The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon

            Stephen King’s “The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon” is a great story that I have read many times. It is a chilling page-turner that kept me coming back for more. Once I started this particular novel, I could not put it down until I finished it. Red Riding Hood is not just a fairy-tale anymore.

Trisha is only nine years old, and her parents have just gone through a divorce. Her fourteen year old brother and her mom are constantly arguing and Trisha is at wit’s end. It is then that her mother decides to take the two children on a hiking adventure in the Appalachian mountain range on the New Hampshire and Maine border. It does not take long for the mom and brother to start arguing again, so Trisha decides to walk behind them and get out of their way. When she steps off the trail in order to go to the bathroom, she is convinced she will be able to find her way back without a problem. She soon learns she was mistaken and is not where she thought she was.  Despite her best efforts, Trisha is unable to find her family or the trail and must find her own way out. She spends her time gathering food and water and, of course, listening to the Boston Red Sox on her Walkman. Trisha is not as alone in these woods as she originally thinks, however. There is something big making noises in the dark and following her. Then she discovers the dead bodies it is leaving for her to find.

Trisha’s only goal is to survive long enough to get to civilization, but with the horrible New England mosquitoes, poisonous food, and the mysterious monster lurking just beyond her visibility, that task is becoming increasingly difficult. Stephen King is the master of horror and “The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon” is as good as it gets. He takes the classic story of a little girl lost in the woods, and makes it a terrifying story that will make anyone think twice about walking in the woods alone.

With a Walkman as her only comfort, Trisha learns that the world is not as innocent as it seems, but will actually swallow you whole if it gets half a chance. As her only link to the outside world, the Walkman perfectly symbolizes the thin line between order and chaos and how easily that line is torn. “The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon” is a perfect example of how one small action can cast your entire life into a tailspin with chaos uncontrollably mounting on with every action.

I find Trisha easy to relate to because she is the textbook case of a New Englander that came from a broken home, dealing with parental issues. Her actions and feelings are even easier to relate to because she follows the human instinct by trying to find flowing water to follow to a town, learning how to conserve energy, and her instantaneous fear that she is not alone. At first she cries for her mom or for anyone else that might save her but then she grows up in a way and realizes no one’s coming to her rescue. She picks herself up and pushes herself on, which is the lesson that everyone must learn eventually, and Stephen King shows this flawlessly.

Trisha’s utter fascination with the Boston Red Sox, especially Tom Gordon, their relief pitcher is what kept her alive. Tom Gordon is Trisha’s hero and it is remarkable how she kept herself going with just the thought of him. When she wasn’t listening to him pitch in a game, she was imagining him right there beside her in the woods. They would even have conversations, which may sound crazy, but it saved her life more than once. Stephen King tells in “The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon” that it is necessary to have an idol, someone that you look up to. It is important to have that someone that will keep you going or even make you make good decisions. “What would Tom Gordon do?” is the most frequent asked question in the novel. One of Stephen King’s main themes and ideas for this book is basically “I think we all should have that question in our life. Not Tom Gordon, but some other person.”

My favorite scene in the entire book is when Trisha is first lost and is trying to find her parents or the trail. It is at that time when the theme order over chaos is truly shown. It starts out with her not knowing she is lost then slowly realizing that she is not where she thought she was. The increasing terror, the slow realization of her mistake, and the sudden dread that she is lost and may never be found makes this my favorite scene.

Stephen King lives in Maine, which he shows through his knowledge of the area and people. As Trisha walks through the woods she discovers a cliff hundreds of feet above the next level in the woods. The description of this is so dead-on accurate, it can only be told by someone from the area. The Red Sox games are described frequently during the book. Even though the Red Sox are not the only baseball team, the description of them and the actual team members is obviously written by a true Red Sox fan. This makes the book more interesting and lively, but also it makes it easier to relate to the book and the writer.

Stephen King’s “The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon” is a thrilling and terrifying novel that puts the reader right in the place of lost Trish. The stories of people getting lost, even killed, in woods is no longer just a story, but an adventure as well. Stephen King takes Red Riding Hood, a simple fairy tale, and makes it into an unforgettable novel that will keep the reader entertained many times. The description, feelings, and actions are so realistic; one has to think if King purposely got lost to write this book. “The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon” is a remarkable book full of symbolism, themes, and ideas that will live on forever.