Chris–Night Shift wrap up

It’s a good thing that this isn’t a paying job, or I probably would have been fired by now…  Anyway, I finished up Night Shift last week, then put off writing about it until now…  so here we go.

There is a lot of stuff going on in this book.  King flips all around, using several different writing styles, templates, and voices.  The first story, “Jerusalem’s Lot” (yes, THAT Jerusalem’s Lot) is set way back in the day, and King writes in in like a Lovecraft/Poe style–an authentic gothic horror tale.

Later on, we get some stuff that is really literary junk food–it’s a lot of fun, but there isn’t much there.  “Battleground”, “The Ledge”, and “The Mangler” would all fall into this category for me.  I love all of these stories, but there isn’t a whole lot of depth.

At the opposite side of the spectrum, there are stories like “Sometimes They Come Back”.  This one was the first story in this collection that really made me stop and say “Whoa”.  This story and “The Last Rung on the Ladder” are the two most powerful.  There is some serious character development, which is especially impressive given that these are short stories.  Definitely the gems of this anthology.

Some things I really like about the other stories:

“The Boogeyman”–This one still scares me.  Although after I read it, I can’t help but wonder how the boogeyman hired a receptionist…

“Gray Matter”–I loved how everyone is all in.  They don’t know what’s happening, they just know that they’d better get over there and check things out.  So they go.

“Night Surf”–This is a tie-in to The Stand, and is a really good story.  Obviously not every survivor is joining up with Mother Abigail or Randy Flagg.  This story gives us a look at some of the others.

“I Am The Doorway”–Super creepy.  Alien “infection” tale, this is one of those stories that if this actually happened, we would never, ever know what exactly went down.  And that’s just how it’s written.

“Trucks” is sooooo much better than Maximum Overdrive.  And again, no one know why the trucks are now sentient, but they are, and they sure are pissed.

“Strawberry Spring” and “The Man Who Loved Flowers”–These two are sort of in the same vein.  Build up, build up, build up, SHOCKING!!!

“The Lawnmower Man”–When they made this into a movie (not really), It was originally called Stephen King’s The Lawnmower Man.  Until King sued to have his name taken off.  There’s only one scene from the story that is in the film–the birdbath.  This story is super weird and awesome, and the movie sucks.

“I Know What You Need”–How creepy and stalkery is this story?

“Children Of The Corn”  OH MAN.  This story is great.  One, it captures the midwest pretty accurately.  I would not be terribly shocked to hear that something like this has actually happened.  Two, King perfectly pictures a couple who are in a serious crisis with their relationship.  In fact, that’s what gets them killed.  Three, no explanation.  SOMETHING happened in 1964, and SOMETHING lives out there in the corn…

“One For The Road”–another trip to ‘Salem’s Lot!  This is a super fast-paced, edge of your seat vampire tale.

“The Woman In The Room”.  This one was tough to read.  There are no monsters, no murderers, nothing like that.  There’s just a man, trying to deal with the fact that his mother is dying, and having to make a decision that I wouldn’t wish on anyone.  Poignant, heartwrenching, and beautifully written.

“Graveyard Shift”–this is one of the first stories in the collection, but I kept it for last, because I have issues with it.  Don’t get me wrong–it’s still enjoyable and fun.  But I’ve said many times that what makes King great is that his characters have life, they seem to exist beyond the pages of his books.  I don’t get that with Hall.  He feels very, very flat, and I can’t understand him at all.  Why the hell does he seem so intent on going down into that sub-basement to be eaten alive by giant mutant rats?  I just don’t get it.

Overall, so far I think that Night Shift is King’s best short story collection.  Skeleton Crew and Everything’s Eventual both have great stories, and there is still The Bazaar of Bad Dreams to look forward to, but every story in Night Shift is a winner.

 

Chris–Night Shift

So, on to Night Shift.  This is King’s first (of several) short story collections, and there are some seriously good ones in here.  For my money, ‘The Boogeyman” is the most frightening thing that King has ever written.  ‘Gray Matter’ is one of my favorites, and ‘The Mangler’, ‘Trucks’, and of course, ‘Children of the Corn’ are all fantastic.  Plus I think about half of these have been made into movies.

I’ve said this before–no matter what genre, King is, at the heart of the matter, a great story teller.  In the copy of Night Shift that I have, there is an introduction by John D. MacDonald–my mom used to read MacDonald.  She had so many of his books…  I think that the main character was a James Bond-type named Travis… maybe Mcgee?  Anyway, MacDonald also mentions King’s storytelling abilities.  The genre doesn’t matter, it’s the skill.

There is also a foreword by King, and I found this part especially interesting.  King writes:  “I didn’t write any of the stories which follow for money, although some of them were sold to magazines before they appeared here and I never once returned a check uncashed,” and “I am not a great artist, but I have always felt impelled to write.”  That really speaks to me.  I can’t help but think THAT’s how it’s supposed to be.  Artists create art.  There are some writers out there that I swear only do it because they can make money at it.  King writes because he’s a writer.  And I love it.

 

Chris–Done with The Stand!

Man oh man–that’s a big book.  Now, as I mentioned before, I have the unabridged version of this, which King re-edited and made some additional changes to.  It now takes place in 1990, Freddy Kruger is in the theaters, and some other minor items.  I would really like to go back and get a copy of the original 1978 manuscript and see how things are different.  But not right now…

This book really is fantastic, mostly because it doesn’t feel very far-fetched.  At all.  I could absolutely see something like this going down.  In fact, not too long ago there was a story about a government lab outside of DC where 6 long-lost-and-forgotten-about vials of SMALLPOX were re-discovered.  Hmmmm….

King again succeeds because while he wrote a story about the end of the world, it isn’t really about the end of the world.  It’s about the people who experienced the end of the world.  His characters are almost 3D.  Even with the background characters–like Gus, the parking attendant in Ongunquit–you get the feeling like they are fully fleshed out.  They all continue to exist, even beyond the boundaries of the cover.

The Stand really is a showdown between good and evil.  And like so often in life, people sometimes get wrapped up and follow the wrong person for the wrong reasons, and don’t really know why.  They don’t feel good about it, and yet they don’t do anything to stop it.  You don’t often sympathize with the “bad guys” in this book; it’s more like absolute frustration at their choices.  YOU KNOW THIS IS WRONG!!!!  WHY ARE YOU STILL HERE???

The last time I read this, I feel like I thought that there were almost two very distinct books–the end of the world, and then the rebuilding.  This time around, I didn’t think that at all.  It transitioned very smoothly, and I could see all of the connections as they were being made.  And while there are so many characters, and we need to be introduced to all of them (even the ones around for only a couple of pages) it doesn’t take much time to really get rolling.  Before we know it, the flu’s in town.

We also really get our first taste of what is going to be a consistent theme throughout King’s writing–the bad guy’s plans always go a little bit wrong.  Flagg had world domination on his mind, and he knew exactly how he was going to go through with it.  But then things started going just a little bit wrong here and there, ultimately leading to his defeat.  But the “good guys” certainly didn’t have a cakewalk.  There is very real loss, and sacrifice, and sadness.  King strikes a great balance, though, so even though the good guys win, it never feels like a sure thing.

This is a giant book, but it is such a good story.  And soon(ish) to be a major motion picture!  In two parts!!  The only cast news that I have seen so far was Matthew McConaughey as Randall Flagg, and that seems to be a great choice.  We’ll see how the rest of it goes…

There are a few connections here:

1.  The Shop.  This was the government organization that was either behind the whole Captain Trips virus, or they were the ones called in afterwards to try to contain it.  Either way–not the nicest folks around.  And even though they all died out in this book, we’ll see them again in Firestarter.

2.  The Black Man.  In Carrie, both Carrie and her mother referenced “The Black Man” when speaking about Satan.  Surprise–that’s also what Randal Flagg is called!  And we’ll see him again, as well!

3.  Mother Abagail.  Her grandmother had a touch of future sight, what she called “the shining of God’s lantern”, or just “the shine.”  Now that sounds familiar!

4.  Frannie’s pie.  When Fran gets the news about her mother, she’s thinking about responsibility:  “Responsibility is a pie.  Some of the responsibility goes with all the chartiy work she does, but you’re only kidding if you think you’re not going to have to cut a big, juicy, bitter piece for yourself.  And eat every bite.”  Now, that’s not a direct reference to anything specific, but keep that passage in mind when we get to Thinner, and then let me know what you think.

 

Rachel–Procrastination much?

This is a picture of only some of our bookshelves in only one of the room with books. I get serious book ADD , having bookmarks and reading several books at a time. Plus I do have an anxiety disorder and concentration becomes a challenge. Also I am just a procrastinating asshat.
My husband is good at reading one book at a time and reading fast. Plus he doesn’t procrastinate.
I have NOT given up after my one post on Carrie. I have finished Salem’s Lot and The Shining and now onto The Stand. So, I am going to sit here and try and catch up on posts.
If you’re on Twitter you can follow me at Fanaticbooknerd and see that I talk about books, shit tv, and various things that pop into my head. It is full of nothing but occasionally you will get lucky and get tweets while I am drinking and get to read them before I wake up and delete them.
Cheers to getting back on track with THE KING!

 

Chris–checking in

So, still plugging away on The Stand–about halfway through now.  But as I’ve been reading, I’ve realized something.

See, the problem with this whole endeavor is that EVERYONE IS STILL WRITING.  Already, I’ve had to walk away from Stephen King to read the new Neil Gaiman (Trigger Warning), the new Brandon Sanderson (RECKONERS!), and a Cory Doctorow.  I also went out and picked up the new Rivers of London book, Foxglove Summer, which is sitting accusingly on my bookshelf, unread as of yet.  On 10 March, there’s a new Ian Tregellis out which I’ll have to get.  AND STEPHEN KING IS RELEASING TWO MORE THIS YEAR.

This isn’t even accounting the books that I had already purchased but haven’t gotten to yet–Ian McDonald, Joe Haldeman, Fred Pohl.

At this rate, we’ll be reading forever!

Which is not a bad thing, after all.