Cujo is a 1981 novel by Stephen King. Cujo himself is a St. Bernard dog.

The novel is set almost entirely in the fictitious town of Castle Rock, Maine. It begins with a reference to Frank Dodd, the Castle Rock deputy sheriff whose murder spree was the central episode in the first half of The Dead Zone. In fact, there is some hinting to the question of whether or not Cujo is possessed by Dodd and whether or not Dodd is haunting the Trenton house (Tad is scared by a monster in his closet). Except for these vague hints, there are no supernatural elements in the book and is mainly a thriller.

The most unusual stylistic element of the narrative is that it occasionally switches to the perspective of the canine title character. Also noteworthy is that, atypically for King's early work, there is an exploration of how marriages work or don't; this is done through the parallelism of the middle-class Trentons and the blue-collar Cambers.

Cujo belongs to the Cambers, a family living outside of Castle Rock where the father does mechanic work. When Cujo gets rabies he attacks Joe Camber, the father, and Cambers' neighbor. Joe's son and wife are spared when they go on a trip to visit relatives.

The Trentons (Vic, Donna, and four-year-old Tad) are having problems of their own when Vic finds out that Donna, the typical bored housewife, has been cheating on him. Vic goes on a business trip in the midst of this and advises Donna to take their failing Pinto to Cambers'. With Joe dead there is nobody on the farm except for Cujo, and thus begins a three day struggle to not only keep herself alive, but also her son Tad against the rabid dog outside and the hottest summer in Castle Rock history.

The novel is generally not perceived as King's best work, and at 319 pages (Hardcover Edition by Viking Press) it is one of his shorter ones. King has said he does not really remember writing the book as he was in a drug-induced stupor for the duration of its authorship.

It was adapted by Don Carlos Dunaway and Lauren Currier for the screenplay of a 1983 movie of the same name, directed by Lewis Teague .

ISBN

• ISBN 0606028617 (prebound, 1981)
• ISBN 0670451932 (hardcover, 1981)
• ISBN 0451161351 (mass market paperback, 1982, reprint)
• ISBN 9700508889 (hardcover, 1983)
• ISBN 0816156670 (hardcover, 1993, Large Type Edition)

External link

• IMDb entry for Cujo