You Like It Darker, published just a couple of months ago, is Stephen King's latest collection of novellas (5) and short stories (7). I just finished reading it, and I'm happy to report that he hasn't lost a bit of his touch when it comes to spinning a good yarn. His writing, to me, is so far and above that of the science fiction authors featured in Gardner Dozois' annual "best of" collections. Below is a list of the first six stories as they appear in the book, followed by brief commentary from me...
TWO TALENTED BASTIDS (novella)
Two rural Maine friends, one a mediocre writer and the other an equally average artist, suddenly find themselves catapulted into fame for their skills and outstanding works...what was the pivotal event changing their lives? As the story progresses, the answer leads to a fateful outing in the woods they experienced. Ultimately this is a tale about artistic talent...and doing things for their own sake (as I am currently doing)...
THE FIFTH STEP (short story)
A retired widow lives a life of routine in upper Manhattan, regularly taking his morning walk to northern Central Park. One day he is sitting on a bench there and is annoyed by a young man who sits next to him, and who then begins to explain he is working on his drinking problem with A.A....and could he get help fulfilling Step #5 of the Twelve Step program they have? Not for the faint at heart, but we are talking about a Stephen King story, right?
WILLY THE WEIRDO (short story)
Willy is a cruel little boy who tortures bugs and likes to look at dead things...he is drawn to his paternal adoptive grandfather, who spins many impossible tales of his experiences in the distant past going back to the US Civil War at Gettysburg and even to Cleopatra's time. The ending makes you wonder about the people among us...well, not really...
DANNY COUGHLIN'S BAD DREAM (novella)
The longest story in the book, Danny Coughlin is a custodian at a Kansas high school who has a recurring, horrible dream of a remote, abandoned gas station and a corpse's arm sticking out of the ground, with a feral dog going after it. His pursuit of the mystery leads him to become the chief suspect of a grisly murder, and the chief inspector, patterned after Victor Hugo's Javert in Les Miserables, just won't let up on his persecution. A story more about fickle human nature than a murder mystery...didn't change my mind about how people generally are...
FINN (short story)
A boy seems destined to live a life of bad luck...one improbable disaster after another. Then, as his fortunes are apparently beginning to change, he has his own doubts that things are really going to improve. I thought the story was a bit incomplete and could have closed a little more clearly, but that's just my take...
ON SLIDE INN ROAD (short story)
A great character study on the people in a family, three generations of them, as they visit the grandfather's sister who is dying from cancer. The father is embarrassed by his irreverent father, but his son respects him and is interested in his baseball talk. The car lands in a ditch, where a gruesome sight is witnessed by the little boy...and then they run into some very unsavory dudes and true character and courage is revealed among the family members...
Tomorrow I'll continue with my discussion of Stephen King's new book, covering the six remaining stories...
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