed, Ace takes Polly hostage and demands that Alan hand over a hoard of cash he allegedly stole from one of the sites Ace dug up. One of Alan's deputies kills Ace, leaving Alan to face off against Gaunt.
Using sleight of hand and magic novelties that suddenly come to life, Alan forces Gaunt back and grabs his valise, which contains the souls of his customers. Gaunt flees the scene, his car turning into a horse-drawn wagon as he becomes a hunchbacked dwarf, and the survivors are left to ponder an uncertain future.
The novel ends as it begins, with a first-person narrative indicating that a new and mysterious shop is about to open in a small Iowa town - an implication that Gaunt is ready to begin his business cycle all over again.
Characters in the book
Main characters
- Brian Rusk: The boy who is the first customer in the store called Needful Things. He dreams about his teacher falling in love with him. He was asked by Leland Gaunt to sell his soul for a rare signed Sandy Koufax '56 baseball card. He later commits suicide in front of his horrified younger brother, Sean.
- Leland Gaunt: Presumably a demon in human form, who has spent centuries traveling about the world and tricking people into selling their souls to him, usually in exchange for useless objects disguised as the things they want most. Castle Rock is his latest target. Gaunt seems to know the townspeople's greatest secrets, and speaks of them in a way to soothe the customers of his shop. His eyes also change color, depending on who is looking at them, as a way to entice his customers
- Sheriff Alan Pangborn: the Sheriff of Castle Rock and the main protagonist. Gaunt is wary of Pangborn from the start, knowing that he will not be as easy to fool as the others and that Gaunt will need a lot of help before he is able to face Pangborn head-on. Pangborn once had a wife and son, but they both died in a mysterious, unsolved car accident.
- Patricia "Polly" Chalmers: known as the town's most eccentric woman, Polly was originally a Castle Rock native who became an "out-of-towner" after living in San Francisco for years before returning. She left to escape the iron heel of her devout parents after getting pregnant, planning to give up the baby and start a new life in the city. She kept the child out of love, but he later dies in a fire. When she returns to Castle Rock without him, gossip surrounds her but she refuses to explain herself and her life remains a mystery. She suffers from severe arthritis in her hands.
- Norris Ridgewick: one of the town's deputies and Sheriff Pangborn's closest ally. Norris is an avid fisherman who had learned the craft from his father, and has a strong liking for Bazun fishing rods. He buys one of these rods from Gaunt, thus entangling himself in the web of evil.
- John "Ace" Merrill: the town's resident "bad boy" and petty criminal. Ace was a notorious bully in high school (as detailed in 'The Body') but eventually left town, becoming a drug dealer, occasional cocaine user and gunrunner. After being tricked in one of his deals, Ace becomes heavily indebted to a pair of fellow dealers known as the Flying Corson Brothers, and only has a short time to pay them before being subjected to a horrific and painful death. In a bid of desperation, he returns to Castle Rock, finding Gaunt and swiftly becoming his faithful employee. Gaunt sells him a book which Ace believes is the key to discovering his late Uncle's presumed "buried treasure". To all others, the book is simply a copy of Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson.
- Danforth "Buster" Keeton: the town's head selectman, who often used the authority of his office to intimidate others. He is a large man with a fiery temper who constantly abuses his wife, Myrtle, and hates being called "Buster" to his face. Unknown to just about everyone, he is actually deep in debt from his constant gambling at the horse tracks, which he paid for out of the town's funds. He is guilty of a long list of crimes, including theft, fraud, and embezzlement. Mentally unstable, he is extremely paranoid and believes in "Them", the shadowy cabal of authority figures that he believes persecutes him at every turn and intends to drive him insane. Gaunt sells him a mechanical horse-racing game; to Keeton's delight, he finds that the game can be used for augury to predict the actual results of horse-races. Keeton intends to save himself by using the game to win the money he needs to repay the town treasury.
Film
Main article: Needful Things (film)
External links
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Mentioned in
Needful Things
(1993 Horror Film)
Stephen King
(American writer)
Robert Easton
(Actor, Writer, Comedy/Drama)
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