I just read "Just After Sunset"
Robert Whelan
since I read any Stephen King.
I'm posting about this book because I got some enjoyment out of these
stories. I wish he'd write more short stories. I hate his habit of
writing novels that are just short stories padded out. But anyway... a
lot of the stories in this collection really got to me in a good way.
Not all of them, or all parts of them, but I did have fun going
through them.
"Willa"
I didn't much like the talky annoying people waiting on the platform.
Best part for me was the walk down the railroad tracks, and the moon
and the wolves. Maybe it resonated because while I was reading this I
was taking walks that included a stretch of railroad tracks, a walk I
often take at night. But that moment of walking down the tracks
resonated with me. I didn't much feel for the main character, or for
his wife Willa either, nor do I have much nostalgia for bars and
dancing.
"The Gingerbread Girl"
This was published in a magazine before ... perhaps GQ? I don't
remember. I was unable to read through it that time, because I found
the serial killer opponent too ridiculously vile. This time I managed
to read through it and enjoy the melodrama, and the final comeuppance
of the vile villain. Still not a very good story.
"Harvey's Dream"
Just a little morsel, about precognition of disaster, but it was
vividly told, and rather vividly describes a marriage where resentment
and dislike has built between a couple. Told from the point of view of
the wife, as her husband recounts a dream that may or may not be a
psychic revelation of something terrible. Since the resentful wife is
the protagonist, the story's ending may be seen as a kind of
punishment for her resentment of the psychic husband, just as Cujo's
ending may be seen as a punishment of a female character and her
disfunctional relationship with her husband.
"Rest Stop"
My impression of the story after I read it was that it was just a
fantasy of being in the right place at the right time to prevent one
person from murdering another. King, in the afterword, says it was
based on an argument he'd heard between a couple at a rest stop. So it
has a ring of reality, and that wish-fulfilment one gets when reading
about some tragedy that one wishes one had been present for. I didn't
really buy into the fantasy, however. I rather doubt Stephen King
could summon his own fantasy tough guy persona in such a situation,
the way the protagonist does. He'd probably just call the cops on his
hated cell-phone. You can never reliably scare someone so badly that
they will run away and behave. People get over their scares. There was
a moment in "Salem's Lot" where a cuckolded husband scared the man who
was sleeping with his wife so badly that the guy's sphincter released.
But that guy happily became a vampire later and came back for revenge.
I found that more believable. Also, the story depends on the
protagonist being reliably able to read the intentions of the would-be
murderer, and his state of murderousness BEFORE actually murdering
anyone, that I found hard to swallow. I don't believe that being a
writer, no matter how deeply you can plumb the depths of the human
psyche in your writing, will give you that sort of insight in a real-
life situation.
"Stationary Bike"
This I really liked. I'm not really sure what it was about ... perhaps
about exercising to hard it kills you? I read this before in a small
paperback that included it (I think it was a short collection of some
kind) and thought that perhaps it might have been a rationalization of
his being hit by a car, which had put an end to his physical fitness
jag he had been on just prior. Anyway, the shifting of normal dull
reality into a supernatural event flavored largely by nature imagery
really got to me. The authorial comments about "how one would expect a
story like this to end" didn't bother me, or drag me out of the
story, because I liked the way the story ended, and I think King did
as well.
"The Things They Left Behind"
I had forgotten that this was a 9-11 story. It might have made it
harder for me to read, or easier, I'm not sure. A bit longish, it
was, with the pragmatic testing of the Supernatural that I find
annoying sometimes in King stories (he checks with his doorman about
the reality of certain objects, and whether or not anyone has been
pranking him ... I find that takes away from the supernatural, not
adds to it). But I found that it did work on the level of believing
that people who die do go on in some way, and wish well to those they
have left behind, and fulfils a fantasy of being able to be the
intermediary between the dead and the living. Best part of the story
is the end, when the protagonist is able to deliver the things left
behind to relatives of the dead.
"Graduation Afternoon"
Very short, quite surprising. I think the nuclear flash would have
blinded anyone watching the event, but I'll let it go. The contrast
between a young, pretty, intelligent blonde girl's uncertain
relationship with a young man above her class, and her career
ambitions, is oddly counterpointed by the plan-ending event of the
story. Don't know what to make of it. Possibly she's punished for
having those ambitions instead of trusting her young man's heart.
"N."
I think this is my favorite of the collection. The nature imagery, the
suggestion of Hell dimensions (similar to what he did with the MicMac
burial ground in Pet Sematary) combined with the idea of Obsessive
Compulsive Disorder .... quite an effective little creepy spooker. It
almost scares one into thinking OCD might be a good idea, just to keep
away the Monsters. How come one tends to say less about a story one
really likes, whereas one has much more to say about stories that
perhaps don't work as well? Anyway, I really dug this. Reading it by
flashlight, in the evening, while sitting on a stump by the railroad
tracks probably helped a lot.
"The Cat From Hell"
Not much to this. Old rich man hires a hit-man to kill an evil cat,
who the old rich man thinks killed members of his family, for their
crime of killing lots of cats in medical experiments. Cat kills the
hitman in a really gross way. There is some padding where it looks
like the hitman might not be killed, but in the end he is. Silly.
Apparently the story is the result of some contest where King wrote
part of the story and let contestants finish the story, and this was
his completed version. So, just a goofy campfire tale, and not much
more.
"The New York Times at Special Bargain Rates"
Dead man calls his wife at his wake. Then he never calls again. I kind
of liked this one. Got me all weepy. It dealt with the same thing as
"Willa" but I liked it better.
"Mute"
A man picks up a deaf-mute hitchhiker and tells him the story of his
evil, cheating, gambling, life-destroying wife, and the not-so-deaf
hitchhiker obligingly kills her. A priest obligingly reinforces the
idea that sometimes God uses deaf-mute hitchhikers to deal out
Heavenly Justice. I didn't like this. Too much of King's trademark
bitterness towards wives in general. Felt a little creeped out by it,
and I don't mean that in a good way.
"Ayana"
I kinda liked this one. Wish fulfilment about being able to cure
diseases. I've always wanted to magically heal people.
"A very tight place".
A guy gets trapped in a very tight place and has to figure a way out
of it. I enjoyed the figuring out bit. The hot-blooded grinning
revenge ending was one I didn't connect much with, though. And scat
horror doesn't do much to me. Thought it was a bit cheap.
I really enjoyed reading the "Sunset Notes" afterword. King went into
the details of how many of the stories came about.
RVG
> It's been a while since I posted to this group. It's been a while
> since I read any Stephen King.
>
> I'm posting about this book because I got some enjoyment out of these
> stories. I wish he'd write more short stories. I hate his habit of
> writing novels that are just short stories padded out.
SK should:
1/ Fire Chuck Verrill and get a real editor who would make his novels
much more efficient at 350 pages (Masterton's last novel "Death Mask" is
just great even with a ridiculous plot, go figure).
2/ Write once and for all ONE realistic autobiographical novel about his
accident, with all the details and everything he's felt since then, how
it changed his mind and altered his emotions about life, danger and
everything.
Then go back to writing decent horror litterature without bothering us
with these pieces of autobiography that ruin the stories.
--
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Kevin Provance
| accident, with all the details and everything he's felt since then, how
| it changed his mind and altered his emotions about life, danger and
| everything.
| Then go back to writing decent horror litterature without bothering us
| with these pieces of autobiography that ruin the stories.
Didn't he do that already in the form of the last DT book, which ruined that
whole damned thing?
Bev Vincent
news:f95f0619-7240-456c...@c37g2000yqi.googlegroups.com...
> "Stationary Bike"
>
> This I really liked. I'm not really sure what it was about ... perhaps
> about exercising to hard it kills you? I read this before in a small
> paperback that included it (I think it was a short collection of some
> kind)
That was From the Borderlands, and I only mention it because my short story
"One of those Weeks" came right before it in the anthology. I used to joke
that my story had footprints all over it from being trampled as people
dashed past it to get to King's story!
--
Bev Vincent
www.BevVincent.com
RVG
Precisely, that's why I mentioned a realistic, not fantasy/horror book,
outside from his line of work - he could use Richard Bachmann for the job.
Then, once he's thoroughly done with, return to his (and our) favorite
genre cleared of this trauma.
Kevin Provance
If you want one, go to alt.config and ask.
--
2025
If you do not believe in time travel,
your beliefs are about to be tempered.
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=43606237254
"Bev Vincent" <MaxD...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:h8bpj8$4at$1...@news.eternal-september.org...
Covenant
"Kevin Provance" <kevin@remove_tpasoft_remove.com> wrote in message
news:4aa9c149$0$23949$9a6e...@unlimited.newshosting.com...
> Sorry to hear that Beverly, but this is a Stephen King group. Not yours.
> If you want one, go to alt.config and ask.
What's your problem Kev?
Seriously?
--
Covenant
A Man With Far Too Much Time On His Hands
Covenant
"Bev Vincent" <MaxD...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:h8bpj8$4at$1...@news.eternal-september.org...
Surely not Bev !
I mean... books have index pages, yeah?
Surely your story would have had vapour trails lines on it from people
'flying' over it to get to SK's??
;' )))
(On a serious note (i do serious sometimes!) I wasn't aware of this book at
all! Belated congrats and all that!)
Thunderchief
> Sorry to hear that Beverly, but this is a Stephen King group. Not
> yours. If you want one, go to alt.config and ask.
You really have no idea who Bev is, do you?! None at all....
Jeez.....
TC
Thunderchief
> It's been a while since I posted to this group. It's been a while
> since I read any Stephen King.
I've not read it yet, so I can't comment at all, but....hey Robert!! Kinda
funky to see you post again!
TC
Robert Whelan
> "Robert Whelan" <rwhe...@amanda.dorsai.org> wrote in message
Heya, Bev.
I'm afraid I did kinda trample it trying to get to King's story. (I
think I read it standing up in the supermarket). Now I wish I had a
copy.
Robert Whelan
Hiya Thunderchief.
Yeah, it's been a while. I'm going back to try "Everything's
Eventual". Might post again, maybe.
So far behind on King stuff.