Gerald's Game

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Lore & Background

The story follows Jessie Burlingame and her husband Gerald, a successful lawyer, who travel from Portland to their secluded lake house in western Maine near Kashwakamak Lake for a spontaneous romantic getaway. The titular "game" involves handcuffing Jessie to the bedposts during sex, a new practice that Jessie only pretends to enjoy. This time, Jessie finds herself reluctant after being handcuffed and asks to stop. She is ignored by Gerald, who pretends her protests are only part of their game. Realizing her husband intends to rape her, Jessie lashes out, kicking Gerald in the stomach and groin. The shock causes him to have a fatal heart attack, leaving Jessie handcuffed to the bed. While trapped, Jessie hallucinates voices: "The Goodwife" or "Goody Burlingame," a Puritanical version of herself; "Punkin," a representation of Jessie as a 10-year-old girl; Ruth Neary, a college roommate; and Nora, Jessie's former psychologist. Guided by these voices, Jessie recalls a long-repressed memory of being sexually abused by her father during a solar eclipse when she was ten. She also remembers a momentary psychic connection with an unknown woman (Dolores Claiborne). Later, Jessie sees a tall, gaunt apparition she nicknames "Space Cowboy" (after a 1969 Steve Miller song), who shows her a wicker basket of jewelry mixed with human bones.

In Their Own Story

Jessie manages to secure a drink of water from a glass on the bedside table. Inspired by her memory of the eclipse, in which her father warned her not to cut herself on the smoked glass panes they used as eclipse viewers, Jessie breaks the water glass and uses a sharp shard to slice her wrist, giving herself a degloving injury to lubricate her skin enough to slide her right hand from the cuff. She escapes the bed, reaches the keys, and frees her other hand, but faints from blood loss. When she awakens, the Space Cowboy has returned. Jessie throws her wedding ring at his box of jewelry and bones, thinking that is what he wanted. Still weak, she reaches her car and drives away, but briefly hallucinates the Space Cowboy attacking her from the back seat. Jessie crashes and is knocked unconscious. Months later, Jessie writes to the real Ruth, detailing what really happened at the lake house. The "Space Cowboy" had turned out to be a serial killer and necrophile named Raymond Andrew Joubert who had been robbing and squatting in lake houses. Jessie confronts Joubert at his court hearing, where he mocks her "made of moonlight" statement, confirming the encounter really occurred and causing Jessie to spit in his face. After mailing the letter, Jessie is able to sleep without nightmares for the first time since her ordeal.

Reader's Guide

Published in 1992, Gerald's Game is a suspense novel by Stephen King. The book was adapted into a 2017 film directed by Mike Flanagan. In May 2014, Deadline Hollywood reported that Flanagan had been set to direct. In an interview with Rue Morgue in September 2016, Flanagan said the film adaptation would premiere on Netflix. In October 2016, Deadline reported that Carla Gugino and Bruce Greenwood would star as Jessie and Gerald Burlingame. On October 17, 2016, Flanagan tweeted indicating the first day of production had begun. The film premiered on Netflix on September 29, 2017. The novel is dedicated to King's wife Tabitha and her five sisters. Originally intended as a companion piece to Dolores Claiborne, the connecting theme of two women in crisis caught in the path of an eclipse was greatly reduced by the time the books were published.

Did You Know?

• The book is dedicated to King's wife Tabitha and her five sisters.
• Originally, the book was intended to be a companion piece to King's novel Dolores Claiborne, with the connecting theme of two women in crisis caught in the path of an eclipse.
• Jessie nicknames the apparition she sees 'Space Cowboy' after a 1969 Steve Miller song.
• The 'Space Cowboy' turned out to be a real serial killer and necrophile named Raymond Andrew Joubert.
• The film adaptation premiered on Netflix on September 29, 2017.