The novel Lisey's Story, with its miniseries adaptation that dropped on Apple+ this week, was inspired by Stephen King's near-fatal bout of pneumonia. The story follows Lisa "Lisey" Landon, the wife of the late, celebrated novelist, Scott Landon. Two years later, Lisey still hasn't dealt with her grief and is still in the middle of cleaning out and packing up Scott's office. Unpublished and unfinished manuscripts, his books, and other items from his life remain to be sorted and as she slowly works through it all, she is reminded of moments from their past together and the love they shared.
The illness that inspired it happened in November 2003 when Stephen King suffered a bout of pneumonia that turned out to almost be fatal for him. In mid-November, he was diagnosed with pneumonia in his right lung but flew to New York to receive the National Book Award for lifetime achievement. However, upon returning home, it took a turn for the worse when it spread to his other lung and he ended up hospitalized and far sicker than most knew. The reason for the intensity of the illness was tied to the near-fatal car accident he suffered in June of 1999 when he was struck and badly injured by a van, including a collapsed lung and broken ribs. That injury led to scar tissue in his lung, which made him susceptible to pneumonia. In all, he spent almost two weeks in the hospital and underwent at least one surgery.
It was when King finally returned home from the hospital that the seed of Lisey's Story latched onto his mind. During his time in the hospital, King's wife, the novelist Tabitha King, had taken it upon herself to clean out and redesign his office as a nice surprise for him. He walked into his office and, seeing all his books and belongings in boxes, had the morbid thought that it's what his studio would look like after his death. It slowly grew into the story of Lisey sorting through all of her late husband's belongings, and his bout of pneumonia later inspired the way Scott really died in the story, which is a major reveal in the book.
Though Stephen King has said previously that Lisey's Story isn't exactly autobiographical, he admits that the themes of love and the language of a marriage, of the creative urges of a writer, and of mortality were taken directly from his own experiences. Because it's so personal to him, he wrote all eight episodes of the miniseries, the first time he's directly adapted his own work since 2006's Desperation. In a recent interview, Stephen King explained he held onto Lisey's Story for years hoping he could one day be the one to adapt it himself:
"Lisey's Story is my favorite, it always has been. At its core, it's a love story. Lisey is a different thing for me, it's very close to my heart. I wanted to tell the story that was in the book but I wanted to make it better. I thought that if somebody was going to mess it up — I used to tell my wife, 'Nobody's going to mess it up but me.'"
So far, the results are promising. The first two episodes of Lisey's Story are a slow burn, but an intimate, compassionate look at the intricacies of marriage and the grief that follows when death severs that earthly bond – and not to mention, the cinematography is stunning. While it's getting mixed reviews, Stephen King fans should find a lot to like in Lisey's Story, and even more to appreciate now knowing the event that inspired it.