Krishna
We have, of course, reviewed many Stephen King books before. Examples include Lisey's Story and Full Dark, No Stars.
This book is a collection of short stories. There is an introduction written by Stephen King. Usually he is good at grabbing your interest in the intro but the introduction for this book is a bit disappointing. .
The first story is Autopsy Room Four – This is probably one of the best stories in the book. A ‘corpse’ tells the story. Lovely, how they are about to do an autopsy for him without realizing that he is alive! Since he is paralyzed, but can see everything, the tension is sky high, and you can’t wait to see what happens.
The next story is The Man in A Black Suit – A typical Stephen King brand Devil story where a man in a black suit meets a nine year old boy who has gone fishing alone, and his eyes are burning fire and he smells of sulfur. Cool story, where the devil is not suave or seductive but just wants to devour you straight away!
Next one is All that you love Will Be Carried Away – A salesman checks into a hotel with the intent of killing himself. He is fond of graffiti and collects them. The story is mildly interesting but disappointing, after you finish reading it.
The Death of Jack Hamilton – A gangster story involving Johnie and Jack and a few sidekicks. Except for the fly roping part, everything else sucks about this story. Can Stephen King do boring? Yes, here is the proof.
In the Death Room – Fletcher the journalist is brought to the interrogation room (‘the death room’) after being beaten bloody. Escobar is the chief interrogator and ‘the Bride of Frankenstein’ is his boss. There are thugs kept there and how Fletcher turns the tables on a completely hopeless situation is exhilarating to read. Nice story to read.
The Little Sisters of Eluria – A Dark Tower related story just like the first one in his other collection, Hearts in Atlantis. Here Roland Deschain of Gilead himself appears. He goes to a deserted town – Eluria – exploring. He is captured by green men and wakes up in a white room, tended by sisters in white. Jenna, the beautiful one, shows him who has been curing him. Bugs. What they do to fully cured men is really terrible. They are not humans, Roland realizes. He and his “brother” John are saved by a medallion. His belonged to a dead man he found before he was ambushed. What they do to healed men is stunning. Story unfolds slowly with us gaining increased understanding and the story gathering momentum and tension, as only King can create when he has got a good story to stick his teeth into. He tries to escape but gets stopped by Sister Mary. In the meanwhile they have killed the other boy by having one of the zombies remove the pendant from the boy. Jenna rescues him and a dog with the mark of ‘Jesus-Man’ on it (a cross) saves both.It is amazing how Jenna disappears when he wakes up and how he sees what happened to her. Pure King material!
Everything is Eventual – This is of course, the title story. Richard (Dink) Earshaw is a college dropout and resigned to a life of Pizza Delivery Boy or equivalent when a mysterious stranger called Sharpton offers him a job in a house where he earns his salary and unbelievable perks – with the proviso that each week, he should fully spend his weekly salary and start next week as a pauper again. But Dink has an interesting secret, he has paranormal powers to kill by writing signs targeted to whomever he wishes to kill! We begin to understand the nature of “work” Dink was offered. His realization and resolution are interesting.
LT’s Theory of Pets – LT Dewitte’s wife Lullubelle (nee Simon) leaves him one day. Takes Frank the dog with her but leaves Lucy (Screwlucy) the cat with him. Then she suddenly disappears on the way to her mother. The dog is found dismembered and there are no traces of her. Interesting. But what really was the point of the story?
The Road Virus Heads North – The Story about the picture that keeps changing. An author picks up a painting in a garage sale and it depicts a driver of a convertible with pointed teeth and evil grin. The picture changes slowly as if the person is traveling northwards in the US. His hand moves to show a tattoo, his grin widens, his eyes narrow… So he decided to get rid of it by throwing it away and even smashing the frame. But of course it would not go away; it beats him to his own house and hangs on the wall, whole again. And by now, the car has reached the junkyard sale where he bought the picture. The progress is creepy and the end is interesting but expected.
Lunch at the Gotham Cafe – Steve is blindsided by wife Diane who leaves him one day when he is out on work, leaving a note for him to find when he gets home. He goes to Gotham Cafe to meet her and her lawyer against the wishes of his own lawyer who could not attend. There the world goes kaput as the maitre d’ goes mad and goes into a murderous rage, killing everyone in his way but trying to specifically kill Steve.
The Feeling You Can Only Say When It is in French – Carol and Mike are travelling. Carol is prone to premonitions generally. The story is one confusing jumble of back and forth writing (an example is in Hearts in Atlantis) that makes no sense and is boring.
1408 – Hotel room that is supposed to be haunted. Olin, a paranormal debunking writer, rents it for the night. Wow, what a description! Everything goes wrong and is very creepy to read, where the experience only lasted for about eight minutes. It is very scary, vintage King. Very nice story.
Riding the Bullet – Starts out nice. When he goes out to meet his mother who had a stroke but is recovering, a young student decides to hitchhike. After refusing an offer from an old man who brought him half way to take the rest of the way, next to a cemetary, he hitches a ride with what appears to be a dead man in a Mustang. Well written story and is scary as hell. The choice offered to him is to choose who should die – he or his mother. But what follows is confusing and disappointing. What was the point of this story? Yes, it does not end as you would expect but it should have some meaning, right?
Luckey Quarter – The misspelling is deliberate by the author. In these days of inflation, the lucky penny is an anachronism I guess. Otherwise a typical and interesting story of a chambermaid who is poor and struggling, who finds a quarter left as a tip by a hotel guest with the note that it is a “luckey quarter”. What happens to her is interesting. You think it is the old good-luck story and are surprised to find a double twist in the story.
7/10 due to some duds, even though there are some rollicking good stories in this collection.
– – Krishna