The Dark Half This is not the first time that Stephen King has written a dark allegory of the fiction writer's situation. ''Misery'' (1987) is a parable in chiller form of the popular writer's relation to his audience, which holds him prisoner and dictates what he writes, on pain of death. Mr. King's new novel, ''The Dark Half,'' is a parable in chiller form of the popular writer's relation to his creative genius, the vampire …showed first 75 words of 739 total…

…showed last 75 words of 739 total…is ''the Effa Bee Eye,'' marijuana is ''wacky tobaccy''). At the end, the decent family man wins out, but at a cost - which is how it should be. Most readers, I believe, will want decency and reality to triumph, but only with some reluctance, only after their most monstrous imaginings, like George Stark, have been unearthed and indulged. And few writers around are better than Stephen King at giving readers what they want.