Re: Books by Stephen King
Well we're getting into multiple post syndrome here, but as I've read more stories in Night shift I'll note them down while they're fresh in my mind.
As always, spoilers ahoy for the stories in question!
Quitters inc: I actually had read this one before when my lady and I were sharing some of our favourite horor stories, but as that was three years ago I thought I'd read it again.
This story was bloody awesome! The way King gives us just enough details to know what's going on and yet doesn't overload us with info about either morrison or his life, and yet the way Quitters inc is presented so wonderfully starkly. I particularly love the way he just outlines the central idea without fanfare, just a company who cause you to quit smoking by whatever means necessary, and then only has one brief slipup in the form of Morison's wife getting the shock treatment.
Really this was a masterful example of a story that walses streight in, gets right to the point, then cuts off before it out stays its welcome. Its also a bloody scary premise if you think about it too long, and that from someone who has a real hatred of smoking.
I know what you need: Okay this one didn't sit quite as well with me since the underlying philosophy behind it was so damn muddled. Told from the perspective of a beautiful popular girl, about how a socially outcast boy always seems to turn oup with whatever she needs, how she falls in love with him, and then discovers its all about black magic.
What my problem was here, is that when you love someone you do! put there needs first, that's just part of it. I wondered if King would play on the idea that having all needs met is boring and relationships need some give and take, but no, the boy was just a creep who magically murdered her previous boyfriend, although without the murder of the boyfriend I honestly would be wondering what the exact problem was, after all he hadn't actually compelled her or changed her! just used his powers to know what she wanted and to make her happy. Indeed, in some senses this seemed to fall into the "single men who can't get dates are creepy" vibe, especially when contrasted against a popular beautiful girl, since hay some of the things he said about her having an easy time due to her good looks were actually fair. Oh, and that's quite aside from King's "all boys always want sex and girls don't" rigmarole, though I suppose I can forgive a story written 40 years ago for being a bit prehistoric.
Children of the corn: I know this one was made into a film, and its actually odd I've not read it until now. A bickering couple stop off in the most batty of American towns and wind up getting murdered by its enhabitants who are Lord of the flies meets the Salem witch trials with a bit of lovecraft thrown in.
Mrs. Dark didn't like this one, though that's partly because she is a little sensative about stories that play the loopy Christians card a bit too unreservedly. I didnt' mind myself, since it was pretty obvious from the start that the thing beiing worshiped had very little to do with Christianity.
I actually thought it was a pretty well constructed story, I liked the atmosphere, the way the town was portrayed and the final confrontation was spine tingling, not to mention poor vicky suffering one of the most truly grotesque and goreful deaths. My only problem that the couple were really dislikeable, heck I can see why King now says the couple who similarly fall fowl of one of those randomly evil American small towns in The Rainy season were happily married, since compared to the sniping and unpleasantness of Bert and vicky, including a little wife beating, those two were positively sweet.
It was also a ironic that if Bert had actually listened to Vicky's hysterical fear they wouldn't have wound up dead
My other problem with Children of the corn, was that despite the awesome atmosphere, I thought the church infodump was a bit too much. Deducing a town's disaster from just a reccord of deaths and name changes before any of the psycho kids appear was rather stretching belief, indeed in some ways I actually wanted to learn more about the life of the children in this very bizarre community, especially with the ending of the story implying there might be some descention in the ranks.
The man who loved flowers: this one lives from its twist. A young man in love buys flowers, everyone around him says how nice it is to see being young and in love, then it turns out he's a hammer murderer, albeit one who only hammers girls he's looking for a girl who died ten years ago.
Like Strawberry spring, this is a mood piece. Oddly enough, New york city didnt' seem overly romantic to me when I was there, and that just before Mrs. Dark and I were married and! in the spring what's more, but hay.
A nicely executed if brief story, albeit one that lives almost entirely from its big twist ending, probably a bit more affecting for me since I love to buy my lady flowers, but while it was a nice bit of sweetness turned very sour and a wonderfully delivered "aha" moment (I especially like the repeated "and he swung the hammer"), I don't expect this is a story with too long a shelf life, nice for what it was though.
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