The Journals of Eleanor Druse:
My Investigation of the Kingdom Hospital Incident

The Journals of Eleanor Druse: My Investigation of the Kingdom Hospital Incident
Eleanor Druse (Stephen King?!)
2004, Hyperion
ISBN 1-4013-0123-1

By now most people will realize that this novel, sold under Eleanor Druse’s name, is most likely a Stephen King novel and a tie-in to the lackluster ABC-TV 15-hour miniseries “Kingdom Hospital.”* Don’t pick up the book thinking you’ll get the entire miniseries in 244 pages, though — the book ends right about where the TV miniseries begins (it's copyrighted by Sony Pictures Television Inc. and Touchstone Television).

The journals begin when Eleanor Druse is called by her son Bobby, an orderly in Kingdom Hospital, who tells her that her childhood friend Madeline Kruger has been admitted after an unsuccessful suicide attempt, repeatedly crying out for “Sally Druse,” Eleanor’s childhood name.

When Eleanor speeds to the hospital, she discovers that she’s too late, and takes a fall and a blow to the head that ends up putting her in a Boston hospital. Here she begins to investigate her own hallucinations and Madeline’s death, while at the same time trying to fend off the malevolant neurosurgeon Dr. Stegman, who wants to aggressively treat her “seizures.”

Eleanor’s research in Boston and after returning to Lewiston, Maine, reveals that she and Madeline had both been intimately involved in the dark secrets that haunt Kingdom Hospital. Despite obstruction from Dr. Stegman, who moves to Kingdom Hospital’s new neurosurgery ward, Eleanor discovers the truth about the Pain Room; the Train Sourball Laboratory; her hallucinations of an evil, scarred old doctor; and the reason why she keeps thinking about “breaking glass in case of fire.” Along the way, she also starts to get a glimpse into the nature of the little girl with the strange, bestial sidekick whose ringing bell seems to foreshadow earthquakes and death in the hospital.

The novel ends abruptly and without providing any sort of resolution. If you’ve watched the miniseries, you may feel puzzled by it — the artist Rickman and the Dr. Hook, both of whom get major airtime in the series, are only mentioned passingly here, while Eleanor, who is not clearly the focal character of the series, is the driving force in the book. Moreover, the events in the TV series do not follow the same chronology as the events in the book.

Stephen King fans and horror fans will be amused by some of the references here, such as Nozz-A-La Cola (mentioned in King's Dark Tower novels, and the best argument for King being the real author of this book) and LuvKraft Pest Control (c’mon, figure it out). And I don’t know about your copy, but the title on my hardback’s cover gave me a start when I finished it and tossed it into a dark corner.

Despite some nift value, Journals isn’t one of King’s best attempts. (It’s also not listed on his website as one of the novels he wrote — oooh, the mystery, the mystery!) The plotting is loose and Eleanor’s too-often-secondhand investigation doesn’t possess the tension of search and discover that makes mystery novels so addictive. King’s novels fall into two overlapping but distinct categories: those that revolve primarily around intense character development and those that revolve primarily around strange events. Journals doesn’t succeed at either. Eleanor's character feels oddly isolated, without the extended relationships and rich, close intimacies with others that one would expect in an extroverted woman who’s lived and taught in the same small town all her life. And although Journals does feature a few strange events, it doesn’t don’t manage to build up a “world askew” atmosphere necessary for successful horror.

Final word: Even if you’re a hardcore King fan, don’t pay the hardback price. Wait for it in paperback or, better yet, check it out from the library.

*(Note: “Kingdom Hospital,” contrary to popular belief, was not written by Stephen King. It was originally a 1994 Dutch miniseries “Riget,” by Lars von Trier, who also made a sequel in 1997. King has adapted it for American TV.)

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