Thinner is about an overweight New England lawyer named Billy Halleck who accidentally kills a Gypsy woman with his car. The judge, a buddy of his, lets him off the hook, so the Gypsy's ancient father takes justice into his own hands and lays a curse that causes Billy to lose weight continually, no matter what he does or eats. Once he realizes what's happening, Billy has only a matter of time to catch up with the Gypsy caravan before he fades away to nothing...
So. I've only read one other Stephen King book: The Tommyknockers, written in 1987. There are some obvious similarities in plot structure. I can only suspect that King is a relatively formulaic writer. Something spooky happens to the protagonist, who takes a while to realize it. When the effects begin to show, King zooms out to explore the history of the story's quiet New England town, which reveals that while the town has deep roots, the curse/monster/alien/demon is older than the white Americans who live there. The spooky something happens to a few of the protagonist's friends, or perhaps many of them, and it affects them more quickly than it affects the protagonist. Emboldened by the possibility of stopping the horror, the protagonist departs on a quest to destroy the evil at its source.
My favorite part in the whole book was a giant lampshade was placed over the entire plot. Billy explains what he thinks is happening to his friend, who replies, "That sounds like the plot of a bad Stephen King book!" (Remember, the book was originally published under Richard Bachman.) Then Billy uses his knowledge of Stephen King trends to figure out who has been cursed and who hasn't.
King's idea to write as Bachman was an interesting one. He's always been an insecure person, and he wanted to know whether he had become a bestselling author by accident, or whether people were just publishing and reading his books because of his famous name. So he took up a pen name and continued writing. After a few books some fan connected the common parallels and figured it out, which probably doesn't say much for King's talent for variety. But I suppose the novelist who is the best at writing one way will sell more than the one who can write well in many genres.
The best thing I can say for Thinner is that it held my attention the whole time and even had me thinking about it at odd times after I had put it down. Its racial messages are rather weak and messy; I don't know that people treat Gyspies the way the townsfolk of Fairview do, and I'd be surprised if Gypsy curses are the root of all evil. But its discussion of blame and retribution is pretty good, and redeems most of the flaws.
One final note that struck me personally: when Billy begins to reach the range of 130 pounds or so (he starts at 249), the people he meets are appalled by his appearance and refuse to associate with him, treating him like a monster. Well, that's about my weight. I guess it's about time I went out looking for the Romani cult-master who did this to me for running over his dog with my bike.
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