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Climb aboard Stationary Bike — a streamlined fever dream of a tale, in which an ordinary household object assumes otherworldly powers and a familiar journey takes a terrifying twist.
When commercial artist Richard Sifkitz finally gets around to having that physical he'd been putting off for years, and his cholesterol comes back dangerously high, he does what so many thirty-something, junk food-eating couch potatoes have done before him: he buys a stationary bike, and vows to ride it regularly.
Unlike many a mid-life exercise convert, however, Richard actually starts to ride his new stationary bike. A lot. Soon he's spending so much time on his bike that he decides to put his artistic talents to use and paint a mural on the wall opposite his stationary bike. But it turns out that Richard's mural is no ordinary picture — and soon his stationary bike is taking him places he doesn't want to go...and can't stay away from.
A riveting riff on artistic frustration, midlife mortality, and hard-won redemption, Stationary Bike is a thrill ride that could come only from the mind of Stephen King.
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Creators
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Awards
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Release date
June 6, 2006 -
Formats
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OverDrive Listen audiobook
- ISBN: 9780743565257
- File size: 43665 KB
- Duration: 01:30:58
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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This extended short story will fulfill the needs of fans who must read everything from the master, but most readers will feel as if they're going nowhere. Recent widower and commercial artist Richard Sifkitz begins a midlife exercise program; to keep himself occupied while riding his stationary bike, he paints a mural of a road leading up a mountain. There in his imagination he creates the Lipid Group, four workers on the roadway and in his system who labor to lower his cholesterol but who also pull him into a nightmare world. Ron McLarty continues to prove himself the best interpreter of King's work; unfortunately, there's just not much for him to do here. R.O. (c) AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine -
July 10, 2006
In classic Stephen King tradition, this audiobook reminds the listener that even something as ordinary as a stationary bike can have a devious nature to it. After a tongue thrashing from his doctor, Richard Sifkitz turns his addiction to fatty foods into an addiction to a fantasy world created around his stationary bike, spending hours a day pedaling away. But as his obsession grows, the lines between fantasy and reality dim and he believes someone or something is trailing him on his path. Ron McLarty, who previously recorded King's Salem's Lot
and Faithful
, delivers this novella with an excellent pace and easy disposition. His controlled reading creates a much tenser atmosphere with surprises and plot twists made more shocking without the advance warnings of a more dramatic reading. The jazzy segues between chapters lightens the tone just enough to make the listener feel uncertain about where King is taking this story. King's writing style is quite agreeable to the audio format, making for an enjoyable although slightly dark tale. This novella was published in the anthology Borderlands 5
(Reviews, Jan. 19, 2004)
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