Desperation
Desperation is the story
of several people traveling along the desolate Highway 50 in Nevada who
all get abducted by Collie Entragian, the deputy of the fictional mining
town of Desperation. Entragian uses various pretexts for his abductions,
from an arrest for drug possession to “rescuing” a family from a nonexistent
gunman.
The captives quickly realize that something is very wrong with Entragian,
as his bizarre statements and mannerisms soon escalate to brutal assaults
and murder. They come to understand that he is possessed by an ancient evil,
a supernatural entity which calls itself Tak, that had been imprisoned in
an old abandoned mineshaft until recent activity by a local mining company
unearthed it. Tak has the ability to control the local desert wildlife,
such as vultures, snakes, spiders, scorpions, and coyotes, and can also take
more direct control of human hosts, though such manifestation causes rapid
deterioration of the host's body. As such, Tak needs to frequently find
new hosts to inhabit in order to travel outside of the ini, a well
in an underground chamber, and Tak’s entryway into this world. The story
suggests that Tak is actually a physical being trapped in another dimension,
but can send its spirit into our world through this opening.
Among the travelers is a boy named David Carver, who is able to commune
with and receive guidance from God. This aspect brings a philosophical,
religious depth unseen in some of King's other, earlier works.
As the survivors eventually manage to escape the clutches of Entragian/Tak,
their first inclination is to escape Desperation, until David reveals that
it is God's will that they confront Tak and seal the ini again. (Desperation is a good read. The movie
was actually quite well done.)
Regulators (as Richard Bachman)
The story takes place in the fictional
town of Wentworth, Ohio. On Poplar Street, an autistic boy named Seth has gained the power
to control reality through the help of a being known as Tak. Soon, Poplar
Street begins to change shape, transforming into a wild west caricature
based on what Seth has seen on his television. Meanwhile, the other residents
of the street are being attacked by the many beings that Seth's imagination
is creating, due to Tak's control over them. These residents are forced
to work together to stop Seth and Tak from completely transforming the world
around them and stop Tak before he kills anyone else. (This book was a rollercoaster ride, once
it started, you had to ride it to the end.)
Talisman w/Peter Straub |
Black House w/Peter Straub
Rick Berry
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More "Black House"
Art by Rick Berry
Talisman w/Peter Straub
This book charts the adventure
of a twelve year old boy named Jack Sawyer. The young hero sets out from
the East Coast of the USA in a bid to save his mother - who is dying from
cancer - by finding an artifact called 'The Talisman'. (terrific tale, I've read it several times.)
Black House w/Peter Straub
Twenty years
earlier, in (The Talisman), a
boy named Jack Sawyer travelled to a parallel universe called The
Territories to save his mother and her "twinner" (a similar person
in this other world) from premature and agonizing deaths.
Now Jack is a retired Los Angeles
homicide detective living in the small town of French Landing, Wisconsin.
He has no recollection of his adventures in the Territories and was compelled
to leave the police force when an odd, happenstance event threatened to
unlock those memories. However, a series of gruesome murders occur in western
Wisconsin that are reminiscent of those committed several decades earlier
by a real-life madman named Albert Fish. The new killer is dubbed "The
Fisherman." Jack's buddy, the local chief of police, begs Jack to help
his inexperienced force find him. The investigation, which takes place
on several levels and in at least two parallel universes, reawakens Jack
to his previous experiences. (it was good to revisit Jack Sawyer even
under the gory circumstances)
Novels
Carrie
Ron Walotsky
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Salem's Lot
Tim
White
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Rage (as Richard Bachman ) |
The Shining
Dave Christensen
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The Stand
John Cayea
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The Long Walk (as Richard Bachman ) |
The Dead Zone |
Firestarter
Michael
Whelan
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Roadwork (as Richard Bachman ) |
Cujo |
The Running Man (as Richard Bachman ) |
Cycle of the Werewolf |
Pet Sematary
Linda Fennimore
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Christine
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Thinner (as Richard Bachman ) |
The Eyes of the Dragon |
It
(not the cover per se, but
Tim Curry did a wonderful job portraying Pennywise in the Mini Series)
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The Tommyknockers |
Misery |
The Dark Half |
Needful Things
Rob Wood
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Gerald's Game |
Dolores Claiborne
Rob Wood
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Insomnia
Steve Crisp
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Rose Madder |
The Green Mile |
Bag of Bones |
The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon |
Dreamcatcher
Cliff Nielsen
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From a Buick 8
Mark Stutzman
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Cell
Mark Stutzman
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Lisey's Story
Mark Stutzman
(inside cover)
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Blaze (as Richard Bauchman)
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Duma Key
Mark Stutzman
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Under the Dome
Platinum FWD
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Carrie
The book uses
fictional documents, such as book excerpts, news reports, and hearing transcripts,
to frame the story of Carietta "Carrie" White, a teenage girl from Chamberlain,
Maine. Carrie's mother, Margaret, a fanatical Christian fundamentalist,
has a vindictive and unstable personality, and over the years has ruled Carrie
with a proverbial rod of iron. (What can I say? The book is good, the
movie was credible.)
Salem's Lot
Ben Mears, a successful writer
who grew up in the (fictional) town of Jerusalem’s Lot, Cumberland County,
Maine (or “The Lot”, as the locals call it), has returned home following
the death of his wife. Once in town he meets local high school teacher Matt
Burke and strikes up a romantic relationship with Susan Norton, a young
college graduate. However, his arrival back to The Lot is disrupted when
a horde of vampires, led by the evil Kurt
Barlow, start taking control of the town. (Truthfully, I don't like vampire stories.
I find them boringly similar to each other. The movie, with David Soul,
was a complete disaster.)
Rage (as Richard Bachman)
The narrator,
high school senior Charlie Decker, details his growing rage against the
authority figures which populate his world. He finally snaps and hits one
of his teachers with a heavy wrench he had taken to carrying in his pocket;
after much wrangling and discussion, the incident was dropped and he was
allowed to return to school. His mental problems worsen upon return to school
and he snaps during a meeting with the school principal. This time, he storms
out of the meeting and retrieves a gun from his locker. After setting the
contents of the locker on fire, he returns to his classroom and shoots Mrs.
Underwood, his math teacher. The fire sets off an alarm and the school begins
to be evacuated. Charlie then shoots another teacher, Mr. Vance, after Vance
enters the classroom to tell the students to evacuate. The school empties
and the police and media arrive on the scene.
This begins a long discussion with his hostages/fellow students.
Among many other things, Charlie says that he honestly does not know why
he chose to do these things and claims that if he did know, he probably
wouldn't do them. While toying with various authority figures who attempt
to negotiate with him, he turns the class into a sort of therapy group, causing
his schoolmates to semi-voluntarily tell embarrassing secrets about themselves
and each other. Interspersed throughout are narrative flashbacks to Charlie's
own unpleasant childhood and adolescence, particularly his horrid relationship
with his father, an abusive alcoholic.
He finally comes to the realization that only one of the other
students is really being held there against his will: a seeming "big man
on campus" named Ted Jones, who is harboring his own unpleasant secrets.
The other students attack Jones, leaving him battered and catatonic, and
file out of the school. When the police enter the classroom, the now-unarmed
Charlie deliberately makes a wild "threatening" gesture and is shot three
times. He survives and is committed to an insane asylum, where he finishes
telling his tale to whomever he is telling it, saying it is time to turn
out the light. (This
was a quick read. Not bad, but not great.)
The Shining
Jack Torrance is a temperamental
writer who is trying to rebuild his life (and his family's) after his alcoholism
and volatile temper cause him to lose his teaching position at a prestigious
New England preparatory school. Having given up drinking, he accepts a
job as a winter caretaker at a large, isolated Colorado resort hotel with
a gory history. (This one's up
there as one of my favourite King books. The movie with Jack Nicholson
. . . well, let's face it, Jack Nicholson stole the show . . . the story
somehow got lost along the way. The Mini Series was much better, but
it tried too hard to make Jack Torrence a hero.)
The Stand
Illustrations by Bernie Wrightson
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The Stand is a post-apocalyptic
science fiction / horror / adventure novel by Stephen King originally published
in 1978. It re-works the scenario in King’s earlier short story, "Night
Surf" (included in the short story collection Night Shift).
I can't say anything about "The Stand"
that hasn't been said before and better than I can say it. I usually
re-read it once every year or so. The Mini Series was okay, but come
on! Molly Ringwald? That girl can't act her way out of a paper
bag.
The Long Walk (as Richard Bachman)
One hundred teenage boys (picked
at random from a large pool of applicants) are chosen to participate in
an annual walking contest called "The Long Walk". Each walker must maintain
a constant speed of no less than four miles an hour or risk being shot by
soldiers monitoring the event. (This story hit me like a sledge hammer over
the head. Sincerely, I was reeling after I finished it.)
The
Dead Zone
Johnny Smith is injured in an accident
and enters a coma for nearly five years. When he emerges, he can see horrifying
secrets, but he cannot identify all the details because of an area of his
brain being dead. This story is right up there with "The
Stand" and "It" in my opinion. Christopher Walkin's portrayal of Johnny
Smith in the movie deserved better credit that it received.
Firestarter
The title character of Firestarter
is Charlene "Charlie" McGee, a young girl with pyrokinesis — the ability
to create fire with the power of her mind, along with other psychic powers.
Charlie is a mutant; she was born with her pyrokinetic talent due to her
parents' involvement in an experimental drug trial in college.
(As mentioned earlier, it was the first
Stephen King book that I ever read. He does tend to write stories
that you can't put down until you're finished, doesn't he?) The movie
wasn't a patch on the book.
Roadwork (as Richard Bachman)
The story takes place in an unnamed
city in the 1970s. Barton George Dawes, grieving over the death of his son
and the disintegration of his marriage, is driven off the deep end when
he finds that both his home and his business are going to be condemned and
demolished to make way for the construction of a new interstate highway. I really felt for Dawes. I can't see
myself ever going off the deep end that far . . . but who knows? I
guess that's what makes it so scarey.
Cujo
The book tells the story of the
middle-class Trenton family and rural Camber clan in Castle Rock, Maine.
Marital and financial difficulties of the mundane sort plague disgraced
advertising man Vic Trenton and his adulterous wife Donna. Their domestic
problems are dwarfed by mortal danger when Donna and her four-year-old
son Tad are terrorized by a rabid St. Bernard named Cujo.
Okay, the book was great and again
the stupid movie was a disapointment. Why let the child live in the
movie?
The Running Man (as Richard Bachman)
Ben Richards
needs money to get medicine for his gravely ill daughter Cathy. Not wanting
his wife Sheila to continue prostitution to pay the bills, Richards turns
to the Games Federation. After rigorous physical and mental testing, Richards
is selected for the most popular game, The Running Man.
This story was very satisfying. I loved
the fact that he died taking out the stupid people responsible for the damned
show. Don't talk to me about the Arnold Schwartzennegar disaster
-- it destroyed the integrity of the story completely. Someone ought
to have their face slapped.
Cycle of the Werewolf
Illustrations by Bernie Wrightson
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Set in the fictional small town
of Tarker's Mills, Maine, a werewolf is viciously killing people and animals
and strange incidents takes place every full moon. Marty Coslaw, an eleven-year-old
boy in a wheelchair, goes back and forth from the terrifying incidents to
his normal day-to-day life. (I can't really remember reading this .
. . I'm as interested in werewolves as I am in vampires, although I'm positive
the movie, "Silver Bullet," with Cory Haim, resembles it very little.)
Pet Sematary
Louis Creed, a doctor from Chicago,
moves to a large house near the small town of Ludlow with his wife Rachel
and their two young children. From the moment they arrive the family runs
into trouble but fortunately their new neighbor, Jud Crandall, is there
to help. When their cat dies, Jud takes Louis to an ancient Indian burial
ground, and when they bury the cat there, it comes back to life. After Louis'
son is accidentally killed, Louis uses the burial ground to bring him back
to life, but soon finds out that his reborn son is actually a hell-spawn
inside his dead son's body. It was good enough for what it is, but it
didn't thrill me. Let's not talk about the dumb movie, okay?
Christine
The story revolves around teenage
nerd Arnie Cunningham and his 1958 red and white Plymouth Fury, dubbed
"Christine" by the previous owner. The story is set in Libertyville (supposedly
a suburb of Pittsburgh), Pennsylvania between the summer of 1978 and the
spring of 1979. Christine seems to have a mind of her own and wants to get
rid of anyone who stands between her and Arnie. I have got to admit to an embarrassing truth.
I refused to buy this book when it came out because it was about a
car. The movie helped me hold on to my prejudices . . . however,
I recently bought a copy. The book was great.
Thinner (as Richard Bachman)
An obese lawyer
named William "Billy" Halleck has just been through an agonizing court
case in which he was charged with vehicular manslaughter. He received a
handjob from his wife Heidi while driving, causing him to run over an old
woman who was part of a group of traveling Gypsies. Halleck is acquitted
thanks to the judge, who happens to be a close friend of Billy's. As Halleck
leaves the courthouse, the old woman's ancient father strokes his cheeks
and whispers one word to him: "Thinner." After this, Halleck starts magically
losing weight at a dangerous rate. He tries to get the curse lifted by finding
the gypsy and making up for his wrongdoing.
This was a total hoot! Took
a couple hours to read, but what a bang for the time spent. The movie
wasn't half bad, either.
The Eyes of the Dragon
This book is a work of classic
fantasy with a clearly established battle between good and evil and magic
playing a lead role. It is told from the perspective of an unnamed story-teller,
who speaks casually and frankly to the reader, frequently adding his own
commentary on character's motivations. (This was a wonderful tale. It's
one of the first "real" books that my children read once they got to the
point of reading novels - "The Thief of Always" by Clive Barker is another
one. Randall Flagg makes an appearance and it's a different take
on the "fairytale" genre having the prince locked in a tower, rather than
the princess.)
It
"It" takes place in two separate
time periods: In 1985, when the book was first published, and the main
characters are adults, and in 1958, when they are eleven years old. The
seven self-proclaimed members of the "Losers' Club" are united in seeking
refuge from a gang of bullies led by Henry Bowers. The children each individually
discover the existence of a terrifying, child-murdering, shape-changing
monster. (Sorry everyone,
but "It" is the number one book on my list of favourite Stephen King books.
The Mini Series was okay . . . but limited as it was for TV and all that.)
The Tommyknockers
While maintaining
a horror style, the novel is more of an excursion into the realm of science
fiction for King, as the residents of the Maine town of Haven gradually fall
under the influence of a mysterious object buried in the woods.
Tommyknockers is my husband's favourite
King book. I've read it a few times. I find it engrossing despite
the main character being a poet. The mini series was okay but I really
hate it when they change the endings.
Misery
Paul Sheldon is the author of a
best-selling series of romance novels featuring the Victorian-era heroine
Misery Chastain. Paul is rescued from a car wreck by a woman named Annie
Wilkes, who lives nearby and claims to be Sheldon's #1 fan. Wilkes - an
experienced nurse - feeds and bathes Sheldon and splints his broken legs.
When the final book of the Misery series comes out, Annie doesn't like
the ending where Misery dies and forces Sheldon to write a comeback for
Misery...or else. Wow. I'm sorry, but I giggled my way
through this one. The subject matter was not funny, but it did seem
to be a terror that pertained to famous writers, personally. The movie
was very well done.
The Dark Half
Thad Beaumont is an author and
recovering alcoholic who lives in the tiny Maine town of Ludlow (the setting
of Pet Sematary and about an hour away from the fictional town of Castle
Rock, often used in King's novels). His own books are not very successful,
but under the pen name George Stark, Thad writes gritty crime novels about
a violent killer named Alexis Machine, which are very popular and successful. I didn't find this story very memorable.
Needful Things
Set in the small fictional town
of Castle Rock, Maine, a new shop named "Needful Things" opens, to the
curiosity of the townspeople. One by one, they start to come into the shop,
drawn there by something they want more than anything else.
Great story and the movie was tongue-in-cheek
black humour at its best.
Gerald's Game
Jessie Burlingame and her husband
Gerald are simply trying to spice up their sex life with a little bondage
game. But the game turns into a nightmare for Jessie, handcuffed to the
bedposts and forced to face her deepest fears. Funny thing about this book, my husband
bought it for me when it first came out, I devoured it. I tried to
reread it a few months back and couldn't get farther than half way . . .
of course, I'm just a tad older than the main character. I suppose,
I have a different perspective now.
Dolores Claiborne
Dolores Claiborne decides to tell
the truth when her longtime employer, Vera Donovan, dies under suspicious
circumstances. Including the mysterious death of her husband during a solar
eclipse thirty years before. Has a brief tie-in with Gerald's Game - the
eclipse. Terrific story. Great movie, although, the actress playing
Dolores' daughter . . . I just wanted to punch her head.
Insomnia
Set in Derry,
Maine, this novel features Ralph Roberts, who falls victim to insomnia,
which gives him the remarkable ability to see visions of his fellow townspeople
turning into demons. He knows he's not dreaming. He knows he's not crazy,
because someone else sees what he sees. But knowing doesn't tell him how
to stop the visions coming true. Confession time again. This is my second
favourtie King book. It's a thick book, but my children and husband
were a little neglected until I finished it.
Rose Madder
Rose Daniels has been dreaming
away her life. One single drop of blood is enough to rouse her from her
sleep, and sends her on a journey hundreds of miles away from her abusive
cop husband, Norman. She begins to find happiness in her new home, until
Norman figures out where she is. This was a great read. I don't know
why it gets such a bad rap. Perhaps, most people would rather not
have spousal abuse shoved in their face, where they have to see it.
Rose Daniels, like most battered women, doesn't believe she's worth very
much, but just like, Rose, they may have an important destiny, not only in
this world but in others.
The Green Mile
The Green Mile is Cold Mountain
Penitentiary's Death Row. Paul Edgecombe has seen many men come and go
through E Block, but none quite like John Coffey. The giant, sentenced
to death for a horrifying crime, reveals a fascinating truth to Paul, shaking
the very foundations of his world. Rant time -- blank, blank, blankety-blank,
stupid serial novel! I like to read my books all in one go, thank
you very much. Other than that, it was a great story. Movie was
good too (Tom Hanks, how could it be bad?)
Bag
of Bones
After the sudden death of his wife,
author Mike Noonan is plagued by writer's block. With his dreams haunted
by the summer house the couple shared, he reluctantly returns to the isolated
lakeside retreat. There he finds his once beloved town in the grip of a powerful
millionaire, who twists it to his own purpose, attempting to take his granddaughter
away from her widowed mother. As Mike becomes drawn into their struggle he
falls in love with both of them and is further drawn into the mystery of
this ghostly town. Sorry, but this story dragged . . . I barely
managed to finish it.
The Girl
Who Loved Tom Gordon
Patricia "Trisha"
McFarland, a Red Sox fan, gets lost in the woods during a camping trip
toilet break. As the days pass, she wanders deeper and deeper into the
impregnable forest, home to the God of the Lost. To comfort and guide her,
her idol, Tom Gordon, a Red Sox player, occasionally speaks to her through
her walkman. My
husband bought it for me after I told him not to bother. I read
it in a couple of hours. Again, I couldn't put the damned thing down.
It was a lot better than I thought it would be.
Dreamcatcher
Four lifelong
friends gather in the woods for an annual hunting trip. When younger, they
were bound together forever by an act of bravery involving a fifth friend,
whose influence gave them special powers. The trip is disrupted when a stranger
wanders into camp, muttering about light in the sky. Before long, they find
themselves pitted against an alien invasion and must draw on their old friend's
strength once again to fight for their lives. Good enough, but a little gross for my tastes.
Didn't like the movie, either.
From a Buick
8
When a mysterious vehicle is left
at a Pennsylvania gas station, it becomes the property of Troop D. Officers
soon realize this is no ordinary car. The steering wheel doesn't move, the
buttons and knobs on the dashboard can't be pushed or turned, and it can't
even be started. They realize there is much more to the car than it seems,
as the horror unfolds through two decades of day-to-day Troop D life.
Ah, hello? Don't these idiots
read Stephen King? They have a Lowman car!
Cell
Clayton Riddell
is in Boston to sell his comic books when something horrifying happens.
Anyone who uses a cell phone becomes insane and violent, attacking anyone
around them. Clay must, with the help of survivors Tom and Alice, return
to Maine to find out if his wife and young son are among the survivors or
the monsters. When I read this book I thought gleefully
to myself, "Thank God! He's Back!" This is quintessential Stephen
King.
Lisey's
Story
Widow Lisey Landon has finally
gotten around to cleaning out her dead writer husband's study. The cleaning
stirs up old memories, many of which she has blocked out and fights to keep
blocked. But those memories become vitally important as her life is threatened.
She must use every ounce of courage and willpower to go "beyond the purple"
and remember. I don't
know why I had a hard time with this book, maybe it was her husband's absolutely
horrible childhood. He was probably wise not to have children . . .
but I have four children and children really are a gift. I guess that
was it. The poor woman, no children. It was a good read despite
my personal difficulties with the subject matter.
Blaze
The story concerns Clayton Blaisdell,
Jr. (known as "Blaze" for short, thus the title), a mentally challenged
small-time con artist who kidnaps a millionaire's infant child, in the
hopes of fulfilling the dreams of George, Blaze's deceased best friend
and partner in crime. I felt so sorry for Clayton Blaisdell.
At least, he did the right thing and saved the baby's life.
Duma
Key
How to Draw a Picture
Start with
a blank surface. It doesn't have to be paper or canvas, but I feel it should
be white. We call it white because we need a word, but its true name is
nothing. Black is the absence of light, but white is the absence of memory,
the color of can't remember.
How do we remember to remember? That's a question I've asked myself
often since my time on Duma Key, often in the small hours of the morning,
looking up into the absence of light, remembering absent friends. Sometimes
in those little hours I think about the horizon. You have to establish the
horizon. You have to mark the white. A simple enough act, you might say,
but any act that re-makes the world is heroic. Or so I’ve come to believe.
Imagine a little girl, hardly more than a baby. She fell from a carriage
almost ninety years ago, struck her head on a stone, and forgot everything.
Not just her name; everything! And then one day she recalled just enough
to pick up a pencil and make that first hesitant mark across the white.
A horizon-line, sure. But also a slot for blackness to pour through.
Still, imagine that small hand lifting the pencil... hesitating...
and then marking the white. Imagine the courage of that first effort to
re-establish the world by picturing it. I will always love that little
girl, in spite of all she has cost me. I must. I have no choice. Pictures
are magic, as you know.
My Other Life
My
name is Edgar Freemantle. I used to be a big deal in the building and contracting
business. This was in Minnesota, in my other life. I learned that my-other-life
thing from Wireman. I want to tell you about Wireman, but first let's get
through the Minnesota part.
Gotta say it: I was a genuine
American-boy success there. Worked my way up in the company where I started,
and when I couldn’t work my way any higher there, I went out and started
my own. The boss of the company I left laughed at me, said I'd be broke
in a year. I think that's what most bosses say when some hot young pocket-rocket
goes off on his own.
For me, everything worked out.
When Minneapolis–St. Paul boomed, The Freemantle Company boomed. When things
tightened up, I never tried to play big. But I did play my hunches, and
most played out well. By the time I was fifty, Pam and I were worth forty
million dollars. And we were still tight. We had two girls, and at the end
of our particular Golden Age, Ilse was at Brown and Melinda was teaching
in France, as part of a foreign exchange program. At the time things went
wrong, my wife and I were planning to go and visit her.
Another great book.
I've already read it twice.
Under
the Dome
On an
entirely normal, beautiful fall day in Chester’s Mill, Maine, the town
is inexplicably and suddenly sealed off from the rest of the world by an invisible
force field. Planes crash into it and fall from the sky in flaming wreckage,
a gardener’s hand is severed as
“the dome” comes down on it, people running errands in the neighboring town
are divided from their families, and cars explode on impact. No one can fathom
what this barrier is, where it came from, and when—or if—it will go away.
Dale Barbara,
Iraq vet and now a short-order cook, finds himself teamed with a few intrepid
citizens—town newspaper owner Julia
Shumway, a physician’s assistant at the hospital, a selectwoman, and three
brave kids. Against them stands Big Jim Rennie, a politician who will stop at nothing—even
murder—to hold the reins of power, and his son, who is keeping a horrible
secret in a dark pantry.
But their
main adversary is the Dome itself. Because time isn’t just short. It’s
running out. I can't decide which is the most terrifying aspect of
this novel - the evil that people do to each other or the idea of other-worldly
intelligences who view us as "unreal."
Collections
Night Shift
Don Brautigam
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Night Shift
"Jerusalem's Lot"
Jerusalem's Lot is an epistolary short story set in the fictional
town of Preacher's Corners, Maine, in 1850. It is told through a series
of letters and diary entries, mainly those of its main character, the aristocrat
Charles Boone, though his manservant, Calvin McCann, also occasionally assumes
the role of narrator.
"Graveyard Shift"
A young drifter has been working at a decrepit
textile mill in a small town in Maine when his boss, a cruel taskmaster, recruits
him and others to assist with a massive cleaning effort. The basement of
the old mill has been abandoned for decades, and over the years, a monumental
infestation of rats has taken hold. Some have even gained rudimentary
flight. They eventually come across a sub-basement,
locked from the inside, that harbors something more terrifying and hideous
than any of the men could have dreamed - a cow-sized mother rat with no eyes or legs,
only breeding more rats. Creepy
little story, creepier, though cheesey movie.
"Night Surf"
The brief story follows one evening with
a group of austere teens, survivors of a catastrophic virus called A6, or "Captain Trips", that has wiped out virtually the entire
population. A reference is made to a previous virus called A2, which the
teens had all survived, leading them to think they were immune to A6's lethal effect. Toward the end of
the story, some of them begin to show symptoms of A6, and they realize that
perhaps their exposure to A2 did not in fact grant them immunity to this
deadlier virus. Couldn't happen
to a better group of rejects.
"I Am the Doorway"
This story is a crippled ex-astronaut's
account of the terrifying change he undergoes after being exposed to an
alien mutagen during a space mission to Venus. The change takes the form of numerous
tiny eyes that cover his hands. These eyes act as the titular "doorway"
for an alien intelligence, allowing it to see into our world, which, the
man perceives, it fears and hates intensely.. . Strangely enough, this story reminds me of
a short story by Gordon R Dickson that escapes me a the moment . . . it'll
come to me, eventually.
"The Mangler"
The Mangler is set in an American town, and the action largely
takes place in an industrial laundry. Talk about machines with an evil heart!
"The Boogeyman"
The majority of the story takes place in
a psychiatrist's office, where a man comes to talk about the "murders" of
his three young children.
The story's protagonist comes
across as paranoid and possibly insane as he describes the circumstances
surrounding the death of his children. His first two children die mysteriously
of apparently unrelated causes when left alone in their bedrooms. The
only commonality to their deaths is a crack in the closet door that the
protagonist is certain he had closed when he left his children. His wife
becomes pregnant approximately a year after their second child's death,
at which time the family is living in a different house far away from the
location of the original deaths. Their first year in the new house was happy
and without incident, but not long after, the protagonist's mother in law
falls ill. The wife leaves to care for her mother, and the protagonist and
his son are left alone. It soon becomes apparent that whatever had killed
the first two children has managed to track down the protagonist's new house,
and after a brief period of lingering in the closets, this creature (which
is now identified as the boogeyman) attacks the protagonist's son. The father
runs into the son's room as the monster is approaching his child, but rather
than confront the creature and save his son, he flees to a local 24 hour
diner. As the man finishes his story, the psychologist recommends he make
an appointment for further discussion, but upon entering the lobby, the protagonist
finds it deserted. Returning to the room in which he told his story, the
protagonist finds the psychologist taking off a mask to reveal that he
is in actuality the boogeyman that had killed his son. Sometimes children are telling the truth
and parents should listen as carefully as possible.
"Gray Matter"
The story, told from the perspective
of an older "local" man, begins as he is sitting around at a convenience
store with a group of his friends during a heavy snowstorm. A young boy runs in, deathly afraid.
The men recognize him as the son of Richie Grenadine, a local man who was
injured some time ago in a work accident, and was given lifetime worker's compensation. With no need to support
himself, Richie became a recluse, rarely seen outside the confines of his
apartment except to purchase the cheapest of beer, although lately, he had
been sending his son out to purchase his beer for him.
After speaking privately with Richie's boy, the owner (Henry) and a
few other regulars decide to take the beer to Richie personally. On their
way, Henry relates some of the terrifying experiences the kid had told him
— of how one day his father drank a "bad" can of beer and since has been
slowly transforming into an inhuman blob-like abomination that detests light
and craves warm beer. Spying on him one night, the boy saw his father eat
a dead cat, causing him to finally seek help.
Arriving at Richie's home, the men confront him from behind his closed
door, demanding that he come out and show himself. The odor pouring out
from behind the door convinces the group that Richie was eating more than
dead cats, speculating that he may be responsible for a recent rash of missing
people, as well.
The men are horrified when Richie opens the door, and shambles out.
No longer resembling anything human, Richie is more fungus than man. Worse
yet, he appears to be in the process of dividing. The rest of the
men run off, as Henry stands his ground, firing his pistol at the creature.
The story ends with the narrator calculating the exponential growth
the creature is capable of, as they sit at the convenience store, waiting
to find out who survived, Henry or the creature. Loved it.
"Battleground"
Renshaw is a professional hit-man who returns from his assassination of
a toy-maker to find a package delivered to his penthouse apartment. The
package contains a G.I. Joe Vietnam Footlocker, sent to him by the mother
of the toy-maker he had recently killed. When he opens the package he finds
that the toy soldiers are alive with working copies (albeit miniature) of
weapons, jeeps, and helicopters. To Renshaw's surprise the tiny soldiers
begin to attack him. At one point, the toy soldiers even offer him the chance
to surrender on a small sheet of paper passed under a door, Renshaw does
not and is then attacked with more force. Renshaw plots to attack the soldiers
with a Molotov cocktail constructed from a bottle of lighter fluid, but before
the cocktail detonates the entire apartment explodes, and kills him. At the
very end of the story,a couple finds Renshaw's bloody t-shirt,and the other
contents of the footlocker are revealed, including one made-to-scale thermonuclear weapon, which was what ultimately
killed Renshaw. I love it when
a bad man gets what he deserves!
"Trucks"
The story's nameless narrator and a
handful of strangers find themselves trapped together in a freeway truck
stop diner after semi-trailers and other
large trucks are suddenly brought to independent life by an unknown force
and proceed to gruesomely kill every human in sight. As the story begins,
a salesman named Snodgrass cracks under the strain, attempts to flee across
the stop's parking lot and is knocked into a drainage ditch, taking hours
to die. The situation worsens when the diner's power goes out, and the narrator's
attempt to collect any available drinking water ends in near-disaster, but
then a note of hope appears when the trucks begin to run out of gas. An
enormous semi-truck noses up to the diner and demands, via morse code blasts
from its horn, that the humans start pumping fuel. The narrator is out-voted
when he suggests they comply with this, and a bulldozer arrives and proceeds
to attack the diner. The narrator and a teenager named Jerry destroy the
dozer with improvised Molotov cocktails,
but the diner is half-destroyed and Jerry is killed. The remaining three
humans surrender and, taking turns, start pumping the gas into the mile-long
string of waiting trucks. As he toils, the narrator thinks that perhaps
this will last only until the trucks rust and fall apart, but he then has
a grim vision of forced assembly lines churning out new generations of trucks,
and the entire world flattened out and remade in its new masters' image.
The story ends as a pair of planes fly overhead, and the author laments that
they probably are unmanned. Yes,
this is the story that spawned that abortion of a movie with Emilio Estevez,
Maximum Overdrive.
"Sometimes They Come Back"
Two brothers are walking to the library
when they are attacked by a gang of local greasers.
One brother is killed while the other gets away. Many years later, Jim,
the survivor of the attack, takes a job as an English teacher at a high
school. Students from his class are murdered and are replaced by students
that resemble the greasers that attacked him years before.
As it turns out, the greasers were killed in a car accident after they
attacked the boys. They have been brought back to life to finish their
business with Jim. After they kill his wife, Jim uses a ritual to summon
a demon (taking the form of his slain brother) to kill the greasers. Because
he deals with the powers of darkness, things turn out less well than he
had hoped. The ending implies that the forces he summoned to dispatch the
greasers may also be just as sinister and difficult to rid himself of as
the greasers themselves were (the demon posing as his brother states "I'll
be back, Jim"). Making deals with
the devil never work out.
"Strawberry Spring"
An unnamed narrator sees the words "Springheel Jack" in a newspaper, which leads
him to recount a time, about eight years ago, when he was at New Sharon
College. His recollections are nostalgic, almost melancholy. It was 1968
when the strawberry spring, a ‘false’ spring, much like an Indian summer,
broke. It brought a thick fog, which covered the campus at nighttime, providing
perfect cover for a serial killer called ‘Springheel Jack.’ The body of
a girl was found in a parking lot, the first murder in a series. Several
more students are murdered during the strawberry spring, and the narrator
describes the reactions of the college community throughout this time; the
contradicting rumors that are spread about the victims ("she was ugly but
cute... she was a lesbian who had been murdered by her boyfriend"), the
blind panic of police and security guards (including a humorous anecdote
about a student who passed out in the parking lot, only to be bagged and
taken to the morgue by the security guard who found him) and the feelings
of suspicions among students. No reliable suspects are found.
Eight years later, a new strawberry spring has arrived again, and so
has "Springheel Jack", who took another victim at New Sharon College the
previous night. The narrator can’t remember where he was last night - the
last thing he remembers is turning on his headlights to find his way through
the "lovely creeping fog"
"The Ledge"
King employs a first person narrator
and opens with the protagonist (named "Norris") in the clutches of a wealthy,
cruel criminal overlord ("Cressner") intent on exacting revenge on Norris,
who has been having an affair with his wife. Instead of killing him outright,
Cressner reveals his penchant for striking wagers, and offers a chilling
ultimatum: if Norris is able to circumnavigate
the titular 5-inch ledge surrounding the multistory building which houses
Cressner's penthouse, he can have Cressner's wife, along with a large sum
of money, no strings attached. If he refuses to take the bet, he'll be
framed for heroin possession and never see his lover again.
Seemingly without any other choice, Norris accepts the wager, and proceeds
to carefully make his way around the building's cold, windswept exterior.
Norris encounters multiple obstacles, including an obstinate pigeon. The
narrator completes the harrowing ordeal, only to discover that Cressner had
already murdered his unfaithful wife. Mad with rage, Norris overpowers Cressner
and his bodyguard and takes the bodyguard's gun, and turns the tables on
him, proposing to spare his life if only he is able to complete a
trip around the ledge. However, as Cressner starts out, Norris reveals to
the reader that he has been known to welch on bets... One, I don't like aldultery, but still, this
guy, Cressner deserves what happens to him.
"The Lawnmower Man"
Harold Parkette hires "Pastoral Greenery
and Outdoor Services Inc." to cut his lawn. Conversing with the serviceman
who arrives to do the job, Parkette is unsettled to hear him use the expression,
"by Circe." The lawnmower man eventually deploys an "aged red power mower"
which autonomously mows the lawn while he crawls in its trail on all fours,
naked, devouring the grass. The lawnmower then chases after a mole, chopping
it up, before returning to its track. The lawnmower man eats the shredded
mole. It emerges that the lawnmower man is working for the god Pan. At this
point, Parkette tries to call the police. The lawnmower man notices this,
and directs the mower into the house, chewing up the carpet and a coffee
table. Parkette tries to escape, but the mower catches up with him on the
lawn and runs him over like the mole earlier. The story ends as the police
discover Parkette's entrails behind the house in a birdbath. And absolutely nothing like the movie, which,
as far as I can see, only had the title in common with the story.
"Quitters, Inc."
Richard ("Dick") Morrison, is a middle-aged
man who would like to quit smoking. A friend advises Morrison to go to Quitters,
Inc., the firm that had he says helped him kick the habit. The firm is
said to have a 98% success rate with their clients and guarantees that
once the person has enrolled for treatment, he will never smoke again.
Morrison finds out about the brutal enforcement methods used by Quitters,
Inc. from Vic Donatti, Morrison's quitting counselor. These include administering
non-fatal electric shocks of increasing intensity to his family members
if he is caught smoking a cigarette, and eventually, with enough infractions,
administering shocks to him as well. Donatti also reveals that after the
ninth infraction, Morrison's mentally disabled son's arms would be broken.
Finally, if Morrison commits a tenth infraction, Donatti says, placing a
gun on his desk, Morrison would become part of "the unregenerate two percent."
"But even the unregenerate two percent never smoke again. We guarantee it."
With some difficulty, Morrison is able to quit, after only one slip,
which results in his wife being abducted and shocked. But she understands-
she too wants Morrison to quit smoking, so she forgives him. Morrison, however,
now must deal with other aspects of the firm's strict methods. His counselor
gives him a prescription for some diet pills, and said that if he does not
lose the weight he has gained as consequence of quitting smoking, then his
wife's finger will be cut off. Morrison loses the weight, but later learns
that the friend who sent him to Quitters, Inc. had not been so lucky... His
wife is missing a finger. I loved
this story! I smoke. I've become and expert at quitting (I do
it so often), I'm glad these people only exist in a story.
"I Know What You Need"
Told from the perspective of a popular,
college-age girl named Elizabeth Rogan, the premise of this story concerns
her sudden, unexpected attraction to a social outcast named Ed Hamner, Jr.,
whose paranormal ability to perceive what will make any person happy has
not resulted in his own happiness. It is revealed through the course of
the tale that he has been secretly craving Elizabeth's love since childhood,
and has employed a variety of black magic rituals and charms to murder
her lover and manipulate her emotions.
While this story flirts with casting a sympathetic light on Ed's character
(describing his sad childhood, and his inability to please his parents despite
his amazing gift), when his plans are ultimately brought to ruin, he is
revealed less as a product of anti-elitism
and more as a childish, murderous coward, morally corrupt and self-serving.
"Children of the Corn"
While driving in rural Nebraska, a couple,
Burt and Vicky Robeson, on their way across America to California in an
attempt to save their marriage, run over the body of a young boy who was
killed and thrown onto the road. Looking for the authorities, they take
the body on to the next spot on the map; Gatlin, a small, isolated town
that seems to be abandoned. Too late, Burt learns that years previously
the town's children murdered everyone after embracing the bloody pseudo-Christian
cult of an evil being that lurks in the corn fields: "He Who Walks Behind
the Rows". The wife is captured by the children and the husband barely manages
to escape into the cornfields surrounding the town. After running some distance,
he believes that he has lost the children that had been following him but
instead discovers the body of his wife, the town's minister, and a police
chief. All three have been sacrificed to "He Who Walks Behind the Rows."
It is then that he realizes that he is on the holy grounds of "He Who Walks
Behind the Rows" and that an enormous being with glowing red eyes is slowly
approaching.
The next morning, a group of children from Gatlin arrive at the sacrificial
place, looking at the bodies of the two recently killed adults. A nine-year-old
boy, Isaac, who is known as a "seer" by the inhabitants, tells them that
"He Who Walks Behind the Rows" is displeased with their most recent sacrifice
and lowers the sacrificial age from nineteen to eighteen. The story ends
with the eighteen-year-olds in the town walking stoically into the corn.
Was an okay story made into an excrutiating
movie.
"The Last Rung on the Ladder"
It is written from the perspective of
a man burdened with deep guilt and regret after discovering that his estranged
sister has committed suicide. He recounts one fateful day long ago when
the two were children, playing in their family's barn. They had a game
where they would take turns climbing to the top of a very tall ladder in
their barn, and leap off into a huge haystack. On one of his sister's turns,
the old, rickety ladder suddenly gave way, leaving her dangling desperately
to the titular ladder's last rung. He managed to pile enough hay under
her to break her fall and save her life, but is later astonished at her
complete trust and faith in him to save her. He tells of how the intervening
years were not kind to her, and how he was too wrapped up in his own affairs
to come to her when she needed him. The story ends as he reads the final
letter she had written to him a couple weeks before she jumped off a building
to her death; one that would have made him realize how desperately she
needed him to save her again. Suicides
are totally selfish. I have no sympathy for his sister and I wish
I could comfort him. It isn't his fault.
"The Man Who Loved Flowers"
The story begins in May in 1963 in New
York in the early evening. The main character is an unnamed man who is walking
up 3rd Avenue. It's a gorgeous evening, and the sky is just changing color
from light blue to violet. The man is wearing a light grey suit. He looks
like he is in love. The people around him all seem to perceive and respond
to this feeling. The man stops at a flower vendor. A transistor radio drones
on about a war brewing in Vietnam, and a woman's body that was found in
the river and a hammer murderer that was on the loose. Based on the conversation
the man has with the vendor, we learn he is buying flowers for a girl named
Norma. He buys half a dozen roses, and leaves. He continues up the street,
and the people on the street continue to respond to him and the lovestruck
look on his face.
He then turns into an alley. By now it is getting darker, and stars
are starting to appear. We learn he is on his way to meet Norma. He sees
a woman walking down the alleyway, and he rushes up to her. He calls her
name, and she looks around. He says: "I've bought some flowers for you,
Norma." The women tells him: "You must be mistaken, my name is-" She then
sees a hammer in his pocket and opens her mouth to scream. The man kills
the woman because she isn't Norma, just as he has done five times previously.
After an unspecified amount of time, he leaves the alleyway. Through the
narrator, we find out that 'Norma' has been dead for ten years. The young
man says that his name is Love. He feels optimistic, sure that he will find
Norma some day soon.
He passes a middle-aged couple on the street. The woman turns to her
partner and asks: "Why don't you ever look like that anymore?" "Huh?" "Nothing,"
she says, while thinking that "if there is anything more beautiful than springtime,
it's young love". Okay, psychotic killer
mistaken for a young lover . . . really creepy Stephen.
"One for the Road"
This tale is narrated in the first person
by Booth, an elderly resident of a small town that neighbors Jerusalem's
Lot, Maine. He details the events that took place one winter's night years
ago, during a ferocious snowstorm, when he and his friend, a bar owner named
Herb Tooklander (Tookey), attempted to rescue the family of a stranded motorist
named Gerard Lumley. Instead, they barely managed to save themselves from
the man's wife and daughter, who had been turned into vampires.
"The Woman in the Room"
Narrated from the perspective of a man
burdened with deep remorse and pain as he decides to euthanize his terminally
ill mother with pain killers.
Different Seasons
Different Seasons
Kinuko Y. Craft
|
Rita Hayworth and Shawshank
Redemption: Hope Springs Eternal
The Story begins in 1948 when
Andy Dufresne arrives at Shawshank prison. In contrast to most other convicts,
Dufresne is not a hardened criminal but a soft-spoken young banker, convicted
of killing his wife and her lover. Like almost everyone else in Shawshank,
Dufresne claims to be innocent. As we later learn throughout the novella,
unlike almost everyone else in Shawshank, Andy actually is innocent.
Apt Pupil: Summer
of Corruption
The story begins with 13-year old Todd
Bowden, arriving at the doorstep of neighbour Arthur Denker and accusing
him of being Kurt Dussander, the "Blood Fiend" of Patin. At first Dussander
denies the allegation, but eventually confesses. To Arthur's surprise, Todd
is not interested in blackmail or in alerting the authorities, but only
in hearing the stories of the atrocities Dussander committed while in charge
of the camp, what he refers to as "the gushy parts".
The Body: Fall From Innocence
Vern Tessio informs his three friends
that he has overheard his older brother Billy talking with a friend about
the location of the corpse of Ray Brower, a boy from Chamberlain, a town
forty miles or so east of Castle Rock who has gone missing. Billy and his
friend mentioned a place called Back Harlow Road, so the four friends decide
that they will find it.
The Breathing Method: A Winter's Tale
David, the narrator of the frame tale, is a middle-aged Manhattan lawyer,
who at the invitation of a senior partner joins a strange men's club where
the members, in addition to reading, chatting and playing pool and chess, like to tell stories, some
of which range into the bizarre and macabre. This club and its butler are
also featured in King's short story "The Man Who Would Not Shake Hands."
One Thursday before Christmas, the elderly physician Dr. Emlyn McCarron
tells of an episode early in his long and varied career: the story of a
patient of his who was determined to give birth to her illegitimate child,
no matter what.
Three of these stories made into movies. "The Shawhank Redemption",
which, you don't need me to tell you how good it is. "Standy by me,"
equally excellent. "Apt Pupil," eeeeeew, but then, I didn't like the
story much, either. The Breathing Method was a good read, but I was
hardly as surprised as the Doctor was. Women will, mostly, always
go to extraordinary lengths to save their children.
Skeleton Crew
Skelton Crew
J.K.
Potter
|
"The Mist"
The morning after a violent thunderstorm,
a thick unnatural mist quickly spreads across the small town of Bridgton, Maine, reducing visibility to near-zero
and concealing numerous species of bizarre creatures which viciously attack
any human who ventures out into the open. The source of the fog and its
inhabitants is never revealed, but strong allusions are made to an inter-dimensional
rift caused by something known second-hand to the townsfolk as "The Arrowhead
Project," long rumored to be conducted at a nearby top-secret military facility. Again, loved the story, hated the movie 'cause
they changed the ending.
"Here There Be
Tygers"
This story is extremely short, and written
from the perspective of a boy who believes a tiger is lurking in his school
bathroom.
"The Monkey"
The story centers on a cymbal banging
monkey toy that is possessed by an evil spirit. Every time the monkey claps
its little cymbals together, a nearby living thing dies. The monkey is
found in a family's attic in an old toy chest by a group of children, unknowing
that their father was tormented by the monkey years ago, when it worked
its lethal magic on his family and friends. The father takes the monkey
and throws it in the lake in his backyard. At the end of the story is an
excerpt of a newspaper article, which talks about hundreds of dead fish
floating in the lake.
"Mrs. Todd's Shortcut"
The story is detailed to a friend of
Homer, an older man who likes spending time at the gas station.
The plot concerns Mrs. Todd, who is obsessed with finding shortcuts.
Homer admires her persistence but begins to have doubts, as there are only
so many shortcuts someone can find. Mrs. Todd's habit of resetting her
odometer shows remarkable evidence that something weird is going on. He
also discovers evidence that her shortcuts are using up less miles than
are in a straight line from one destination to another; something that
would be impossible anyway in this section of Maine. Mrs. Todd finally convinces
Homer to take one of the special 'shortcuts'. Homer loses his hat to the
grasping arms of a tree and sees road signs and animals that he cannot explain.
Frightened, Homer does not wish to take any more rides. Nonetheless, Mrs.
Todd is changing with each trip she takes, and the appeal of this overwhelms
Homer, despite his having found a smashed, horrifying millipede-like creature
on the grill of her car (she brushes this off, having perceived it as an
unfortunate, normal animal).
The story ends with Homer, who is looking younger himself, getting
into Mrs. Todd's car in front of his friend. It is implied that Mrs. Todd
(who by this time is considered missing together with her car) will now
take him into whatever new world that she has found a shortcut to.
This story caught my imagination something
fierce and has yet to let go of it.
"The Jaunt"
As a family prepares to be "Jaunted"
to Mars, the father entertains his two children by recounting the curious
tale of the discovery and history of this crude form of teleportation. He
explains how the scientist who serendipitously discovered it quickly learned
that it had a disturbing, inexplicable effect on the mice he "sent through"--eventually
concluding that they could only survive the "Jaunt effect" while unconscious.
That, the father explains, is why all people must undergo general anaesthesia before using the Jaunt.
The father spares his children the gruesome semi-apocryphal account
of the first human to be Jaunted awake, a condemned murderer offered a full
pardon for agreeing to the experiment. The man "came through" and immediately
suffered a massive heart attack, living just long enough to utter a single
cryptic phrase:
It's eternity in there... The father also doesn't mention that since
that time, roughly thirty people have, voluntarily or otherwise, jaunted
while conscious; they either died instantly or emerged insane. One woman
was even shoved alive into eternal limbo by her murderous husband, stuck between
two jaunt portals. The man was convicted of murder, though his attorneys
attempted to argue that he was not guilty on the grounds that his wife was
not technically dead.
<>After the father finishes
his story, the family is subjected to the sleeping gas and Jaunted to
Mars. When the father wakes, he finds that his inquisitive son held his
breath in order to experience the Jaunt while conscious, and has been rendered
completely insane. Hair white with shock, corneas yellowed with age, clawing
out his own eyes, the boy reveals the terrible nature of the Jaunt: "longer
than you think". While physically the process occurs nearly instantaneously,
to the conscious mind it lasts an eternity and beyond. You gotta explain everything painstakingly
to children. Stupid man.
"The Wedding Gig"
Told from the viewpoint of a bandleader
during prohibition, the story centers around a small time racketeer, Mike Scollay, who hires the narrator's
Jazz Band to play at the wedding of his 300 pound sister Maureen, and her
90 pound fiance. At the gig, Scollay's enemy, The Greek, forces a man to
come to the wedding reception and insult Maureen in front of the guests.
Shortly after, Mike is shot down in a hail of gunfire from The Greek's
men.
Maureen takes over his business, making it into a large criminal empire,
and getting revenge on the Greek, until she dies of a heart attack years
later.
"Paranoid: A Chant"
A Poem
, "The Raft"
"The Raft" is about four college students,
two young men (Randy and Deke) and two young women (Rachel and LaVerne),
who go out to swim on a remote Pennsylvania lake during the autumn, when
nobody is around. After they swim out to the raft in the middle of the
lake, a mysterious oil slick-like creature appears in the water beneath
them. Deke ridicules Randy's suspicions that the "oil slick" was chasing
the girls, refusing to take the situation seriously until Rachel touches
it. The creature instantly wraps around her arm, pulling her into itself
and gradually dissolving her.
, "Word Processor of the
Gods"
In the days when dedicated word processors
were still popular, the main character, a middle-aged writer tired of his
wife (a fat, bad-tempered tyrant), son (an amateur musician with an attitude
problem), and life in general, gets a gift from his nephew (a teenage genius)
– a custom-built word processor. Unfortunately, the nephew has recently
died in a car accident (at the hands of his own evil, violent brother who
was driving drunk), so the writer must figure out on his own how to use
it. He discovers that, with this word processor, he can write things into
existence, and also delete them – at least, as long as the word processor
can last. He erases his son and wife, and finally (seconds before the processor's
demise) replaces them with his nephew and the nephew's kind, gentle mother.
The story ends with the writer going inside with his new son. This is one of the sweetest stories Stephen
King has ever written.
"The Man Who Would
Not Shake Hands"
It entails an aged, wealthy man recounting
a card game he played in many years ago where he met an odd man who refused
to touch anyone, recoiling from contact in fear. After the odd man wins
the game, a young player leaps up and shakes his hand enthusiastically.
The odd man screams and bolts from the room. The narrator then makes it
his mission to find him and give him his winnings. It is revealed shortly
thereafter that the young player who shook the odd man's hand died of a
brain aneurysm. The narrator speaks with an old associate of the man, who
tells him the title character was cursed by an Indian shaman after an unfortunate
accident where the "Shake Hands Man" accidentally caused the death of a
boy. The man is cursed to cause the death of any person he touches. The
narrator then finds that the odd man died in a seedy inn, one hand firmly
clasping the other.
"Beachworld"
It's set in an undefined distant future.
Among the few clues to the date is the passing reference that the last of
the Beach Boys died 950 million years ago.
After the catastrophic crash landing of a Federal spacecraft, only
crew members Rand and Shapiro survive. The men stare out over the sand
dunes and remark on how it is similar to a beach. Rand refuses to move from
the dune he is sitting on or drink water. When help arrives they try to
take Rand with them. However the sand itself prevents them from rescuing
him by both wrecking the android they send and sending a hand of sand up
to stop a tranquilizer dart. The ship escapes just in time with Shapiro
narrowly avoiding a giant hand of sand. Rand, left alone, stares up at the
ship as it disappears, and then begins to pile handfuls of sand into his
mouth.
"Nona"
The story is the account of a man being
held in prison, recounting his life as a college dropout who had met and
fallen in love with a girl named Nona while aimlessly hitchhiking on a snowy
winter's night in Maine. That night, he was pretty swiftly seduced into
murdering several people who had the misfortune of crossing the duo's path
as they speed towards an unknown goal. Somewhere near King's fictional
town of Castle Rock, Nona takes him to
a graveyard, where he encounters a possibly supernatural force, and is
later found alone by the authorities, taken into custody, tried, and sentenced
to prison, where he now writes his tale, contemplating suicide as he hears
strange sounds in the walls.
"For Owen"
A Poem
"Survivor Type"
"Survivor Type" is written as the diary
of a disgraced surgeon, Richard Pine (real name Richard Pinzetti), who,
while attempting to smuggle a large amount of heroin on a cruise ship, finds
himself marooned on a tiny island in the Pacific
with very limited supplies and no food. A self-proclaimed "survivor" type,
his diary entries documenting his day to day activities become more and more
disjointed and raving, revealing his slow mental decay and eventual insanity
caused by starvation, isolation, and drug use. Determined to hold out for
rescue, he goes to horrifying lengths to survive, using his surgical training
to amputate his own limbs to use as a food source, ingesting the heroin for
anesthesia, drools uncontrollably as he
ponders which body part to consume next. The diary entries end when he
cuts off his left hand to eat ("lady fingers they taste like lady fingers").
"Uncle Otto's Truck"
The story concerns a wrecked and abandoned
truck owned by Otto Schenck and George McCutcheon, wealthy Castle Rock businessmen
in the post-depression era. After George is deliberately crushed beneath
his derelict vehicle by Otto, the murderer becomes fixated on the truck,
insisting it is not only moving of its own accord, but coming to kill him.
At the same time he also becomes a social recluse, living in the house he
once built across from the truck itself, and generally does begin to lose
his sanity. His nephew, who tells the story, finally finds him dead - the
corpse has been drowned with oil and there is a spark plug rammed down his
throat.
"Morning Deliveries
(Milkman #1)"
The story follows the morning route
of a milkman named Spike Milligan, who leaves various "surprises" in the
milk bottles for his customers to find, including poisonous liquids, deadly
gas, and venomous spiders.
"Big Wheels: A Tale of
The Laundry Game (Milkman #2)"
It describes the outlook on a disgruntled
laundryman's life. It is a tie in to the first milkman short story, rather
than a direct sequel.
"Gramma"
The story concerns a young boy named
George who is dismayed to find himself left alone on a stormy night with
his ancient bedridden grandmother, who years previously gained vile magic
powers from the reading of certain ancient tomes. During the course of the
night, she dies, but passes on her powers, and a large portion of her personality,
to the boy.
"The Ballad of The Flexible
Bullet"
The main character is Henry (usually
referred to as simply "the editor"), fiction editor for "Logan's," a struggling
magazine. Henry receives an unsolicited short story from up-and-coming
novelist Reg Thorpe, and considers the story to be a masterpiece. Through
his correspondence with Thorpe, Henry learns of -- and, due to Henry's
own alcoholism, eventually begins to believe in -- Thorpe's various paranoid
fantasies. Most notably, Henry and Thorpe believe that their typewriters
serve as homes for Fornits -- tiny elves who bring creativity and good
luck. The story, told from Henry's perspective as he relays it in anecdotal
form at a barbecue, concerns Henry's descent into Thorpe's madness. Meanwhile,
Henry also struggles to get Thorpe's story published, despite the fact
that "Logan's" is in the process of closing its fiction department.
I believe this is another "in" joke
for writers.
"The Reach"
The Reach is a body of water that separates
the mainland from Goat Island, Maine, where 95-year old Stella Flanders
has contentedly lived her entire life. In this story, Stella remembers the
past, the present, the living that populate the island, and the dead that
populate her memories. She becomes alarmed when she begins seeing visions
of her long deceased husband, Bill Flanders. Bill keeps attempting to lure
Stella across the newly frozen Reach, having last froze over in 1938. With
her health rapidly deteriorating, Stella sets off to cross the Reach only
to become lost in the snow. Frightened, she is soon surrounded by her husband
and dearly departed old friends assisting her to the mainland. She is later
found following the snowstorm on the mainland four miles from her home,
frozen to death.
Four
Past Midnight
Four Past Midnight |
"The Langoliers"
You are strapped in an
airplane seat on a flight beyond hell.
Great story and the movie was pretty
good.
"Secret Window, Secret
Garden"
You are trapped in the
demonic depths of a writer's worst nightmare.
Okay story. My husband really
loves the movie.
"The Library Policeman"
You are forced into a hunt for the most horrifying secret a small
town ever hid.
"The Sun Dog"
You are focusing in
on a beast bent on shredding your sanity.
Nightmares & Dreamscapes
Nightmares & Dreamscapes
Rob Wood
|
"Dolan's Cadillac"
The narrator, Robinson (no first name
given), finds himself a childless widower when Dolan, a wealthy crime-boss,
has Robinson's wife murdered in order to prevent her from testifying against
him. The murder (by ignition bomb on her 1968 Chevrolet) is never solved,
and Robinson, unskilled in the arts of revenge, has no recourse. Over a seven-year
period, however, haunted mentally by his wife's voice, Robinson devises
a scheme of retaliation. Discovering that Dolan regularly makes the same
cross-country road trip in his gray/silver Cadillac,
Robinson sets an elaborate trap on a desert road in Nevada: He takes on
a summer job with a road paving crew just so that he can learn to operate
the heavy equipment he needs to execute his plan - excavating a funnel-shaped
ditch just long and deep enough to contain the car, but not so wide as to
allow escape through the doors.
I don't usually like revenge tales, but this one was exceptional.
"The End of the
Whole Mess"
The story, narrated by Howard Fornoy
in the form of a personal journal, recounts the life of his genius younger
brother, Robert. Bobby, a child prodigy whose adult interests led him to
study a variety of scientific disciplines, discovered a chemical that reduces
the aggressive tendencies of humans and other organisms. While doing sociological
research in Texas, Bobby used crime statistics to create a sort of topographic
map which displayed a geographical pattern of violent crime. Examining the
map, Robert noted diminishing levels of crime centered around the town of
La Plata. When he arrives to investigate, he finds that this town has never
had any water supply, a phenomenon that is mentioned in (but had nothing
to do with the causations of) King's earlier novel It. Even minimal exposure
to the chemical will calm down an angry person or animal, and Bobby has
been able to isolate the chemical and reduce it to concentrated form
violent crime. Bobby is ultimately
able to determine that the cause of the non-aggression is the presence of
a chemical to the town's . This
story just shows that it ain't smart to fool with the human animal's instincts.
"Suffer the Little
Children"
An elderly teacher with back problems
at Summer Street School, Miss Sidley, uses the reflection on her glasses
to watch her class. She calls on Robert to use the word "tomorrow" in a
sentence. He says "Tomorrow a bad thing will happen." Miss Sidley is disturbed
by the nature of Robert's answer, and in the reflection of her glasses she
see his face change into something described as "different".
"The Night Flier"
The story concerns a deeply cynical
and jaded reporter and photographer named Richard Dees, who works for a
fictional tabloid magazine called The Inside View. Dees' current
subject of investigation is the Night Flier, an individual who travels between
small airports in a Cessna airplane, gruesomely killing people in a way
that leads Dees to think the man is a lunatic who believes himself to be
a vampire.
"Popsy"
Sheridan, a gambling addict, has taken
to abducting children for a man known as Mr. Wizard in order to pay off
his enormous debts to a mobster who has threatened Sheridan with grievous
bodily harm. While lurking in a mall parking lot in his modified van, Sheridan
spots his newest probable target of opportunity - a child standing near
the entrance, obviously separated from his parents and distressed. Sheridan
approaches him, convincing him that he has seen the child's Popsy (as the
boy calls him). The guy gets what
he desrves, that's all I'm saying.
"It Grows on You"
The story recounts some of the bizarre
and inexplicable events that have taken place in a notorious house in the
town of Castle Rock. As the incidents increase, the house has additional
wings added, so the house literally takes on a life of its own, growing
in what seems proportion to the awful things that continue to happen.
"Chattery Teeth"
In the story, salesman Bill Hogan notices
an odd pair of walking "Chattery Teeth" (odd due to their unusually large
size and the fact that they are made of metal) in a convenience store display.
The clerk ends up giving Hogan the teeth, claiming they had been dropped
and no longer work.
<>Hogan reluctantly (having been robbed by a hitchhiker once
before) gives a ride to a hitchhiker outside the convenience store; his
fears prove prophetic when the hitchhiker tries to carjack him and then
kill him. During the struggle, Hogan wrecks the van, and before the hitchhiker
can recover and kill him, the teeth come to life and gruesomely dispatch
the criminal. Hogan passes out to the vision of the Chattery Teeth dragging
the hitchhiker's body off into the desert.Nine months later, Hogan stops
again at the same convenience store, where he is unexpectedly reunited
with the "broken" teeth again. This tale weirded me out.
"Dedication"
It tells the story of a black house
maid working in a hotel and an eccentric alcoholic,
and prejudiced, writer who is a frequent guest there. The maid consumes
some of the writer's semen which was left on his sheets as part of a possible
black magic spell, in the hope that it will pass talent and ability along
to her unborn son. The story is told, in part, in the past tense.
"The Moving Finger"
A very ordinary man who has a strange fascination
with Jeopardy, named Howard Mitla is confronted
by the bizarre sight of a human finger poking its way out of the drain
in his apartment's bathroom sink. He tries to deny the reality of what
is happening, but the solitary digit eventually proves to be infinitely
long and multijointed, and capable of attacking him. Mitla burns it with
a bottle of heavy-duty drain-cleaner, then chops it off with a pair of electric
hedge trimmers. Soon, the police arrive, after Howard calls his neighbor
a "bog-trotting Irishman", and making an enormous racket, and constantly
swearing. When the police arrive, the officer they send in checks in on
Howard, who is lying in a daze next to the toilet. He tells the officer,
"If you have to go to the bathroom, I definitely suggest you hold it." and
the toilet lid pops up. Howard, after cutting up the finger, starts thinking
about the creature it was attatched. He realizes it surely had multiple digits
and that there were several openings in an average bathroom, and an ominous
sound is heard from the toilet.
"Sneakers"
Music exec John Tell thinks that working
at Tabori Studios with famous producer Paul Jannings will be a big opportunity,
but when he notices a pair of old dirty sneakers in an adjacent bathroom
stall he doesn't realise what he's getting into. John at first assumes
they belong to somebody who works at the studio or a delivery person, but
when he visits the bathroom again throughout the week, he notices that
not only have they not moved but are now covered in a layer of dead flies
and other bugs. Eventually Tell discovers that particular pair of shoes
were the trademark of a dealer who supplied the recording talent with regular
supplies of cocaine who was killed in the men's room and his money stolen.
Tell finally confronts the ghost, to find himself face to face with himself,
then the ghost turns into an Indian man of about 30.
The ghost informs him that he was brutally killed by Tell's boss, a
drug addicted and somwhat predatory homosexual. This prompts Tell to quit
his job.
"You Know They
Got a Hell of a Band"
A warning to those who would take
short cuts, get lost and fail to heed their wives' advice about asking
directions.
"Home Delivery"
The protagonist of the story is Maddie
Pace, a rather timid and indecisive young woman who lives on a small island
named Gennesault (or "Jenny"), off the coast of Maine. Maddie is both pregnant
and a widow, having recently lost her husband in a fishing-boat accident.
After a scattering of initial outbreaks, dead bodies all over the world
begin to reanimate en mass and attack the living. The source of the phenomenon
is eventually traced to a bizarre, presumably alien, construct in orbit
high above the Earth's south pole (more
precisely "above the hole in the ozone layer".) A space shuttle under joint American-Chinese authority
visits the site, and promptly meets with disaster. One of the crew survives
just long enough to report that the target object appears to be a giant ball
of seething worms which attack and rip open the shuttle. Further attempts
to destroy the ball fail, the zombie plague spreads, and civilization collapses.All
of this is witnessed by Maddie and the other inhabitants of Jenny. They
gather up all the available firearms to prepare for their own attack, which
all too soon erupts from the island's small cemetery. The island's men are
forced to destroy the zombies of their dead loved ones as they crawl out
of their graves. The still-moving pieces of the reanimated corpses are then
burned with kerosene and the remains plowed underground by a bulldozer. Frank
Daggett, the elderly man who did most of the organizing of the successful
defense, suffers a fatal heart attack, and has himself blasted to pieces so
he won't revive.Maddie remains very much an observer in all of this, only
seeing it on TV (as long as there is TV to watch) and hearing about the battle
at the cemetery from her neighbor. This changes at the end of the story when
she is confronted by the animated corpse of her husband, come back to get
her from the bottom of the sea. She succeeds in singlehandedly destroying
him/it, and faces the future, however grim, with renewed confidence and hope.
"Rainy Season"
A young husband and wife on summer vacation
rent a house in a small town called Willow, Maine, only to be warned repeatedly
(if vaguely) to leave by the local inhabitants. They do not comply and, having
purchased groceries, return to the house. They never learn the price for
prosperity the citizens of Willow must pay: every seven years a husband and
wife will come there from outside and will stay, despite protests, to become
sacrifices during the rainy season. Reminds me of the story, "The Lottery."
"My Pretty Pony"
An elderly man, his death rapidly approaching,
takes his young grandson up onto a hill behind his house and gives the boy
his pocketwatch. Then, standing among falling apple blossoms, the man also
"gives instruction" on the nature of time: how when you grow up, it begins
to move faster and faster, slipping away from you in great chunks if you
don't hold tightly onto it. Time is a pretty pony, with a wicked heart.
"Sorry, Right Number"
One night, while the children are arguing
about whether or not to watch the gory TV adaptation of her husband's novel
Ghost Kiss, Katie receives a strange phone call in which the person
at the other end of the line sobs "Take... please take... t-t-" before
the line goes dead. She at first thinks it's her daughter Polly, away at
boarding school, then her sister Dawn, but neither of them was the source
of the mysterious call. The incident is quickly forgotten when she finds
her husband slumped in his chair, dead from a heart attack. The story then
jumps forward in time: to Polly's wedding day, five years to the day of
Bill's death. Katie is in Bill's old office when a tape of Ghost's Kiss
she found starts on the television. She is hysterical with grief over the
death of her husband and dials the old house number. She is startled when
it rings and is answered by herself five years previously. She tries to
warn herself of the terrible tragedy that is about to befall her/them but
is unable to speak her intended message of "Take him to the hospital! If
you want him to live, take him to the hospital!". Instead, in her shock,
she is only able to get out "Take... please take..." before the line goes
dead. It's then that she realizes the truth of what happened that night.
"The Ten O'Clock
People"
The main character, Pearson, is a smoker
trying hard to quit for health reasons. He discovers a horrible aspect
of reality that only those attempting to quit like him are capable of seeing
- that many of the people living among us in positions of power, including
many police officers and political figures and even the Vice President of
the United States, are in fact inhuman monsters disguised as people. A
unique chemical balance, caused by his smoking only on his morning break
(thus the reference to Ten O' Clock in the title) makes him able to see
the true nature of these creatures through their disguises. When Pearson
first notices one of them, a young black man named Dudley "Duke" Rhinemann
stops him from screaming.
Dudley later explains that if Pearson wants to live, he must go about
his day as usual and meet him at 3 o'clock after work. Pearson does as he
is told and discovers that his boss is also one of the "batmen". He leaves
work a bit shaken, meets Dudley and goes to a bar with him. After explaining
that smokers trying to quit are the only ones who see them, Dudley invites
Pearson to a meeting of those who can see the "batmen".
Shortly after arriving, the leader of the group says he has "big news"
for them all. Pearson, who already had some suspicion about the idolized
leader, notices nearby batpeople and says they all need to get out of there.
The leader then says the batmen have granted them amnesty, but soon after
a horde of them attack those in the meeting. Pearson along with two others
manage to escape the meeting, while the others are presumably killed. The
survivors form a new resistance group of 'Ten O'Clock People' and succesfully
kill many 'bat-men'.
"Crouch End"
On August 19, 1974, two police officers,
alcoholic veteran Ted Vetter and newcomer Robert Farnham, are working the
night shift in the London neighborhood of
Crouch End. They are discussing the case of Doris Freeman, a young American woman who came in to report the disappearance
of her husband, lawyer Leonard Freeman. Nearly hysterical, Doris' story
involves monsters and other supernatural incidents. Farnham dismisses the
story as rubbish, but Vetter, who has worked in Crouch End for years, isn't
so sure.
"The House on Maple
Street"
After a summer spent abroad, the four
Bradbury children return to their home on Maple Street and discover that
something is growing upwards through the house's walls from below, replacing
wood and plaster with metal and machinery, counting down to some cataclysmic
event. Although somewhat afraid of what this means, Trent, the eldest of
the four, realizes they have an opportunity to rid both themselves and
their beleaguered mother of the tyrannical Lewis "Lew" Evans, their hated
and feared stepfather. As the countdown approaches its final minutes, they
contrive to lock Lew in his study and leave him to his fate, escaping the
house just in time to watch as it raises itself from its foundations and
blasts away into the clouds. The story ends with the children waiting on
the curb for their mother to return, shaken but glad to be free from Lew's
oppressive rule.
"The Fifth Quarter"
The story follows "Jerry Tarkanian",
a crook looking to avenge the death of his friend Barney, who died at the
hands of his own accomplices after taking part in an armored car heist.
Unknown to them, Barney managed to get to Tarkanian before he died and told
him of the heist and of the map divided amongst his killers that reveals
the location of the stolen money.
At the start of the story, Tarkanian has tracked down two of the men,
Keenan and Sarge, who are about to make a deal between themselves and manages
to hold them at gun-point, forcing them to give him their sections of the
map. However, things go wrong when the third man, Jagger, appears during
the confrontation and attacks them both, in the firefight that follows Sarge
is killed, but contributes to Jagger's downfall when his body obstructs
his path, letting Tarkanian get the advantage and finish him.
Despite not having Jagger's part of the map, he now has enough to recover
the money. The story ends with Tarkanian leaving the scene, knowing that
in the aftermath of this shootout that his debt to his friend has been paid
and he himself now has a lot to be grateful for. Sometimes, it's good to see the underdog get
ahead.
"The Doctor's Case"
Dr. Watson narrates a heretofore unreleased
case in which he and Holmes are called by Inspector Lestrade on an unexpectedly
rainy day to investigate the murder of a sadistic British lord named Hull
in his study. Each member of his family - his wife and three sons - has reason
to murder him; his wife had been hounded with constant abuse for the duration
of their marriage; one son, an artistically-skilled (and bowlegged) youth,
was the target of constant ire from his father for his unattractive appearance;
another, the youngest, was the most intellectual and the most capable of
maintaining his father's affairs, but was doomed to never receive more than
a pittance, due to his placement in the family line. Furthermore, in spite
of his treatment of them his family had stayed with him in the hopes that
Hull would die and leave them with his considerable wealth; however, they
had recently learnt that Hull had rewritten his will so that none of them
received a thing, and that all his wealth would go to a boarding-house for
stray cats. Despite having ample motives to kill him, his family have effectively
given each other alibis, and the murder itself is effectively a locked room
mystery; there's no place in the crime scene for anyone to hide without being
seen, and all the doors and windows were locked by the lord himself.
"Umney's Last Case"
The story follows a private investigator
named Clyde Umney as he goes about what he thinks is just another morning
in 1930s Los Angeles. He soon discovers that his life as he knows it is
falling apart, and is brooding alone in his office when he receives his
final client: the crime-fiction author who created him. Through some unknown
means, Umney is forced to trade places with the writer and finds himself
in the year 1994, where he assumes his new identity but has the goal of
returning to his own universe and taking revenge on his creator.
, "Head Down"
The essay chronicles the 1989 season
for his son Owen's Little League baseball team, Bangor West. He takes
the reader through the ups and downs of the season, giving details of every
game, as well as practice sessions and time on the road while focusing on
the reactions of the players and the coaches. This builds to the team winning
a hard-fought victory in the final game of the tournament to become the
Maine State Champions. The team then goes forward to the Eastern Regional
Tournament, only to be beaten in the second round. However, the story ends
on a high note as the team coach, Dave Mansfield, is honored as amateur
coach of the year by the United States Baseball Federation.
"Brooklyn August"
A poem
"The Beggar and the Diamond"
It tells the tale of an old beggar named
Ramu who has had a miserable life. One day Ramu is walking along thinking
about his unhappy existence and feeling angry at God. God, at the request
of an archangel who felt pity for the beggar, drops a massive diamond on
his path in plain sight. The diamond is worth so much that it would feed
him and all his descendents for several generations. On the ground, Ramu
has decided after some pondering that he should not be angry about his life
or blame God because he still has a few things to be grateful for, such
as retaining his sight at such an old age. To illustrate to himself how
much worse life could be if he was blind, he decides to close his eyes as
he walks. Ironically, he does not see the diamond because of this and merrily
walks past it, missing it by just inches. God takes back the diamond and
puts an ironwood branch further up the path. Back in heaven, God says, "The
only difference is that Ramu shall find the branch. It shall serve him as
a walking stick until the last of his days." The archangel asks God, "Have
you just taught me a lesson, God?" God answers, "I don't know. Have I?"
Hearts in Atlantis
Hearts in Atlantis |
"Low Men in Yellow Coats"
The first, and longest, part, "Low Men
in Yellow Coats", takes place in 1960 and revolves around a young boy,
Bobby Garfield. He lives in Harwich, Connecticut with his self-centered
mother, Liz, a widow, and he really wants a bicycle. His mother claims
they do not have the money for a bike, despite her constant purchases of
new clothing. For his eleventh birthday, Bobby's mother gives him a birthday
card containing an adult library card.
During this time, Bobby doesn't realize that his mother is having a relationship
with her boss. Bobby spends his time with his two best friends, John "Sully"
Sullivan and Carol Gerber.
An older gentleman named Ted Brautigan moves into an adjacent apartment
on the floor above Bobby and his mother. It is obvious from the start that
she doesn't like Ted, but Bobby does. Ted spends a lot of time discussing
books with Bobby and gives him Lord of the Flies, which makes a huge
impression on the boy. Bobby's mother claims to be worried that Ted might
be sexually abusing Bobby, though in fact she feels guilty about neglecting
her son. Bobby, understanding the situation but unable to articulate it,
solves the problem by keeping the two apart.
"Hearts in Atlantis"
The Story takes place in 1966 and is
narrated by Peter Riley, who has just started at the University of Maine.
He has been a good student before, but he is drawn to the interminable card
game of Hearts that is going on in the
communal room in the all-male dormitory where he lives.
The story explores how the university of the 1960s was an "Atlantis",
an imaginary kingdom isolated from the troubles of the world. However, as
more and more of the students become addicted to playing Hearts, their grades
begin to suffer...and the only way they are escaping the draft for the Vietnam
War is through their student deferments. If they flunk out of college, they
will be drafted and sent to the war in Southeast Asia.
Peter Riley quickly falls behind in his studies, but even though he
knows he might flunk out, he is unable to stop himself. Meanwhile, he meets
Carol Gerber, Bobby Garfield's friend and childhood sweetheart from Low
Men in Yellow Coats. Peter Riley falls in love with her, and with her
help tries to cure himself of the addiction to Hearts. However, he is too
self-involved and therefore unaware that Carol herself has become caught
up in an escapist addiction of her own: student terrorism. As Peter Riley
and his friends' self-destructive addiction to Hearts continues, the Vietnam
War grows closer, drawing Carol into an activist
group and taking part in bloody demonstrations.
"Blind Willie"
Blind Willie is about a Vietnam
veteran's penance after the war. The main character in this story is Willie
Shearman, and the story takes place over a single day in December 1983. At first we see him commuting
from Connecticut to New York City like any normal businessman; we then
discover that he elaborately disguises himself as a blind beggar who takes
hundreds of dollars a day in donations from passersby, keeping the bills
for himself and distributing the coins to various churches and charities.
We also learn that he was in combat with John Sullivan, and saved his life;
and that Willie keeps a scrapbook about Carol Gerber, and has never forgotten
the day that she was beaten up by Harry Doolin while he and Richie O'Meara
held her down.
"Why We're in Vietnam"
Why We're in Vietnam describes
a reunion of two veterans, one being John Sullivan, at the funeral of a
third and recounts an incident that almost escalated into a My Lai Massacre
involving a former student and player in the Hearts game in Hearts In
Atlantis, Ronnie Malenfant. Throughout the story, Sullivan sees an old
Vietnamese "mama-san" whom Ronnie killed during this incident. In the end
Sullivan dies of an apparent heart attack during a traffic jam on the way
home.
"Heavenly Shades
of Night are Falling"
Bobby Garfield returns to his hometown
after almost 40 years to attend John Sullivan's funeral, and finds closure
to his relationships with Carol Gerber and Ted Brautigan.
I really liked the first story,
but the others . . . The movie "Hearts in Atlantis" was well done.
Everything's Eventual
Everything's Eventual
Mark Stutzman
|
"Autopsy Room Four"
Howard Cottrell awakes from some form
of unconsciousness to find himself laid out in an autopsy room. As the doctors
prepare to begin, Howard struggles to come to grips with what is happening.
After realizing that he is not dead, he deduces that he is in a paralysed
state, and struggles to somehow inform the doctors of this fact before they
cut into him. Thrilling suspence!
"The Man in the
Black Suit"
The story tells of Gary, a nine year-old
boy, whose brother had died not long ago due to a bee sting. One day Gary
goes out fishing and falls asleep. When he awakens, he finds a bee is hovering
near his face. Due to the allergy he shared with his brother he is very
scared, but then he hears a clap and the bee dies. He turns around and he
discovers a man in a black three-piece suit with as is described in the
story, glowing, burning eyes, as if there's a fire inside him, looming over
him, with pale skin and claws for fingers, and horrible, sharp, shark-like
teeth when he grins. The man--whose body odor smells like burnt match heads--
tells Gary terrible things: that his mother has died while he was away, and
that the man intends to eat him. Gary does not believe at first, but soon
realizes that this man is actually the devil,
and makes his escape by throwing his caught fish at the stranger; he then
runs off as the creature swallows the fish whole and pursues the boy to
the outskirts of the forest. The things the man said were false, but Gary
is still haunted by the incident for the rest of his life.
"All That You Love Will Be Carried Away"
Alfie Zimmer, a traveling salesman peddling
bar code readers and instant dinners, pulls into a Motel 6 in Nebraska
for the night. He settles in, and pulls out a revolver, ready to commit
suicide because he "couldn’t go on living the way he had been living."
He has a wife, a daughter, and a hobby: recording strange bathroom
graffiti which he discovered on his many long, lonely travels. He first
started noting down scrawls on the walls that attracted his attention without
any reason but then became "fascinated with those messages". Alfie has
filled a whole notebook with such gems as "Save Russian Jews, collect valuable
prizes" and "Mammon is the king of New Jersey."
In his solitary life of a traveling salesman with only miles and miles
of the empty road for his companion those "voices on the walls" became
his friends; something to think about during the long drive, something
precious and important, something that "spoke" to him.
Alfie decides that "a shot in the mouth is easier than any living change",
but every time he puts the gun in his mouth, he worries that leaving the
notebook filled with bizarre ramblings behind will make him seem crazy to
whomever finds his body. Alfie wants to write a book about the graffiti,
even coming up with a great title, but knows "the telling would hurt." While
standing in the freezing cold of the winter night, sobbing to himself, Alfie
decides on a plan: if the lights of a farmhouse behind the motel reappear
through the snow before he counts to 60, he will write the book. If not, Alfie
will toss the notebook into the snow, then go inside and shoot himself. I already mentioned my view on suicide did
I not?
"The Death of Jack Hamilton"
The story is written in the first-person.
Homer Van Meter, a member of John Dillinger's gang, tells of the slow, painful
death of fellow gangmember Jack Hamilton. Van Meter begins by describing
Dillinger's death outside the Biograph Theater at the hands of Melvin Purvis's
men (who is referenced several times throughout the story as the character's
nemesis), as well as addressing the theory that it wasn't actually Dillinger
that was killed. Van Meter debunks the theories, citing that the causes
for arguments happened during his witnessing the death of Jack Hamilton.
During his getaway from a shootout at the Little Bohemia Lodge in Wisconsin,
Hamilton is shot by police, and the bullet lodged in his lung, eventually
creating a gruesome case of gangrene. Hamilton is refused treatment by Joseph
Moran, and Van Meter and Dillinger take Hamilton to stay at the home of
Volney Davis and his girlfriend Rabbits, two members of Ma Barker's gang,
as well as Ma's son Arthur. King's narrator spares no detail, as the man
lapses into dementia before his agonizing, but merciful expiration.
"In the Deathroom"
Fletcher, an ex-reporter from the New
York Times, has been captured by members of a South American interrogating him about a Communist insurgency
he has been supporting, due to the government's killing of a group of nuns
which included his sister, will not let him leave this room alive, despite
their claims that he will be set free.
During the course of his interrogation, Fletcher manages to keep calm,
and hatches a desperate plan to save his life, which, to his surprise,
actually works. He fakes an epileptic seizure,
and in the captors struggle to save him he steals a gun. After killing three
of his captors and maiming one, he escapes "the deathroom." Fletcher, having
no way of knowing if the gunfire was heard, starts up the stairs to see
if he can escape. The story
begins as he is brought into the titular "deathroom" as he realizes that
his captors, after
"The Little Sisters
of Eluria"
Roland and his horse arrive at a deserted
village, Eluria, where he encounters a feral dog bearing a cross-shaped
spot in its fur attempting to eat a dead body. Roland scares it off, and
while looking over the corpse, finds a rectangle-shaped medallion. Roland
takes it, and is immediately attacked and rendered unconscious by a group
of slow mutants, but later awakens in a hospital marquee run by a strange
group of would-be nuns. Calling themselves
The Little Sisters, they use tiny bug-like creatures they call "doctors"
to heal his severe injuries. At first, they seem benign, but Roland slowly
discovers that they are actually vampires, who bring stray survivors back
to their "hospital" only to feed on them once they've recovered.
Boring.
"Everything's Eventual"
The story is told in first person perspective
by a 19-year-old high-school dropout Richard "Dinky" Earnshaw. Dinky fatuously
explains that he's got a good job now. He used to be a clerk at the "Supr
Savr," where he worked with morons and was relentlessly bullied by an aggressive
dimwit named Skipper. But now Skipper's dead and Dinky's got a new job,
where the main perks are that he gets his own house and his own car and
virtually anything he asks for, including CDs that have not been released
yet. He also gets a small wad of cash each week, provided he doesn't look
for the people who drop it through his mail slot, and that he remembers to
destroy or throw away any money left over at the end of the week. He gets
rid of his excess change by dropping it down the gutter by his house, and
he puts his bills in the garbage disposal, each week. In his usual down-to-earth
style, King stretches the tiny details of this situation out to great length
before finally settling down to the obvious and compelling questions: what
exactly is this mysterious job, and what does a dead supermarket clerk have
to do with it?
As it turns out, Dinky has a certain gift. He has the ability to kill
people by drawing complicated designs or pictures, in a way that he does
not completely understand. This is illustrated when he recalls that, as
a child, he (semi-unknowingly) used this ability to kill a dog that used
to torment him on his way home from school. After Skipper humiliated him every
day for years, Dinky makes the decision to use this power to kill Skipper,
or more accurately to make Skipper kill himself.
Dinky is discovered by a man named Mr. Sharpton, who claims to work
for Trans Corporation, an organization that searches across the world for
people with such talents. Dinky is recruited to kill very specific targets
by e-mailing them these designs that he creates on an Apple computer. He
is, in return, given a life that seems ideal, complete with a house and
other benefits. Mr. Sharpton tells Dinky that the people he is ordered to
kill are wicked, horrible criminals that the world is better off without.
For a time, Dinky is happy with his new position, living life in a
semi-mindless bliss; however, when Dinky finds an article in the newspaper
about one of the individuals whom he has killed (a seemingly innocent old
newspaper columnist) he begins to feel guilty for what he has done. After
researching more into his other victims, Dinky realizes that the Trans
Corporation has been using him to assassinate political dissidents and
alternative thinkers. As the story ends, he is planning his escape from
the Trans Corporation, but not before sending one final deadly email to
Mr. Sharpton, his recruiter. I
was glad to see Dinky grow up and cotton to what was really going on.
"L. T.'s Theory
of Pets"
The story is told from a first person
perspective about a working class husband who recalls a story told by L.
T., a chatty co-worker who recalls the brewing trouble behind his marriage,
attributed to pets purchased by L. T. and his wife. His wife purchased
a dog for L. T. which in turn, disliked him instantly and sided with the
wife, while L. T. purchased a cat for his wife, who immediately took to
L. T. Despite the fact that the dog and the cat get along fine, L. T. and
his wife continuously argue, adding some irony. The story provides an interesting
character study, told from the mouth of garrulous L. T. and reveals an
unusually bloody twist that has you wondering what became of certain characters.
I really liked this one.
"The Road Virus Heads
North"
The story follows a successful horror
writer named Richard Kinell as he drives back to his home in Maine. Along
the way, he comes across a yard sale, where
he notices and is captivated by a bizarre painting of a sinister-looking
man with filed teeth driving his car somewhere. The painting, which is apparently
titled "The Road Virus Heads North," was painted by a tortured genius who
had burned all his other paintings prior to killing himself, leaving a cryptic
note that he couldn't stand what was happening to him. Kinnell, a collector
of such oddities, has no hesitation in buying the painting from the woman
running the sale.
As Kinnell travels north, he stops at his aunt's house to show her
the painting... and notices that some of the details in the painting have
changed. At first he dismisses this by assuming he hadn't examined it closely,
but he soon realizes that the painting is continuing to change. Deeply
unsettled by this fact, he discards the painting at a rest stop.
When he arrives at his home, he finds to his horror that the painting
has somehow followed him, and hangs from his wall. It has changed again,
this time depicting a bloody aftermath at the yard sale where he had purchased
it. He hears on the news that the woman running the yard sale was brutally
murdered. He realizes that the man in the painting somehow really exists,
and the ever-changing painting shows him getting closer and closer. Kinnell
lights a fire in the fireplace, and tosses in the painting. Confident this
will destroy it once and for all, he decides to take a shower, where he
passes out and has a nightmare about the various things he's encountered
that day.
When he awakens, he realizes that the artist who created The Road Virus
burned ALL his paintings, including this one, which means that the painting
survived his attempt to burn it, and the man in the painting has arrived
and is walking through the house. Kinnell tries to escape, but ultimately
fails, and the painting gets him as well; the book's final passage describes
Kinnell seeing the latest change to the painting, with fresh blood on the
front passenger seat of the car, and realizes the painting is showing what
is about to happen to him. Scarey
as all get out!
"Lunch at the Gotham Café"
A man named Steve Davis comes home one
day to find a letter from his wife, Diane, coldly stating she has left him
and intends to get a divorce. He becomes depressed, especially since Diane's
departure prompts him to give up cigarettes, and he begins to suffer nicotine
withdrawal. Diane's lawyer, William Humboldt, calls Steve with plans to
meet with the two of them for lunch. He decides on the Gotham Cafe and
sets a date. Steve's lawyer is unable to attend due to a family crisis.
Before entering the Cafe, Steve impulsively buys an umbrella. Upon
entering, he finds that the maître d', eventually revealed to be
named Guy, is talking senselessly about a dog. When Steve attempts to seek
reconciliation with Diane, things begin to fall apart. Much to Steve's
consternation, she regards him with contempt tinged with fear. The maître
d' then makes a surprise reappearance, drunkenly insane, chanting "Eeeee!"
and stabs Humboldt through the head with a knife. Steve briefly fends off
the lunatic with his new umbrella, then drags the helplessly terrified Diane
into the kitchen. Guy gives chase, and after giving the cafe's cook a grisly
injury, proceeds onward. Diane almost gets Steve killed, but Steve is still
able to incapacitate Guy by dousing him with scalding water and whacking
him with a metal frying pan.
After finally escaping both the Cafe and Guy, Steve attempts to snap
Diane from her state of panic. Diane recoils and rants at him venomously,
seeing him as a bully rather than a protector. Steve is filled with incredulous
fury that she has irrationally blotted out how his resourceful actions saved
both of their lives while she stood by uselessly. Diane's self-empowering
harangue is interrupted by a sudden slap across the face. After attempting
to hurt him with claims of extramarital lovers, she leaves him for good.
As Steve sits on the curb and watches ambulances haul away both the victims
and the heavily-restrained Guy, he is left wondering about Guy's private life,
and the nature of insanity. Can
you say BITCH? He won't miss his ex, that's for sure.
"That Feeling,
You Can Only Say What It Is in French"
As the story progresses, she begins
to remember skeletons from the closet, starting as financially strapped
newlyweds who went onto greater things with her husband's eventual success
in the computer industry. It is implied, though never explicitly revealed,
that the man and woman have been killed in a mid-air plane collision, and
are suffering eternal torment. I
can see hell as being repitition.
"1408"
Mike Enslin who writes non-fiction works
based on the theme of haunted places. His book series, Ten Nights in
Ten Haunted Houses, Ten Nights in Ten Haunted Graveyards, and
Ten Nights in Ten Haunted Castles, prove to be bestsellers, but
Enslin internally reveals some guilt and regret at their success, privately
acknowledging that he is neither a believer in the paranormal nor in the
supernatural elements he espouses in these books. Nonetheless, he arrives
at the Hotel Dolphin on 61st Street in New York City intent on spending the
night in the hotel's infamous room 1408, as part of his research for his
next book, Ten Nights in Ten Haunted Hotel Rooms. Cool story, great movie.
"Riding the Bullet"
The story concerns a man named Alan
Parker, who is a college student trying to find out what he wants to do
with his life. He gets a call informing him of his mother's recent stroke,
which is terrible news since his mom has always been the person closest
to his heart in life (his father died when he was young). Left without a
car, he has to hitchhike to the hospital to see her.
At first, he is picked up by a bizarre old man with a stench that drives
Alan to walking. This brings him to a graveyard, where he finds a headstone
for a man named George Staub ("Well Begun, Too Soon Done," the headstone
reads). And as fate would happen to have it, the man who gives Alan his next
ride is George Staub himself.
"Lucky Quarter"
Darlene Pullen, who is a struggling
single mother with two children (a rebellious teenage daughter and a sickly
young son) and a lousy job as a maid, is left a tip of a single quarter
with a note saying that it is a "lucky quarter". She takes a quick gamble
on it and finds that it brings her some small luck. Moving on to a real
casino, she keeps trying her luck, and soon she's winning thousands of
dollars. All seems to be going exceeding well...
...and then she stops fantasizing and reappears back in the hotel room,
left with nothing but her lucky quarter. As her two children come to visit
her at work, she lets her son have the quarter, and as he uses it in a gamble,
it starts to pay off just as it did when Darlene was fantasizing. "Lucky,"
she thinks to herself as the story ends. "So lucky, oh lucky me."