I've been reading Stephen King since...well, since I was probably too young to be reading Stephen King! I read The Shining in 7th grade, and at least part of Carrie well before that. Dude has probably been publishing since before I was born, and he hasn't lost a bit of his magic....in fact, I think that the writing he's done since his brief "retirement" is the best he's ever done. I also think that King is most effective in concentrated form- short stories and novellas - a belief that Full Dark, No Stars supports in grand style.
In the author's notes to this collection of four pieces (one could call them long short stories or short-short novels) he says that he likes to write about "ordinary people dealing with extraordinary circumstances." That is one thing that he does extremely well. Another thing he consistently blows me away by doing is by taking a common, tried-and-true motif and making it fresh and surprising. Full Dark, No Stars includes King's spin on the ghost story, the vigilante justice story, the Faustian deal-with-the-devil story, and the spouse discovering that his/her partner has been leading a secret life story. In all but one, he creates unexpected but utterly plausible twists to make the "oldest story in the world" unpredictable.
Big Driver (the vigilante justice story) is the most satisying of the stories. It has a likeable protagonist, heart-pounding action, and seems terrifyingly possible. The ghost story, 1922, is the least, and also the longest. In Danse Macabre, King said that "Terror is the finest emotion. If I can't terrify, I will aim to horrify. If I can't horrify, I'll go for the gross-out." 1922 goes for the gross-out, and that detracts from what could have been a superb ghost story. It is also the most predictable of the collection.
The other three, however, are a dark delight...not least because the author's joy in storytelling is evident in every word. There may indeed be no new stories in the world, but Stephen King seems to always find new ways to tell them.
Can a hard-working English teacher read 100 books from the beginning of one school year to the beginning of the next? The next twelve months will tell.
Bibliocat!
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