Status
Checked out
Genres
Collection
Publication
Signet (1985), 318 pages
Description
Fiction. Horror. HTML: Curse of the Old Gypsy Man... Billy Halleck, good husband, loving father, is both beneficiary and victim of the American Good Life: he has an expensive home, a nice family, and a rewarding career as a lawyer. But he is also fifty pounds overweight and, as his doctor keeps reminding him, heading into heart attack country. Then, in a moment of carelessness, Billy sideswipes an old gypsy woman as she is crossing the streetâ??and her ancient father passes a bizarre and terrible judgment on him. "Thinner," the old gypsy man whispers, and caresses his cheeks like a lover. Just one word...but six weeks later and ninety-three pounds lighter, Billy Halleck is more than worried. He's terrified. And desperate enough for one last gamble...that will lead him to a nightmare showdown with the forces of evil melting his flesh away.… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member BeckyJG
Thinner is one of Stephen King's Richard Bachman books, the handful of books that he wrote in the late seventies to mid-eighties and published using the Bachman pseudonym. Why did the best selling author in the world publish under a pseudonym? Well, depending on what you read or what you choose to
Whatever his reasons for doing it, Thinner is as frighening a psychological/supernatural thriller as any of King's other work.
The novel opens with a curse. Hot shot lawyer Billy Halleck has recently been absolved, with a wink and a nod by his friend the judge, of any guilt in the death of an old Gypsy woman whom he'd struck and killed with his car on a village street. As he came out of the courthouse with his wife, an old Gypsy man, the leader of the band, with a rotting nose and an appetite for revenge, lay a hand on Billy's cheek and whispered one word. "Thinner." Billy, a more-than-portly 250-pounder thinks of this disturbing incident when he weighs himself the next morning and discovers that he's lost three pounds. Billy is a rational, materialistic, suburban white man, practicing law in the city and having drinks and steaks at the country club and enjoying all the comforts of an upper-middle class life and yet...some part of him knows immediately and unimpeachably, deep down in his still large and robust gut, that some truly bad shit has begun.
Chapter by chapter we follow Billy's weight loss--two, three, five pounds a day--and the growing disbelief and fear of those around him. He visits the doctor. He submits to tests. But he knows--in that rapidly diminishing gut--what the problem is. People fall away from him, and when even his wife turns on him (for his own good, of course), Billy leaves his suburban nest on a journey up the East Coast in search of the band of Gypsies and their leader who did this to him.
The end of Thinner presents its most chilling moment, as Billy is given a choice. From the moment that choice is given, we know he will make it. And from the moment he makes it, we know that, as bad as it all as been, this cannot end well.
Interestingly, for me, Thinner's only jarring note comes from one of its basic premises. No, not the curse: the Gypsies. Gypsies? Really? In suburban southern Connecticut in the mid-eighties? Even though I had trouble with that one point, having grown up, as I did, in the exact area in which the book takes place and never once having seen a band of Gypsies come into town and set up shop on the village green, still, the story is a beaut. Thinner is a taut, fast-paced psychological thriller, short and bittersweet and well worth a place on the shelf.
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believe, it was either as an outlet for King's creativity, to circumvent the then conventional wisdom that an author publishing more than one book a year would over-saturate the market (Hello! James Patterson...Danielle Steel...Nora Roberts--didn't you ever get that memo?) or to test the waters to see if his talent or his name was what made each book a bigger bestseller than the last. When he was outed by a particularly dogged D.C. bookseller after the publication of Thinner, King officially killed off his pseudonym, and for good measure--as he often does--killed him metaphorically as well, in The Dark Half.Whatever his reasons for doing it, Thinner is as frighening a psychological/supernatural thriller as any of King's other work.
The novel opens with a curse. Hot shot lawyer Billy Halleck has recently been absolved, with a wink and a nod by his friend the judge, of any guilt in the death of an old Gypsy woman whom he'd struck and killed with his car on a village street. As he came out of the courthouse with his wife, an old Gypsy man, the leader of the band, with a rotting nose and an appetite for revenge, lay a hand on Billy's cheek and whispered one word. "Thinner." Billy, a more-than-portly 250-pounder thinks of this disturbing incident when he weighs himself the next morning and discovers that he's lost three pounds. Billy is a rational, materialistic, suburban white man, practicing law in the city and having drinks and steaks at the country club and enjoying all the comforts of an upper-middle class life and yet...some part of him knows immediately and unimpeachably, deep down in his still large and robust gut, that some truly bad shit has begun.
Chapter by chapter we follow Billy's weight loss--two, three, five pounds a day--and the growing disbelief and fear of those around him. He visits the doctor. He submits to tests. But he knows--in that rapidly diminishing gut--what the problem is. People fall away from him, and when even his wife turns on him (for his own good, of course), Billy leaves his suburban nest on a journey up the East Coast in search of the band of Gypsies and their leader who did this to him.
The end of Thinner presents its most chilling moment, as Billy is given a choice. From the moment that choice is given, we know he will make it. And from the moment he makes it, we know that, as bad as it all as been, this cannot end well.
Interestingly, for me, Thinner's only jarring note comes from one of its basic premises. No, not the curse: the Gypsies. Gypsies? Really? In suburban southern Connecticut in the mid-eighties? Even though I had trouble with that one point, having grown up, as I did, in the exact area in which the book takes place and never once having seen a band of Gypsies come into town and set up shop on the village green, still, the story is a beaut. Thinner is a taut, fast-paced psychological thriller, short and bittersweet and well worth a place on the shelf.
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LibraryThing member dragonasbreath
It wasn't too bad. Like most of King's books, it's billed as Terror - I kept laughing all the way through it.
It does make a good moral lesson along with a tight story.
It does make a good moral lesson along with a tight story.
LibraryThing member melydia
It's a painfully simple concept for a story: overweight man runs down gypsy, man's judge friend gets him off, gypsy's father curses man, man begins to lose weight at a horrifying rate, man hunts down gypsy's father to get curse removed. Considering all the stuff up to and including the man getting
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cursed happens before the book even begins, there is definitely not enough story here to fill 300 pages. It all feels like padding - the altercation with the doctor, the stories of the judge and police chief, even the lengthy bit of tracking down the gypsy caravan. It would have been much better as a short story. I hear the movie is good, which makes sense - this is something that could easily be condensed into a 90-minute film without losing anything. (Though I hear the ending is different, which is a shame since that was one of the few parts of the book that didn't drag on endlessly.) Show Less
LibraryThing member mccin68
Billy kills a traveling gypsy in a hit-and-run. His arrogance and narcissism leds the head gypsy to curse him and the good old boys involved in brushing aside the death. Billy goes to extreme measures to fight the curse he is given. In a twisted ending Billy meets an ironic fate. One of King's
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best. This one was more realistic, similar to Carrie than to say Desperation. It made me wonder if something like this could really happen in a small town on a dark and stormy night. Show Less
LibraryThing member andyray
Sometimes you shouldn't get what you want, especially if it involves being rough on gypsies. Suppose you lost weight no matter how much you ate? Then you found out it was from a gypsy's curse that you made fun of? Would you track her down and beg to do anything to releive the curse?
LibraryThing member usnmm2
One of his most original ideas. A slightly overweight D.A. runs a band of Gypsies out of his town illegally. They in turn put a curse on him to lose weight. He must find them to get the curse removed before he fades away to nothing.
LibraryThing member DarkRaven2
Thinner was a good book. Weird, funny at times and simply good writing with plot twists and turns.
LibraryThing member santhony
As with many of King's works, I find his books that deal with real people to be far scarier and more entertaining than the books that involve supernatural (and many times silly) monsters and beings. Gerald's Game, Dolores Claiborne, The Shining, Misery are terrifying without being ridiculous.
LibraryThing member Fluffyblue
This is the first Stephen King book I've read all the way through. I quite enjoyed it - it was a fairly light read and didn't require any particularly deep level of concentration.
The story was interesting - about a man who accidently kills a gypsy's wife and gets cursed by the gypsy. The ending was
The story was interesting - about a man who accidently kills a gypsy's wife and gets cursed by the gypsy. The ending was
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good, and although I saw some of it coming, I didn't see it all... Show Less
LibraryThing member marysneedle
I have the hardcover book of Thinner which has a picture of a man that is not Stephen King on the back jacket cover. I don’t know who this man is but the book definitely had lots of hints dropped seeming to be asking the question” who will be sleuth enough to discover Bachman is Stephen King
Any way the story was kept pretty much to the point without a lot of wandering off. It kind of had that eye for an eye feel to it. How many times have we heard or seen people getting off light for charges that would have been more severe if palms were not greased or they just happened to know someone with enough power to lessen the penalty?
The old gypsy seems to represent the eye for an eye kind of justice he knew he would not get from the legal system of our society. In the end the gypsy made it clear to Halleck that even though the curse would be lifted off of Halleck someone would be paying the price because it could not just go away. There was a blood debt to settle one way or another and the only way Halleck would get out of the curse was to pass it on to someone else and this was thru a Pie that the gypsy brought to their meeting. After Halleck put his own blood into the pie he was to choose who is to eat the pie and pass the curse from himself to someone else. Halleck wanted his wife, who he sees as the cause of the whole mess, and whom he seems to believe has abandoned him to eat the pie. Halleck brings the pie back home to his wife as a disguised as a peace offering. His daughter has been staying with an aunt to separate herself from all the emotional distress going on between her parents. However the daughter comes home unexpectedly the same night Halleck did after Halleck has gone to bed. When Halleck wakes up and realizes that not only did his wife eat a piece of the pie but his daughter It’s too much for him and the story ends with Halleck also eating a piece of the pie.
I could see the ending being what it was because Halleck never wanted to see his daughter hurt and he is not going to be able to live with himself and watch his daughter die from a curse originally meant for him. His daughter after all continued to believe in him all the way and did not deserve it. What I’m wondering is just how much of the curse is really supernatural and how much was really brought on by subconscious beliefs. The cursed people seem to have this preconceived notion that the gypsies have supernatural abilities and that is what gypsies do when they are crossed is cast spells and curses. I’m thinking this may have contributed their decline in health more than anything. Heidi his wife did not suffer any effects from the curse and disbelieves Halleck and thinks him crazy to believe a curse was put on him. Also the old gypsy did not seem to concerned about Halleck putting a curse on him, the gypsy just had the problem eliminated by having Ginelli killed.
So by Halleck eating a piece of the pie in the end I have no doubts he would die however I’m not so sure that his wife and daughter would suffer the same fate. Because of all this the end of the story kind leaves an uncertainty for me. But I believe that is what makes it a good story because it keeps me thinking about it.
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?” . Hints such as the setting being mostly Bar Harbor and Bangor Maine which is King’s home stomping grounds and references like “this sounds like a Stephen King Novel” just screaming at subliminal messaging. There were probably some I didn’t even catch. I especially am glad he mentioned Waldenbooks. I used to work for Waldenbooks a long time ago. Any way the story was kept pretty much to the point without a lot of wandering off. It kind of had that eye for an eye feel to it. How many times have we heard or seen people getting off light for charges that would have been more severe if palms were not greased or they just happened to know someone with enough power to lessen the penalty?
The old gypsy seems to represent the eye for an eye kind of justice he knew he would not get from the legal system of our society. In the end the gypsy made it clear to Halleck that even though the curse would be lifted off of Halleck someone would be paying the price because it could not just go away. There was a blood debt to settle one way or another and the only way Halleck would get out of the curse was to pass it on to someone else and this was thru a Pie that the gypsy brought to their meeting. After Halleck put his own blood into the pie he was to choose who is to eat the pie and pass the curse from himself to someone else. Halleck wanted his wife, who he sees as the cause of the whole mess, and whom he seems to believe has abandoned him to eat the pie. Halleck brings the pie back home to his wife as a disguised as a peace offering. His daughter has been staying with an aunt to separate herself from all the emotional distress going on between her parents. However the daughter comes home unexpectedly the same night Halleck did after Halleck has gone to bed. When Halleck wakes up and realizes that not only did his wife eat a piece of the pie but his daughter It’s too much for him and the story ends with Halleck also eating a piece of the pie.
I could see the ending being what it was because Halleck never wanted to see his daughter hurt and he is not going to be able to live with himself and watch his daughter die from a curse originally meant for him. His daughter after all continued to believe in him all the way and did not deserve it. What I’m wondering is just how much of the curse is really supernatural and how much was really brought on by subconscious beliefs. The cursed people seem to have this preconceived notion that the gypsies have supernatural abilities and that is what gypsies do when they are crossed is cast spells and curses. I’m thinking this may have contributed their decline in health more than anything. Heidi his wife did not suffer any effects from the curse and disbelieves Halleck and thinks him crazy to believe a curse was put on him. Also the old gypsy did not seem to concerned about Halleck putting a curse on him, the gypsy just had the problem eliminated by having Ginelli killed.
So by Halleck eating a piece of the pie in the end I have no doubts he would die however I’m not so sure that his wife and daughter would suffer the same fate. Because of all this the end of the story kind leaves an uncertainty for me. But I believe that is what makes it a good story because it keeps me thinking about it.
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LibraryThing member coffeesucker
Another creepy book - pretty good read.
LibraryThing member jseger9000
Thinner is a simple concept done extremely well. A relatively straight forward revenge horror tale.
Hefty lawyer Billy Halleck is cursed by an old gypsy man who brushes his cheek and says "Thinner". From there he begins losing two to three pounds a day, regardless of his calorie intake.
The horror
Thinner is a throwback to earlier Stephen King novels, tightly focused on Billy's plight and his investigations. The characters are still as well developed as I've come to expect from Stephen King, just here his cast is much smaller (Billy's is the only point of view we really follow) and he doesn't follow them down as many rat holes.
One thing I appreciate about reading a Stephen King story is that he clearly does his research. When the book would discuss legal issues, the history of the gypsies or the medical complications of unstoppable weight loss he always adds in enough detail to show that he's not just making this stuff up.
Thinner is about as lean a thriller as we are likely to get from Stephen King, yet it still has enough detail and depth of character to keep it from feeling skeletal.
Hefty lawyer Billy Halleck is cursed by an old gypsy man who brushes his cheek and says "Thinner". From there he begins losing two to three pounds a day, regardless of his calorie intake.
The horror
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starts slowly as at first Billy is quite happy to be shedding his extra weight. As keeps shrinking however, things become more paranoid and desperate.Thinner is a throwback to earlier Stephen King novels, tightly focused on Billy's plight and his investigations. The characters are still as well developed as I've come to expect from Stephen King, just here his cast is much smaller (Billy's is the only point of view we really follow) and he doesn't follow them down as many rat holes.
One thing I appreciate about reading a Stephen King story is that he clearly does his research. When the book would discuss legal issues, the history of the gypsies or the medical complications of unstoppable weight loss he always adds in enough detail to show that he's not just making this stuff up.
Thinner is about as lean a thriller as we are likely to get from Stephen King, yet it still has enough detail and depth of character to keep it from feeling skeletal.
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LibraryThing member lovelyliquid
This story gave me a whole new thought on how to treat others. Even the though of something mystical happening
I would prefer it not be what happened in this book!
I would prefer it not be what happened in this book!
LibraryThing member Carmenere
The master of terror has done it again. In Thinner, Stephen King asks the question, who is rightly eligible to dole out justice? Isn’t it enough that a judge declared Billy Halleck innocent of causing an accident even though it was his horny wife who was equally responsible? And if it is in the
Although with references to Jordache jeans, Aries K cars and Pat Benetar the book is a bit dated but the basic storyline is timeless.
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realm of the victim’s family to correct a wrong judgment, should they……and how far is too far?Although with references to Jordache jeans, Aries K cars and Pat Benetar the book is a bit dated but the basic storyline is timeless.
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LibraryThing member booksandwine
Stephen King is the master of giving me the creeps. This book was no exception. Billy Halleck, an overweight well-to-do lawyer, messes up big time and hits an old gypsy woman with his car and kills her. Billy gets off scot-free which pisses the gypsies off, so they curse Billy. Billy loses weight
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faster than an anorexic, wasting away to nothing. I guess what really creeped me out the most was how the doctors couldn't figure out what was wrong with him. It got me thinking about how much we depend on doctors to fix us if we get sick and how scary it would be to have a mysterious disease no one had seen before. Needless to say, this was worth a read during a long summer day. Show Less
LibraryThing member BurtonHannah
The book Thinner is definitely not Stephen King's best book that he ever wrote. I think that's because it was one of his first books that he ever wrote. In the book Thinner, Billy Halleck loses weight because he was cursed by this old Gypsy guy who's name is Lemke because Billy and his wife ran
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over Lemke's daughter. And Billy is a lawyer and has many connections with the town so he got off really easy the judge declared it an accident. And the cop that was involved didn't really investigate the scene. He just declared that Lemke's daughter was jay walking which is illegal. So through out the story it goes on that Billy is losing a dangerous amount of weight and his family basically think that he is crazy and that this "curse" that was put on him is all in his head. But Billy knows that it isn't because the judge Rossington was cursed with turning into a reptile and the police officer Hoppley was cursed with a severe case of acne that was very painful. So Billy went on this chase to find the Gypsy's and to tell him to take the curse off. Throughout the story it goes to tell on that Billy has this friend who is a famous drug dealer that will help him find the Gypsy's. When Billy finds the Gypsy's camp he demands that Lemke takes the curse off or that Billy will put the curse off the "white man from town" on them. It turns out that the curse that Billy put on the Gypsy's is his drug dealer Ginelli. Ginelli just terrorizes the Gypsy's till they are extremely frightened and agree to take the curse off. Im not going to say too much because I want you guys to read the book to find out the events in more detail. And you will have to read the book to find out how it ends. I will say that it is very shocking!!!! Show Less
LibraryThing member phaga
This started off pretty slow for me. I was having trouble seeing how a guy getting skinnier and skinnier was going to fill 300+ pages without getting ridiculous, but in the end it sped up and turned out to be a pretty good read.
LibraryThing member gina-magini
A gypsy puts a curse on three men. One of them loses weight no matter how much he eats. He seeks to have the curse removed. This is a well-written, but very dark book.
LibraryThing member barpurple
Not a bad little take on the idea of a gypsy curse.
LibraryThing member Anagarika
Mr. King has done a lot better. Pass.
LibraryThing member Bookmarque
I wish this wasn't abridged because I love the story and Paul Sorvino's voice.
LibraryThing member moonshineandrosefire
When heavy-set attorney Billy Halleck accidentally kills an old gypsy woman, his dreams of losing weight turn to nightmares as the old woman's family curses him. The ancient curse slowly forces Billy to lose weight, then more and more rapidly as time goes by. Now Billy must find a way to escape
I have read quite a number of Stephen King's books and although he is very popular as a writer, I find many of his books a little longwinded and drawn out. However, I found Thinner very scary and was drawn into the story. I give it an A!
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with his life.I have read quite a number of Stephen King's books and although he is very popular as a writer, I find many of his books a little longwinded and drawn out. However, I found Thinner very scary and was drawn into the story. I give it an A!
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LibraryThing member MkateN
When Billy, an overweight lawyer, hits and kills a Gypsy woman, he is cursed by her father. He is not convicted for killing her and it would have been forgotten; except for the strange things happening to him. He begins losing weight in large quantities, not mattering what he eats or how much he
This was a very strange story, with some disturbing passages and ideas. However, I liked it because of the suspense and unexpected twists and turns. I was shocked at the decisions Billy made and the discoveries he made. I could never guess what was going to happen next, which also made me want to keep reading. It was well-written and usually easy to follow.
I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a quick suspense novel. Thinner is also a cliffhanger; it leaves you wanting to know what happens next. There were some unpleasant parts, so I’d say this isn’t a book for the weak-hearted. However it was a great mystery and something really different. I give this book an 8 out of 10.
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exercises. His doctor cannot come up with a reasonable explanation, but Billy is beginning to believe more and more in this curse. Strange things start happening to some of his friends; one is slowly turning into an alligator, and one has acne so severe that his face is beginning to fall off. Billy is certain about the Gypsy’s curse by now, but no one will believe him- including his wife. He sets out to find the Gypsy man so he can settle this curse business once and for all- but Billy was never expecting the situation he ends up in. This was a very strange story, with some disturbing passages and ideas. However, I liked it because of the suspense and unexpected twists and turns. I was shocked at the decisions Billy made and the discoveries he made. I could never guess what was going to happen next, which also made me want to keep reading. It was well-written and usually easy to follow.
I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a quick suspense novel. Thinner is also a cliffhanger; it leaves you wanting to know what happens next. There were some unpleasant parts, so I’d say this isn’t a book for the weak-hearted. However it was a great mystery and something really different. I give this book an 8 out of 10.
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LibraryThing member csweder
If you are looking for a book that inspires you to be kind to people, even strangers, this is it.
The main character gets a gypsy curse when he rubs her the wrong way. The ultimate karma book.
The main character gets a gypsy curse when he rubs her the wrong way. The ultimate karma book.
LibraryThing member Blackhammer
This book is overall pretty good and shows Stephen King's excellent writing style. I particularly love his use of flashbacks and the way he has the characters telling you their stories. The flashbacks are excellently done and useful to help you recall specific details that might have been missed. I
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do have a problem with the start of the book because I believe that Billy's starting weight and the reaction of his friends and family at the beginning did not match up. I felt his starting weight of 246 pounds does not justify the reactions he got from his wife and doctor. Also I noticed that this book is obviously dated when it comes to the prices of things. For instance Stephen King talks about expensive houses in neighborhoods with country clubs costing around $200,000 and a huge meal from McDonalds costs less then $7. While an average combo meal costs $6, Billy got 3 times the food for $1 more. I think my favorite part of the whole story was Ginelli's tale, I wish he had played a bigger part in the plot instead of just getting the occasional mention from Billy. I like how it ended and it really showed a moral for this book. The Billy at the end of the story was a real contrast to the self-centered and bitter Billy that was portrayed through most of the story. I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a good read especially those who like older stories about a change in heart. Show Less
Subjects
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
1984-11-19
Physical description
318 p.; 7 inches
ISBN
0451190750 / 9780451190758