The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon: Difference between revisions
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== Plot summary == |
== Plot summary == |
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The story is set in motion by a family hiking trip, during which Trisha's brother, Pete, and mother constantly squabble about the mother's divorce with her father, as well as other topics. Trisha falls back to avoid listening and is therefore unable to find her family again after she wanders off the trail to take a bathroom break. Trying to catch up by attempting a shortcut, she slips and falls down a steep embankment and ends up hopelessly lost, heading deeper into the heart of the forest. She is left with a bottle of water, two [[Twinkies]], a [[boiled egg]], a [[tuna sandwich]], a large bottle of [[Surge (drink)|Surge]], a [[poncho]], a [[Game Boy]], and a [[Walkman]]. Now and then she listens to her Walkman to keep her mood up, either to learn of news of the search for her, or to listen to the baseball game featuring her favorite player, and "heartthrob," [[Tom Gordon]]. |
The story is set in motion by a family hiking trip, during which Trisha's brother, Pete, and mother constantly squabble about the mother's divorce with her father, as well as other topics. Trisha falls back to avoid listening and is therefore unable to find her family again after she wanders off the trail to take a bathroom break. Trying to catch up by attempting a shortcut, she slips and falls down a steep embankment and ends up hopelessly lost, heading deeper into the heart of the forest. She is left with a bottle of water, two [[Twinkies]], a [[boiled egg]], a [[tuna sandwich]], a large bottle of [[Surge (drink)|Surge]], a [[poncho]], a [[Game Boy]], and a [[Walkman]]. Now and then she listens to her Walkman to keep her mood up, either to learn of news of the search for her, or to listen to the baseball game featuring her favorite player, and "heartthrob," [[Tom Gordon]]. |
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As she starts to take steps to survive by conserving what little food she has with her and consuming edible flora, her mother and brother return to their car without her and call the police and start a search. The rescuers search in the area around the path, but not as far away as Trisha has gone. The girl decides to follow a creek (though it soon turns into a swamp-like river) rationalizing that all bodies of water lead eventually to civilization. |
As she starts to take steps to survive by conserving what little food she has with her and consuming edible flora, her mother and brother return to their car without her and call the police and start a search. The rescuers search in the area around the path, but not as far away as Trisha has gone. The girl decides to follow a creek (though it soon turns into a swamp-like river) rationalizing that all bodies of water lead eventually to civilization. |
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Revision as of 01:05, 8 September 2011
 First edition cover | |
| Author | Stephen King |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Shasti O'Leary |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Horror novel |
| Publisher | Scribner |
Publication date | April 6, 1999 |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover) |
| Pages | 224 |
| ISBN | 978-0684867625 |
| Preceded by | Bag of Bones |
| Followed by | Dreamcatcher |
The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon (1999) is a psychological horror novel by Stephen King. In 2004, a pop-up book adaptation was released, designed by Kees Moerbeek and illustrated by Alan Dingman.
Plot summary
The story is set in motion by a family hiking trip, during which Trisha's brother, Pete, and mother constantly squabble about the mother's divorce with her father, as well as other topics. Trisha falls back to avoid listening and is therefore unable to find her family again after she wanders off the trail to take a bathroom break. Trying to catch up by attempting a shortcut, she slips and falls down a steep embankment and ends up hopelessly lost, heading deeper into the heart of the forest. She is left with a bottle of water, two Twinkies, a boiled egg, a tuna sandwich, a large bottle of Surge, a poncho, a Game Boy, and a Walkman. Now and then she listens to her Walkman to keep her mood up, either to learn of news of the search for her, or to listen to the baseball game featuring her favorite player, and "heartthrob," Tom Gordon.
As she starts to take steps to survive by conserving what little food she has with her and consuming edible flora, her mother and brother return to their car without her and call the police and start a search. The rescuers search in the area around the path, but not as far away as Trisha has gone. The girl decides to follow a creek (though it soon turns into a swamp-like river) rationalizing that all bodies of water lead eventually to civilization.
As the cops stop searching for the night, she huddles up underneath a tree to rest. Eventually, a combination of fear, hunger, and thirst causes Trisha to hallucinate. She imagines several people from her life, as well as her hero, Tom Gordon, appearing to her. It is left unclear whether increasingly obvious signs of supernatural events in the woods are also hallucinations.
Hours and soon days begin to pass, with Trisha wandering further into the woods. Eventually she begins to believe that she is headed for a confrontation with the God of the Lost, a wasp-faced, evil entity who is hunting her down. Her trial becomes a test of a 9 year old girl's ability to maintain sanity in the face of seemingly certain death. Racked with pneumonia and near death, she comes upon a road, but just as she discovers signs of civilization, she is confronted by a bear, which she interprets as the God of the Lost in disguise. Facing down her fear, she realizes it is the bottom of the ninth, and she must close the game. In imitation of Tom Gordon, she takes a pitcher's stance and throws her Walkman like a baseball, hitting the bear in the face, and startling it enough to make it back away. A hunter who has come upon the confrontation between girl and beast frightens the bear away and takes Trisha to safety, but Trisha knows that she earned her rescue.
Trisha wakes up in a hospital to find her divorced parents and older brother waiting near her bedside. A nurse tells the girl's family that they must leave because "Her numbers are up and we don't want that." Her father is the last to leave. Before he does Trisha asks him to hand her her Red Sox hat (autographed by Tom Gordon) and she points towards the sky, just as Tom Gordon does when he closes a game.
Movie adaptation
Although George A. Romero was attached to write and direct,[1] plans for film adaptation had stalled as of October 2005.[2]
Themes
The novel also features many classic mythological and cultural themes. The entity that stalks Trisha referred to in the novel as "The God of the Lost" is very similar to the Wendigo, a predatory demon from Indian mythology that was said to inhabit the forests of the northeastern United States and Canada, and was said to torment humans lost in the woods before eventually devouring them.[3] Another theme common to Indian cultures as well as cultures around the world is the concept of the ordeal, a rite of passage in which a candidate must prove him or her self by braving a dangerous or daunting task or undertaking to be considered an adult.
Translations
| Country | Year | Title | Publisher | Translator |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| FIN | 1999 | "Eksyneiden Jumala" | Tammi | Ilkka Rekiaro |
| GER | 2000 | "Das Mädchen" | Schneekluth-Verlag | Wulf Bergner |
| SWE | 2000 | "Flickan som älskade Tom Gordon" | Bra Böcker | Tove Janson Borglund |
| LTU | 2000 | "Mergaitė, kuri mylėjo Tomą Gordoną" | Eridanas | Jurgita Jėrinaitė and Birutė Vijeikienė |
| ICE | 2000 | "Stúlkan sem elskaði Tom Gordon" | Iðunn | Björn Jónsson |
| DEN | 2000 | "Pigen der elskede Tom Gordon" | Bogklubben Egmont | Jette Røssell |
| XA | 2002 | "La Chica Que Amaba A Tom Gordon" | Debolsillo | |
| ID | 2006 | "Gadis Penggemar Tom Gordon" | PT Gramedia Pustaka Utama | B. Sendra Tanuwidjaja |
| HR | 2006 | "Djevojčica koja je obožavala Toma Gordona" | Algoritam | Božica Jakovlev |
| CZ | 2007 | "Holčička, která měla ráda Toma Gordona" | Pavel Dobrovský - BETA | Linda Bartošková |
| POL | 2008 | "Pokochała Toma Gordona" | Prószyński i Ska | Krzysztof Sokołowski |
| FR | 2009 | "La petite fille qui aimait Tom Gordon" | Succès du livre éditions | François Lasquin |
| SLO | 2010 | "Deklica, ki je oboževala Toma Gordona" | Modrijan založba | Aleksandra Kocmut |
References
- ^ Movies Coming Soon - RopeofSilicon.com
- ^ BD Horror News - Romero Talks 'Land of the Dead' Sequel!!
- ^ [Blackman, W. Haden, The Field Guide to North American Monsters, page 198, Three Rivers Press, 1998]
