Stephen King's The Drawing of Three (Book II of The Dark Tower)

Review of The Drawing of Three

By: Stephen King

            If “The Gunslinger” is the prologue, then “The Drawing of Three” is when the real story begins.  Roland wakes up on a beach right after his encounter with The Man in Black.  He must find the 3 doors and the 3 beings, The Prisoner, The Lady of Shadows, the Pusher/Death.  First, he comes to New York City in the 80s (I think) and meets junkie Eddie Dean.  The second door leads to the 50s (again, I think) where he meets Susannah a wheel chair bound black woman who has a dual personality.  The trio travels together on this beach in search of the third door with one of Susannah’s personalities fighting them the whole way.

            If you know anything about Stephen King then you can guess that Eddie Dean probably has a bit in common with the author.  He is a character I got frustrated with and I confess I couldn’t relate to his problems.  Though, I understood his love and loyalty to his older brother Henry, even if he didn’t deserve it.  Luckily, my sister does deserve my love and loyalty unlike Henry Dean.  Eddie’s drug addiction makes him paranoid, anxious, and temperamental.  The situation Roland, and partially his brother, puts him in makes his moodiness worse.  He was hard for me to like but as the story progresses I liked him more.  I enjoyed Susannah more as a character especially with her going back and forth with her personalities, even though one of the personalities is hateful and down right mean.  Her monstrous personality is more compelling with her hatefulness, paranoia, and she proves herself to be incredibly smart but using her smarts for more selfish reasons.    Both of them are sympathetic, but Eddie had a choice while what happened to Susannah that caused her two personalities was not something she chose.  The lobstrosities are creepy and ugly to imagine as we anticipate when they’re going to come and attack the trio.  The relationship between this trio is compelling to read as they have a love/hate feeling towards each other.  Eddie resents that Roland has dragged him along on this dangerous mission and finds the Gunslinger to be a hypocrite, because he believes Roland is a Junkie for the Tower.  He also has fallen for Susannah and hates Roland for putting her in danger as well.  The endless beach that King describes adds to the tension as we don’t know when it will stop and they’ll get to their destination.  It is an uncomfortable situation for all and emotions are high.  Roland accepts and knows more than the others and he won’t show emotion as he doesn’t question anything.  He is that person that says it’s all meant to be and that frustrates Eddie.  The juxtaposition of our world and versus this part of Roland’s is interesting and highlights how bizarre his world is compare to ours.  He was fascinated by things we take for granted and things that are common sense to us is bewildering for him.  He notices how much paper we use and he cannot believe it as paper in his world is rare and a valuable commodity.  He is amused by the drug store and has mixed feelings about our food.  His outsider perspective allows him to see more clearly like with Eddie and his addiction.  I vaguely remember loving the “The Waste Lands’, the third book in the series, so I cannot wait to start it.