King's greatest strength as a writer has always been deft characterization.

In a novel that is staged through the monologue narration of one character, King has an undeviating sense of Dolores's inner character. As she tells her life — at her own pace, despite the impatience of the police — readers are invited into the increasing richness and complexity of her courage. She steadily narrates to us her life, loves, omissions, sins, and motivations. Cantankerous, scatological, profane, and fiercely maternal, she is also earthy, vivid, goodhearted, believable and compelling.

Through her authentic voice — unvarnished, uncultured, agonized and unforgettable — Dolores Claiborne emerges as almost heroic.

By comparison, Joe St. George, her husband, is cardboard cutout of a loutish, insensitive drunkard. He is physically abusive, voyeuristically interested in his compassionate daughter, and emotionally destructive of Dolores and Selena's mother/daughter relationship.

The only positive images of Joe which...