Cujo
Cujo is a novel of American author Stephen King from the year 1981 . Cujo forms the third part of the so-called Castle Rock cycle . The novel was first published by Viking-Verlag in 1981, the German translation by Harro Christensen was published in 1986 by Bastei-Lübbe-Verlag. Cujo was founded in 1983 by director Lewis Teague filmed .
content
The novel is about Victor Trenton, who comes from the New York advertising industry, who moved to Castle Rock with his wife Donna and their son Tad in order to fulfill his lifelong dream and found his own company, Ad Worx . In the meantime, his wife has cheated on Victor with the furniture restorer, but that was only a short-term affair for her. Donna and Vic's marriage is in crisis. While Vic goes on a business trip, Donna brings their car, which has an engine failure, to Joe Camber, the owner of a small workshop on the outskirts of Castle Rocks and owner of the eponymous Saint Bernard Cujo. The St. Bernard became infected with rabies from a bat bite while hunting rabbits .
While Victor Trenton tries again and again to reach his wife Donna by phone on his business trip, Donna and her son Tad are locked in the broken car in the Cambers' yard in the searing heat. The mad Cujo waits in front of the car and tries several times to attack the two prisoners. Cujo has already killed his owner and his friend Gary. Sheriff Bannermann, who is already known from Stephen King's novel " Dead Zone - The Assassination " and who hunted down the serial killer Frank Dodd, is killed by Cujo in a spectacular attempt to save Donna and Tad. Donna manages to kill the dog with a baseball bat with the last of her strength, but can no longer save her son from dying of thirst. Shortly after the dog dies, Victor manages to get to the farm. Donna is now infected with rabies herself and, towards the end of the novel, defends herself against being taken away from the court. The therapy works, however, and she is slowly recovering from the disease.
Links with other works
- Sheriff Bannerman appeared in Dead Zone - The Assassination and The Corpse ( Spring, Summer, Autumn and Death Collection ).
- The location of the showdown, Townroad number 3, is mentioned a number of times; He is visited directly in In a small town by Polly Chalmers, who sets a trap for Ace Merrill and believes she can sense Cujo's ghost on the property.
- In the cuddly toy cemetery , Jud Crandall reports on a rabid St. Bernard. Years ago, he cruelly killed four people in Maine.
- In Das Spiel , Cujo is a German shepherd who eats parts of the dead Gerald's body.
useful information
- In 1982 Cujo was named one of the best books for young people by the New York Public Library , but the novel has received a great deal of criticism. In many parts of the United States, Cujo has been removed from school library shopping lists for being "dirty and of questionable sexual content," according to the Rankin Country Mississippi library .
- The book was filmed in 1983 by director Lewis Teague with Daniel Hugh-Kelly, Danny Pintauro and Ed Lauter in the leading roles (see Cujo (film) ).
- King triggered a storm of protest when he let four-year-old Tad die of thirst in the car. In an interview with Douglas E. Winter he himself commented on the writing of this scene: 'The child looked dead. That didn't bother me very much because I knew what had happened, his heart just stopped. She [Donna] gave him mouth to mouth breath and then her husband shows up. Suddenly I realize that 15 minutes have now passed - she is still ventilating him. (...) I don't want to think about what I'll decide when I write - and that's how my child died. ' In the film, however, Tad is allowed to survive.
- The inspiration for his novel came to King when he visited a remote mechanic after a motorcycle breakdown and ran into a huge dog that snapped at him before his master whistled him back.
- Since Stephen King was addicted to alcohol and cocaine for years, he can no longer remember the writing of Cujo today . “I drank a case of beer every night. In the evening I couldn't leave a beer in the fridge. I had to pour it down the drain, otherwise I would have got up to continue drinking. However, I don't remember having written my novel Cujo . But it does exist and, to be honest, I like it, ”King confessed to Spiegel .
literature
- Stephen King: Cujo , Heyne, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-453-43271-0 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Willy Loderhose: The Great Stephen King Movie Book . Bastei-Verlag, Bergisch Gladbach 1986, ISBN 3-404-28144-6 , p. 116.
- ↑ Philipp Oehmke : Spiegel conversation: "And then they eat you" . In: Der Spiegel . No. 4 , 2012, p. 118-122 ( online ).
Web links
- Detailed table of contents in KingWiki
- Cujo in the Internet Movie Database (English) (English)
- Comparison of the cut versions theatrical version - Director's Cut by Cujo at Schnittberichte.com