The Bazaar of Bad Dreams: 11th - 18th September 2016

I've never been wholly taken by Stephen King's short stories.  His novellas, sure.  Some of his most affecting work, for me, has been found in his slimmer volumes.  But, while there's some good stuff in here, nothing life changing.  God, what a dick I am to be so flippant and throwaway.  But, at this stage of the proceedings, I'll have to cop to not having given the book much of my critical acumen (I know, I know, I've barely done that for any of the books). I just charged through, inhaling the stories and maybe giving each a "that was alright" or "not so bothered for that one."
My standouts were:
Premium Harmony, Bad Little Kid, Afterlife, UR (even better second time), Herman Wouk is Still Alive and Obits.

UR & Mile 81: 3rd June 2016

I liked both of these stories.

The Dark Tower tie in of UR was a nice touch. Not much to say otherwise. Nothing amazing, but worth the time and money.

Mile 81 was a lovely dose of horror that King does so well.

Just After Sunset: 23rd Mar - 5th Apr 2016

A week.  That's not bad.  I know it wasn't a huge book, and it was a short story collection, but still.  On past form, a week's pretty good for me.  It helped that I enjoyed the stories.  They, for the most part, hooked me and took me.

The stand out stories for me were The Gingerbread Girl, Rest Stop, Stationary Bike, The Cat from Hell, Mute and A Very Tight Place.    Good shit, overall.

Six Stories: 12th-17th Mar 2013

Considering this is out of print, was limited to 1100 copies, isn't available for Kindle and all the stories appear in later collections, let's pretend I haven't read it.

Nightmares and Dreamscapes: 8th Sep 2012

The only thing I know about this collection is that Dolan's Cadillac has been adapted into a film starring Christian Slater of which I've heard good things. I hope it lives up to the praise for two reasons. Bad Stephen King adaptations are painful. There are lots of them and they weigh heavy on the Constant Reader's heart. Perhaps they shouldn't, but they do.

The second reason is that *deep breath* I was/am a Christian Slater fan. Bearing in mind I'm going back to my impressionable teenage years and Gleaming the Cube, Heathers, Pump Up the Volume, Kuffs, True Romance and even Broken Arrow. Then it all went to shit. Maybe apart from the Austin Powers cameo - Sherrrberrrt. For those films alone, dude deserves a break.

Anyway, I've laid out my thoughts on the short story in previous posts. They'll be tagged short story, helpfully enough. I'm going into this collection with an open mind and plenty of hope.

Before I get stuck in, here's a quote from the introduction:

"...I still see stories as a great thing, something which not only enhances lives but actually saves them. Good writing - good stories are the imagination's firing pin, and the purpose of the imagination, I believe, is to offer solace and shelter from situations and life-passages which would otherwise prove unendurable."

You can't say fairer than that.

Skeleton Crew: 22nd August - 23rd September 2011

So, I finished the last three stories of Skeleton Key.

With Gramma, I couldn't help wishing he'd stuck to the real horror of the situation and not drifted off to the supernatural.  The elderly and infirm carry an accepted weight of creepiness that is only surpassed by the idea of being alone with an actual corpse.  What the imagination is capable of in that situation is just as terrifying and debilitating as he describes and he does a great job of provoking our unease.  Unfortunately, the ending felt cheap and washed most of that away.

The Ballad of the Flexible Bullet suffered a similar fate by making the Fornits real.  There would have been enough mileage in real insanity for me. 

The Reach was just a bit shit. 

Overall, I enjoyed Skeleton Crew much more then I did Night Shift.  From the sounds of things, critical opinion agrees.  But who cares about that?

Considering the strength of the opening story/novella - The Mist - we were off to a flying start and, while there were a few dips, there were enough crackers in there to keep its head above the waters of 'chore reading' and wanting to cast the book aside to move on to the next thing.

Skeleton Crew - the stories so far

So much for writing about each story… I’m partway through the antepenultimate story of the collection Gramma, and have the time for quick round-up so far. I haven’t stopped to do a bit for each story, mainly because I’m conscious of how long it takes me to get through each book and want to keep going. I’ve enough (mainly self-imposed) distractions, without constantly breaking off from reading to cobble together some trivial and obtuse reflections.

Here There Be Tygers
Meh.

The Monkey
Not bad.

Cain Rose Up
Not bad. An obvious precursor to the Bachman book; Rage

Mrs. Todd’s Shortcut
I liked this one quite a bit. I know the fantasy element was king, but I was most taken by the gentle earnestness and almost childlike honesty and wonder of Homer’s character.

The Jaunt
I realised, reading this story, what turns me off of science fiction as a genre. The gimmicky imagination of futuristic details, from the names of newspapers to spaceship systems, galaxies and planets and the attempt to make the impossible sound simultaneously fantastical and commonplace bores me. I’m a bit too lazy to wade through the assimilation of all of that conceit to find out whether the story is actually worth reading. It’s just the icing, when what really matters is how good the actual cake is. Luckily, I really liked The Jaunt. I didn’t see the end coming, but then again, I rarely try to second guess story arcs and endings and was happily swept up, surprised and horrified by it. Nice.

The Wedding Gig
A decent read, but nothing special. Probably most interesting to me for its Prohibition setting and detail.

Paranoid: A Chant
Poetry takes a fair amount of effort for me to even begin to give a shit. I’ll confess to being a lazy reader, especially in my approach to King. By that I mean I’ll be present enough to follow the narrative, suspend my disbelief and generally be an active reader in entertaining the ideas as presented and making necessary leaps, but I’m not approaching him with anything resembling literary criticism. Nothing has the potential to kill art quite like study and criticism. Poetry doesn’t do much for me. I can’t be bothered to deconstruct it or engage in trying to fathom the arcane references and stylistic implications of the form, meter and rhyme. I go through a perhaps biennial phase of immersion in poetry, but that’s about it. Sticking it in the middle of a collection of King’s short stories is met by a skim-read at best or skipped at worst.

I know, I’m an ignorant prick.

The Raft
Not bad, not great.

Word Processor of the Gods
Nice.

The Man Who Would Not Shake Hands
As soon as I realised it was from the same world as The Breathing Method from Different Seasons, I got excited. As the one story from Different Seasons that was completely new to me, I got a lot from it (http://thekinglongread.blogspot.com/2011/03/different-seasons-20th-february-29th.html) returning to that world heightened by anticipation. Unfortunately, it wasn’t nearly in the same league and not nearly as satisfying. Not shit, though.

Beachworld
Pah.

The Reaper’s Image
Bleh.

Nona
Pretty good but a part of me wishes it had been longer and Nona was real.
For Owen
See above – (Paranoid: A Chant)

Survivor Type
Great stuff. Proto-Palahniuk?

Uncle Otto’s Truck
Not great, not altogether shit.

Morning Deliveries (Milkman #1)
A nice little sketch.

Big Wheels: A Tale of The Laundry Game (Milkman #2)
A decent enough read but there wasn't much point overall.  Bob killing his wife was a nice touch, though.

Listening
Marc Maron's WTF podcast.  http://www.wtfpod.com  Awesome.  Great guests.  I'd go so far as saying it eclipses his stand-up too.  Which is not a statement I make lightly.

Also, Chris Hardwick's Nerdist podcast. http://www.nerdist.com

Also reading:
Jeff Lemire's Sweet Tooth.  Amazingly good.

Watching:
The Office (US) - much better than I expected and a really good show in its own right.
Louie - the second series is as good as the first.

Skeleton Crew: 22nd August 2011

So, what was I saying about my boner for brevity?

Different Seasons - 20th February 2011

I've definitely read 'Rita Heyworth...' and 'The Body' before.  Not sure about the other two.  I'm guessing not, though, as 'Apt Pupil' didn't ring any bells when I saw the film.

Seeing as I'm dragging my feet enough with the reading and, subsequently, these posts, I think I'll do a separate post for each story/novella.  Don't hold your breath.

Thanks for reading.

Night Shift 20th Feb - 8th Mar 2010

I love short fiction.


I’ve said that for quite a number of years, but am now starting to wonder how true it is. I don’t think anything has changed in my appreciation of the format and its particular ability to enchant, beguile, confuse and enlighten in such a short time. As a man of few words, vocally at least, I’ve always aimed to practice a level of efficiency in my dialogue to ensure that I say what I mean and little more. Speaking for the sake of it doesn’t interest me.


In the same way, I’ve always marvelled at how a story can be pared back to its bare flesh and yet still evoke something which is much more than the sum of its parts. I know I’m mixing metaphors, but I haven’t really sat down and thought about what I’m saying, I’m just saying it for a change.


As a necessary element of the short story, so much is left unsaid. Motives and reasons for being are often left to supposition and guesswork. Endings are often ambiguous. I love that about short stories. There are some people who baulk at this lack of resolution. They need to take away answers, not a list of questions. For me, though, the open-endedness is the beauty of it. Nagging questions enervate something vital and practically alive in the story. For something old and written by a long-dead author, there’s almost something magic about that. In the same way, a story where all the loose ends are conveniently tied up can be more easily put aside and forgotten.


It’s the reason I love Kafka. The Metamorphosis is hands-down my favourite fictional work. I know it’s on the long side to be called a short-story, but still.


Dan Rhodes’ Anthropology and a hundred other stories is an awesome example of the majesty of brevity and is highly recommended, along with every other word the man has written. Go to http://www.danrhodes.co.uk forthwith.


With all that said, I didn’t enjoy Night Shift half as much as I expected. That's not to say I didn't.  Just not as much as expected.  It was also clear from the publishing dates that these are the his earliest writings and you can tell.  Short stories generally come with a requisite powerful, intriguing, nerve wracking premise and plot where everything happens in a short period. I’m not sure horror really lends itself to that short window of exposition and action. My favourites from Night Shift were The Boogeyman, Sometimes They Come Back, The Ledge, Quitters Inc.


Considering I two of the four stories I just listed would be classed as horror, I’m clearly talking out of my arse. I also haven’t read a great deal of Poe. What a dick I am. I’m sure I’ve a worthwhile point to make somewhere, I just can’t vouch for how well I’ll make it.


Oh well.


Some of the stories didn’t do a thing for me and leaned too much towards B-movie horror. The Mangler in particular made me think of the 1990 film I Bought a Vampire Motorcycle.


I’m sure there are examples to prove me wrong queuing up around the corner, but it seems that when you write a regular suspense story, such as The Ledge, there are so many elements of the suspense, you can’t help but be swept up by it. You’ve got the people and their back stories, their motives, their uncertain depths of malevolence. All of this before the actual task of circumnavigating the building at such a precarious height. With the horror plots, the only surety is that the something’s going to get you. Whether it’s the eponymous Trucks or The Mangler, it doesn’t really matter how or why they are now intent on destroying humans, it just matters that they do and are particularly effective at doing so. There’s not much else to consider and the suspense is built almost purely on the when and where this will happen, and the almost inevitable failure of the protagonist to evade this destruction.

Anyway, the last thing I wanted to do when writing about my reading of King’s works was to start critiquing the master.

My main feeling when reading the book was looking forward to getting onto the next novel. I’m a sucker for stepping into the worlds King creates and, even half way through, Night Shift, I was pining for that immersion and comprehensiveness. I know it’s a bit lazy to admit, but short stories demand much more immediate participation on the part of the reader. Because there isn’t the same level of exposition and so much is left to the reader’s imagination, you actually have to do some work to get the most from the story. The novels, however, do much more of the thinking for you. You can be picked up at the beginning, carried on a long and tumultuous journey, before being dropped off at the end. It’s also possible to go away and come back, picking up where you left of for another instalment of the story, like an episode of a long running serial. I know all of this goes against the reasons I gave for my love of short stories at the beginning, but that’s the reason I’m wondering how true my initial statement is these days. As I’ve said in previous posts, my reading time is limited and often comes at the end of long days of work and family life and a bit of escapism and entertainment is a lot easier to get into than obscure or dense narratives. As I said, lazy!

Perhaps, by the next collection of short stories, I’ll have gotten over this indulgent hang-up and will just be able to enjoy the stories for what they are.

Night Shift

20th Feb...
I'd been looking forward to reading this as my first experience of Stephen King's short stories.  I'm a big fan of short stories and wanted to see how he fared without the usual 500-1500 pages.  It was only when I picked up the book and made a start on Jerusalem's Lot, that I remember having read The Body years ago.  Whether I actually read the whole of Different Seasons, I can't be sure.  I'm leaning towards thinking not, as I'm sure I would remember having read Rita Heyworth... and Apt Pupil as I've seen the films (who hasn't).

Jesus, sorry.

Short stories are awesome.  Let's see how awesome King's are...