How nice that my cannonball should hit on one of my all-time favorite books!
After we finish chasing the man in black around the desert to the sea, The Drawing of the Three opens on Roland, passed out on a beach. He’s given a lovely wake up call by one of the greatest King monsters ever, the lobstrosities (whose persistent questioning was truly terrifying on audiobook — nice work), who tear off a couple of his fingers and his big toe. Roland is supposed to be seeking out his ka, the three who will assist him in his quest. Instead he ends up feverish and half-dead on this beach. Then he sees the door.
“Where you think I’m goan?’
‘Well,’ Eddie said, ‘what was behind Door Number One wasn’t so hot, and what was behind Door Number Two was even worse, so now, instead of quitting like sane people, we’re going to go right on ahead and check out Door Number Three. The way things have been going, I think it’s likely to be something like Godzilla or Ghidra the Three-Headed Monster, but I’m an optimist. I’m still hoping for the stainless steel cookware.”
Most of the book consists of Roland meeting up with his three, starting with Eddie Dean (on whom I have always had a desperate crush, and whose voice as imagined by Frank Muller was spot-on), a drug smuggling junkie in 1980s New York. Then they meet Odetta/Detta, two women in one body (though neither of them knows it). The finally door is labeled “the Pusher”, and behind it lies the gunslinger’s destiny.
I love this book — it’s one of the best in the series, for sure. The fighting and eventual camaraderie between the gunslinger and Eddie is fantastic. Eddie brings out the best in Roland — his (so very, very dry) sense of humor and his incredible passionate anger. They make a good team, and the addition of Odetta (when she is Odetta, that is) improves them as well. I love Odetta, and even more so since I know who/what she will become. And of course, what we see through the door of the Pusher changes everything….
